PRIME Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has for once acknowledged a problem in his government. His comment on regional parties in his government is more significant and for that reason valuable than his frustrated outburst against the Left on the nuclear deal.
It is not that we agree entirely with his prognosis on regional parties and their political priorities. Because though the NDA under Atal Behari Vajpayee had 22 parties and many of them regional, the question of ?their narrow considerations distorting national vision,? as Dr Singh said, did not ever come to the fore.
But Dr. Singh has a genuine concern and the most vital aspect of it is not the existence of regional power centres but not knowing the real centre of power in the UPA. For, there are too many.
And every failure of this government cannot be pushed under the carpet as the need for protecting secularism. The UPA dispensation is entirely made up of regional and sectarian interests and in this, national interest is often discounted. Perhaps that is its raison d?etre. So the Prime Minister has no reason to complain. Economic initiatives have come to an abrupt pause under the UPA, as our columnist explains in the accompanying piece.
This is not the place to elaborate on national interests. But the disdain for national interest is too obvious in the actions of the government Manmohan Singh is heading. This is taking a heavy toll on the credibility of the Congress which by definition happens to be a national party.
For instance, CPM a regional formation for all political considerations does not make any secret of its loyalty to Chinese interests. Now, it says, more than the ideological antipathy for the US, it is opposing the nuclear deal because it will hurt and become a threat to China. In any other time, as Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru did, the comrades would have been charged with treason, the party banned and these red army paratroopers would have been put behind bars. They, however, have the veto in this government.
Their chauvinism made a full display in the Lok Sabha a few months ago when they almost manhandled a DMK minister over locating a marine training institute in Chennai instead of Kolkata. Similarly, on sharing the Mullaperiyar dam water with Tamil Nadu, the CPM in Kerala has created a horrendous hiatus. The fight between the DMK and the CPM over the Palghat and Selam railway divisions became so acrimonious that the Prime Minister had to intervene.
These are manifestations of regional political interests hitting national headlines. But there are instances which hurt national sentiments and undermine national interests as in the case of M. Karunanidhi'srepeated blasphemous outbursts on Sri Ram and his odes to LTTE in the form of elegy for Tamilselvan, the slain terrorist leader of the banned outfit.
It is not clear at what political cost the Congress is suffering the outrage of the DMK leader. Karunanidhi has clearly stated that for him power is more important than any deal or policy initiative. Can the Congress openly bypass this logic and protect its credibility?
In Tamil Nadu AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa has made an issue of Karunanidhi'sinexplicable action. His poetry praising the LTTE was anti-national and nothing but treason, says the AIADMK leader. The LTTE is banned and it is accused of killing the Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi. The Congress in Tamil Nadu is on the defensive. It is equally on the backfoot on the DMK veteran's diatribe on Sri Ram. Neither Manmohan Singh nor Sonia Gandhi has the guts to tell the DMK leader to behave. They have to suffer the headache. Like keeping quiet on the treacherous role of the CPM in the UPA. The Prime Minister can still retrieve the situation, now that he has identified the problem. But it takes authority and political courage to confront.
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