The four years of UPA-II is a tale of monumental corruption, massive cover up, tremendous inflation, non-governance and non-leadership. These four years witnessed immense damage to the constitutional institutions like the CAG and CVC, and that is exactly what the Congress is celebrating. The 15th Lok Sabha has recorded the lowest business – hardly 50 business days, and no decision could be taken on more than 100 important bills. Two thirds population of the nation – 75 per cent people in rural areas and 50 per cent in urban area – does not have food to eat. Is this what the ruling Congress “rejoicing” about?
Series of scams that began with the Commonwealth Games in 2010 continued to rock the nation every next day. More than 90 major scams were reported during the nine years. Every scam surfaced with unprecedented figures unheard of before. 2G Spectrum, Coal, Thorium, MGNREGA, Helicopter deal, Railways selling the jobs, and what not. The list is endless. The government never displayed a will to create an effective mechanism for curbing the menace of corruption. The puppet PM ever remained helpless. Credit for good, if any at all, undisputedly went to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul; and all the blame was shifted to the scapegoat Manmohan Singh. The PM Manmohan utterly failed to lead the country. He might have been an excellent economist, but his economy failed. And as an administrator he was always spineless.
The two power-centre system – the mother-son duo (Sonia-Rahul) on the one hand and PMO on the other – has been perceived by the experts to be the source of all evils. And nothing could be done about it, because Manmohan Singh is the PM only because of Sonia and Rahul. Calling him the team leader of corrupt is not wrong because he always turns a blind eye to the reports of corruption. He never took action against anyone until a constitutional body forced him to do it.
When it comes to running the coalition government, the nation still remembers Atal Behari Vajpayee. Coalition is said to be a compulsion in this era but, as shown by Vajpayeeji, no undue demand of coalition partners need to be accepted. But this could be ensured only by a powerful man at the helm of affairs, and not the likes of weak Prime Minister such as Manmohan Singh. Today, if all surveys and forecasts are predicting the Congress losing power, it is simply because of the misdeeds of Sonia, Rahul and their team. They have caused the worst damage to the nation and to their own party. But the irony is – neither Congress nor the UPA can survive without them.
What is surprising is the fact that even an economist PM failed to curb inflation. At the time when prices of food-grains have come down drastically worldwide and the inflation is between 2-3 per cent, the food inflation in India ranges from 10 to 30 per cent. Interestingly, to cover up their misdeeds, again they have blamed the BJP for stalling the Food Security Bill. But the question is why they wasted nine years for this Bill. The BJP has already enacted and effectively implemented a comprehensive and more inclusive Food Security Act in Chhattisgarh. The fact remains that the UPA government has no concern for the poor.
There is a moment of satisfaction too for Dr Manmohan Singh. Since it has been made public that he will continue to lead the government till 2014, at least now, he should stand with his own spine and act for the nation. In this short period too if he acts decisively against corrupt, the nation may remember him for good reasons.
