Freelance ministers

Ever since the UPA government came to power in May 2004, it has been an open secret in the Capital that it is not entirely what it seems. One reason for this perception was the fact that Sonia Gandhi, in an amazing act, installed Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister instead of taking on the job herself. If the country was taken aback, Congressmen were flabbergasted. And for weeks thereafter, they made no secret of the fact that it was not from Dr Singh but from Sonia Gandhi they took their orders. But over the ensuing months, thanks largely to Ms Gandhi's efforts, an impression was created fairly successfully that even though she was the supreme boss, Dr Singh was the one who was running the government and that she was merely the party president. Congressmen were obliged to obey the niceties.

But pretences can be maintained for most of the time, not all the time. So it came about that whenever there was something really important to be done""such as the dismissal of the government in Goa, the fiasco in Jharkhand, the dismissal of the assembly in Bihar""the Prime Minister was not consulted by those who ensured that these things happened. On each occasion the old criticism about there being an extra-constitutional authority not only re-surfaced, it took on added strength. As far as Congressmen were concerned, they no longer needed to say anything. The government's actions, to which the Prime Minister was not privy, spoke louder than words. What was worse, the National Advisory Council, headed by Ms Gandhi, came to be seen as a sort of super cabinet because it often managed to persuade the government to adopt policies to which the Prime Minister was known not to support fully. The rural employment guarantee scheme was one instance, as was the Right to Information Act. The latest instance was Arjun Singh pushing through the 104th Constitutional amendment.

As long as this sort of thing was confined to the realm of policy, a legitimate defence could be made. But over the last few weeks, events have occurred that make such a defence impossible. Whether it was Natwar Singh over the Volcker affair first refusing to resign and then threatening to reverse the government's foreign policy or, as has happened now, Law Minister H R Bharadwaj sending a law officer to have Octavio Quatrocchi's accounts unfrozen in London, the message has gone out louder and clearer than even before: Dr Singh's ministers do not think it necessary to keep him in the loop. On both occasions, as with the Goa, Jharkhand and Bihar episodes, he has had to say that he didn't know. This is shameful. Some people would add that the phone tapping incident is part of the same story but on that the evidence is as yet weak. Still, it is widely suspected that it could not have been done without the connivance of the intelligence agencies. In sum, the situation is becoming more embarrassing with every month that passes. The Prime Minister and the Congress president need to do something about freelancing ministers who think that as long as they can square things with the latter, they are safe. Such an attitude, if left unchecked, will eventually rebound on the party.