Advani in action

Dear Shri Advaniji,

Even by the standards of the day, it was pathetic to see you playing to the gallery and garnering support for your prime ministerial ambitions by inaugurating, of all things, a trial run of the Delhi Metro. As I watched it on television, two things stood out. One was your complaint that India's capital was getting a metro rail system a few decades after other capitals in the world did. But whose fault is that? Two, many engineers doing serious, mission-critical work at Delhi Metro Rail were put through a lot of unnecessary trouble.

Over the years, the politics of power has resulted in losses running into thousands of crores over the years. As ministers rallied around you, seeking your support and blessings, the disinvestment issue was a handsomely large issue, commensurate with the post involved. Your assistants ably fought and checkmated the trusted friends and colleagues of our prime minister.

Second, you exercised your famous control within the party to create support for your candidature. Most recently, you cornered Pramod Mahajan. He had to seek your blessings and you gave him a clean chit on the controversial allegations against him. Very impressive. After that came your inauguration of the trial run. This pathetic action raises several questions.

What first comes to mind is a question: are you seeking the chief ministership of Delhi or are you seeking to become prime minister of India? It does not behove the prime minister-to-be to wonder why Delhi does not have a metro rail system. The city does not have a birthright to a system like this. If you were to stand for election on this count, the views of the rest of the country would be quite interesting.

Here is one set. Why should Delhi grow so much? Why does it need such an expensive system that the rest of the country has to pay for? The rest of the country may also suggest that you can reduce the size of Delhi or shift the capital from Delhi.

Like Caesar's wife, you have to be above criticism. If you play favourites in your role as deputy prime minister, the rest of the country is likely to ask you about your plans for them. Do you? Are you going to inaugurate the local kabaddi matches in other metros? Do you plan to establish clean and regular water supply to their houses? Even if you seek to balance things by going to the four corners of the country and inaugurate World Bank-funded CNG auto rickshaw projects, is this what a deputy prime minister of the country should be doing?

As you jockey for power and support, your actions have not been without cost to the country. The disinvestment issue, in which your stance was pivotal, has perhaps been the most visible and most damaging to the economy. Ostensibly, the party will contest the next elections under the leadership of Vajpayee. Thus, as you manoeuvre over the next few years, what is the cost we citizens will have to bear? Can we afford it?

With this action, Advaniji, you have clearly delineated the demand for the definition of the role of the deputy prime minister of the country. The last precedent we have is that of the famous Devi Lal.

By definition, a deputy prime minister can either be someone who assists the prime minister or someone who is being groomed to take over as prime minister. As with Devi Lal, unfortunately, it appears as if the post of deputy prime minister is an alternate power centre. Having two power centres is a major disaster for any system. The accomplishments and fate of Devi Lal is well known. The fate of his party and the government he was a part of is equally illustrative.

Business Standard has quite clearly said that there is a visible shift of power at the Centre and within the BJP. This has put you on centrestage. This letter is to suggest that as far as the country is concerned, it cannot afford to let two years of derailment of major economic measures and metro rail inaugurations go by. In the interest of the nation, we should have a single centre of power.

Should that be you or Vajpayee? Will you force a decision or will Vajpayee abdicate? For the sake of the country and for the sake of your own coalition at the Centre, I hope an early decision is taken.

Yours sincerely,
Citizenji