Offstumped – Commentary on Indian Politics

Icon

Politics and Public Policy in India

Evolving a Federal Consensus on National Issues like NCTC – Column in Rediff

Originally published in Rediff.

Background reading material

 October 1949 edition of the Sunday Indian Express on Sardar Patel’s efforts to integrate states and provinces

12th January 2010 OpEd in The Pioneer on why India needs a NCTC

The proposed National Center for Counter-terrorism is as much a casualty of politics as it is a casualty of the singular failure of the Central Government – the inability to negotiate interests across stakeholders to forge a consensus. It is bizarre that anyone in the UPA seriously thought that the mere mechanical act of circulating a memo would produce a consensus on the NCTC. It perhaps is a reflection of the deep cynicism underlying the political inertia within the UPA, which it went about the mechanical act of holding a discussion on NCTC knowing fully well a breakthrough was unlikely.

Who in their right mind would expect a forum that is about more talking than any listening to produce a consensus of any sorts ?

While it is true that there is little political interest within the UPA to pursue a consensus it is also true that the UPA lacks leaders who can actually negotiate and produce a consensus. The current impasse between the non-UPA ruled states and the UPA ruled Center calls for perhaps something more than a patient negotiator. It calls for a unique set of skills combined within a persona that inspires trust, awe and confidence.

Integrating the many Princely states and provinces into the Indian Republic was perhaps the most complex consensus building act in the political history of Modern India. Unlike the writing of the Constitution, consensus in which to large effect was accomplished thanks to the legislative majority enjoyed the Congress Party in the Constituent Assembly, the integration of the provinces was a different ball game. It involved negotiating a diversity of interests across a plurality of stakeholders. With a variety of instruments at his disposal, ranging from pressure and diplomacy Sardar Patel’s welding together a Federation to be governed by the Republic holds many lessons for the current impasse between the states and the Center.

While Patel’s appeal to national interest in bringing around the Princely states is well understood of particular interest is a statement made by him in the Constituent Assembly in October of 1949. The Sunday Indian Express in its edition of October 13th 1949 carried the statement at length.  In that statement it is noteworthy that Patel went on to reinforce the case for integration by not just limiting himself to the political and moral aspects but more specifically the economic benefits ranging from improved tax revenues to a massive boost to the treasury. The unique skills employed by Patel in this task become clear in the same statement as he sought to make a case to the Constituent Assembly to accept the terms negotiated by him with the states and provinces.

From NCTC to GST and from economic reforms to targeted subsidies/entitlements the political need of the present times is Leadership in Patel’s mold that can engage, negotiate, build trust and confidence where possible, awe and overwhelm when necessary.

Much has been made of Acceptability as the defining trait for triangulating on a future alternative to the Congress lead UPA. The reality of this much touted “Acceptability” is that it gets us the exact opposite of what the current impasse demands. It will give us the least common denominator of all insecurities. It will produce an alternative that is least threatening to status quo. Such an alternative will have practically no political capital to spend on altering status quo.

The minimum common path of “Acceptability” will not get us where we need to go to bring about the kind of reforms we urgently need. To get there, we will have to choose a path that is unpleasant to many. We will have to first make a clear and decisive choice for without such a clear mandate, there will be no political capital to expend on complex issues. This is a necessary precondition but barely sufficient as the UPA’s second term has shown conclusively. The political capital earned from a clear if not decisive verdict in 2009 has been frittered away by a timid leadership within the UPA incapable of communicating with the nation at large to push across a complex agenda.

From the manner in which the UPA has also allowed itself to be steamrolled by apolitical actors ranging from NAC Left Liberals to Lokpal activists there is yet another dimension to the leadership choice that needs to be made. It has to be a choice that is not easily overawed by pressure from vocal special interests.  Few politicians have mastered the art of turning an adverse political climate into an advantage by staking it all on an issue, turning it into a personal referendum. Those leaders who’s appeal is largely sectarian, try to get by making it about identity victimhood as we have routinely seen with caste based parties or linguistic/sub-regional identity parties. The more effective of these leaders are those who have been able to turn an issue around into a personal referendum by appealing to an entire state’s identity. Little wonder that it is these leaders who have stood up to the pressure from vocal special interests far more effectively than others.

The current impasse between the states and center is partly the result of this dynamic. Mass leaders at the state level are pushing their agenda by expending well-earned political capital, turning key issues into a personal referendum while simultaneously appealing to a statewide identity to push their case. A government stripped of mass leaders of any consequence has thus been clueless about dealing with them. The way out of this impasse lies in a Mass Leader at the national level who is capable of exercising similar leverage albeit at the national level to bring around the states. Someone who can appeal to a national identity, carry its weight to the negotiation table to accommodate legitimate interests on his or her terms while at the same time overwhelming the unreasonable ones into submission with the weight of that same political capital.

The path to consensus on critical issues of national interest lies not in the timid pursuit of “acceptability” but in a bold return to mass politics as was once attempted by Sardar Patel.  In this lies the difference between an “acceptable leadership” that is incapable of delivering on anything tangible and a “mass leadership” with the ability to push through and deliver on a complex agenda.

Filed under: federalism, Gujarat Polls 2012, Narendra Modi, UPA-II Critical Appraisal, War on Terror

National Commission for Minorities meddles with the Judicial Process on Gujarat 2002

It is that tax payer funded conscience keeper from Delhi at it once again.

This time meddling in areas where it has no Jurisdiction to prejudice the Judicial Process already underway on the Gujarat 2002 riots.

The National Commission for Minorities has served summonses on seven serving and retired Gujarat cops, asking them to appear before it and give evidence, among other things, on the February 27, 2002 meeting of top police officials held at Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s Gandhi Nagar residence in the wake of the Godhra carnage. The Commission hearing is scheduled for March 12.

One would have thought the Congress lead UPA government would have learnt its lessons by now on not misusing the plethora of agencies at its disposal in Delhi to meddle in the affairs of states. Justice for the 2002 riots is already on a course set by the Supreme Court.

Under these circumstances, this meddling by the NCM is politics at its worst with the sole  intention of second guessing investigations, sullying the process in the Courts and fostering contempt within victims to no there is no sense of closure even as verdicts are handed out in the various Riots cases.

If this is how the Congress intends to play politics after its rout in the recent state elections, it can forget any semblance of cooperation in Parliament in weeks and months to come.

This transgression by the NCM into areas way beyond its jurisdiction makes the case yet again for why this kind of politically motivated conscience keeping at the tax payers expense needs to be shut down.

Also see older blog posts

Why do we need a National Commission for Minorities ?” – Offstumped Archives 2008

Muslim Discrimination and National Conscience Keeping at the Tax Payers expense - Offstumped Archives 2007

Filed under: Narendra Modi, UPA-II Critical Appraisal

Samajwadi Party sweeps Uttar Pradesh – 3 Yadavs shine

Predicting electoral outcomes in the treacherous swamps of heartland politics in India can be dangerous.

That the Samajwadi Party was on the rebound has been the news since Ashok Malik’s initial observations.

That there was a wave of anti-incumbency against Mayawati was less than obvious as noise from Delhi filled the air and extraneous issues took center stage from land acquisition to a Muslim sub-quota.

That the BJP’s Mahasangram, Jan Chetana had bombed was amply clear from the manner in which the election campaign in Uttar Pradesh became a below the radar, backroom affair with a belated Uma Bharti entry.

That the Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra factor was good TV in as much as Anna Hazare was good for TRPs also became amply clear as multiple rounds of lowering of expectations began as well as the Congress foolishly persisted with its desperation over the Muslim vote.

But who would have thought that the voter in Uttar Pradesh would hand such a decisive verdict to the SP ?

In this victory for Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav it is odd that a 3rd Yadav should partake of some limelight. Yogendra Yadav stuck his neck out to go where no pollster has gone before in recent memory. Guess he may have overcompensated for some of that SP performance to err on the higher side.

Back in September of 2011 when the miasma of asinine cliches that passes for news and opinion in Delhi’s studios was focused on Sonia Gandhi’s health, Anna Hazare’s fast, the Social Spectator – an obscure online magazine carried a prolific piece of prose by Frank Huzur writing from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. The piece was titled “Chariot of Hope – Cycle of Change“. and it opened with these lines:

He may not be Harrison Ford. But he is surely James Dean. The rebel with a cause for socialist celebre!

In all of 2011, Google News Archives show at least 5000 odd stories on “Rahul Gandhi”. No, Frank Huzur was not talking of “Rahul Gandhi”, he was writing on Akhilesh Yadav who according to Google News Archives in 2011 managed a paltry 21 news stories. From that obscurity in 2011, Akhilesh Yadav has clearly come a long way to script his father’s comeback in Uttar Pradesh.

While the results will be analyzed threadbare in the next few hours, days and weeks there is a sobering lesson for those of us who have been conditioned to view politics in India from a Delhi lens.

No it is not on the Rahul Gandhi hype, which we were always sceptical about.

There is a deeper lesson on our conditioning that forces to think of Uttar Pradesh in purely casteist terms. This blogger had been immensely critical of a campaign strategy that focused purely on the calculus of caste while failing to project a pan-Uttar Pradesh agenda. There in lies a lesson for both analysis that held out some hope for Mayawati’s BSP as well as for a campaign strategy that viewed the BJP as a dark horse in Uttar Pradesh.

Rahul Gandhi has bombed before, and this outcome in UP is more confirmation of his limitations as a future leader for the Congress. The Nehru Gandhi brand may disproportionately sway the national discourse but it continues to underwhelm in state elections.

What is however stunning is how deeply the BJP leadership in Uttar Pradesh had its head buried in the sand. Instead of blaming amateur psephologists for decisions that ought to have been the Leadership’s gambles, the BJP needs to wake up to the reality that its status quoist strategies of incremental linear growth have run their course. There is no new ground left to break and there is little hope of reclaiming old ground.

The BJP has indeed emerged as a dark horse albeit on its way to nowhere. That the BJP needs a radical overhaul is an understatement !

Postscript:

- The BJP’s resounding win in Goa results and its partner SAD doing extremely well in Punjab to make history do little to hide the fact that it has been squeezed out of the largest state.

Tailpiece:

- The Presidential election later this year is now in flux unless the Congress manages to drive a hard bargain with the Samajwadi Party

Filed under: Advani Yatra against Corruption, Anna Hazare, Assembly elections 2011, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, उत्तर प्रदेश २०१२, Baba Ramdev, betrayal of aam admi, Indira Gandhi, Internet Hindus, Left Liberalism, Manmohan Confidence Vote, Mayawati, Narendra Modi, Nitin Gadkari, Offstumped, OpEds on Uttar Pradesh Polls 2012, Two Indias, UPA-II Critical Appraisal, Uttar Pradesh Polls 2012, Varun Gandhi

Uttar Pradesh Results 2012 – Live Blogging

Many reputations are on the line as Uttar Pradesh and the other states count their votes.

Will the tsunami predicted for the Samajwadi Party by CNN-IBN and CSDS’ Yogendra Yadav manifest in a near absolute majority ?

Will Punjab persist with its flip-flop trend of voting out incumbents ?

Will Uttarakhand go the way of Goa and other small states from stable bipolarity to unstable multipolarity ?

Will Manohar Parrikar make a comeback in Goa ?

Finally who among the BJP, BSP and Congress will end up with bragging rights if not prizes for coming second, third and fourth in Uttar Pradesh ?

Follow Offstumped live during the coverage of the counting of votes in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa at the below:

More updates as the day unfolds …..

For the complete archive of the full coverage of Uttar Pradesh Polls 2012 so far including pre-poll and post poll podcasts, all OpEds, all BlogPosts and the detailed phase wise, seat by seat analysis click here.

Filed under: Advani Yatra against Corruption, Anna Hazare, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, उत्तर प्रदेश २०१२, Baba Ramdev, betrayal of aam admi, Internet Hindus, Live Events, Mayawati, Narendra Modi, Nitin Gadkari, Offstumped on Twitter, UPA-II Critical Appraisal, Uttar Pradesh Polls 2012, Varun Gandhi

RSS Now Playing on Offstumped Live

  • On Third Front day dreams and Uttar Pradesh nightmares – Wrap up Podcast March 14, 2012
    A podcast conversation with  @dubash (http://phalaka.com) where we wrap up the Uttar Pradesh polls discussion with a look at the final numbers and analysis of vote shares. We also look ahead on all the buzz around Akhilesh Yadav, the rise of the Samajwadi Party and all of the day-dreaming over a possible Third Front Government [...]
    admin

Live Tweets

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 6,670 other followers

Offstumped Archives

Disclaimer

Opinions expressed on this site using the alias Offstumped are the blogger's personal opinions and do not in any way reflect the views of the blogger's Employers.