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Saisuresh Sivaswamy

Where is the prime minister?

Increasingly, it appears that the prime minister of India has taken a long-needed vacation. As his ministerial colleagues go to war with each other, as ministers violate strict policy guidelines with the zeal that only novelty of a job can bring, there is no official world from 7 Racecourse Road.

What is happening, instead, are regular briefings from the Prime Minister's Office, where rebuttals, denials and clarifications are issued over the government's own gaffes. Surely, one can be pardoned for thinking that the premier has undertaken a maun vrat, perhaps to be different in the Tower of Babel that is now known as the Government of India.

When Parliament was caught in the throes of this government's motion of confidence some weeks ago, in the general din that passed off for sparkling debate, there were a few whose words still ring in my ear. And none is more apposite today, than those of former finance minister P Chidambaram. In effect, he had said that among the many reasons that he was opposing the motion was that this government was a madhouse, its ministers had no idea that what they said amounted to policy, with the result that conflicting statements were emanating from various ministries which had the cumulative effect of shaking investor confidence in the country.

Even shorn of political bias, Chidambaram's words put things in perspective.

When the defence minister of the nation identifies one country as our potential enemy number one -- in total disregard of not just past norms but in complete and blatant violation of protocol that demands ministers stick to their beat -- that amounts to a 180-degree turnabout in policy. That he had been shooting from his lips was quite evident when the entire mechanism of the Government of India indulged in damage control. And when you consider that he had passed judgement on an area that is the prime minister's prerogative -- who is his own external affairs minister -- it is very easy for me to rest my case.

There are any number of instances where ministers of this government have dropped their P-o-V on any and every topic, the petroleum minister wants a constitutionally elected state government dismissed, a minister in a North-Eastern state lays down conditions for demitting office on being chargesheeted in a huge financial scam, a soft-target Union minister who is sacked raises serious questions of morality involving this government, but all these are met with no response.

Forget ministers transgressing their area of operation, this government's woes are far from over even when ministers stick to their bailiwick. Vide, the worthy who is in charge of the law ministry who rules that cases against a former chief minister -- who incidentally happens to be his boss -- will be reviewed. Now, if that is not a policy statement, I have not seen any in my life. What I, and I am sure millions others like me, would like to know is if he had the prime minister's sanction before making this announcement? And, if failing memory has not let me down, I have not heard of an official rebuttal to this one.

Talking of which, this government has devised a novel strategy to deal with verbose ministers, which is to get the prime minister's office to issue statements. Thus, in the less than two months that this government has been in office, it must have set a record of sorts for the number of issues it has either clarified, denied or simply taken note of.

Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde, who knows better than anyone else in this government the effect of ministers shooting off their mouth, has a rather interesting explanation for the Vajpayee dispensation. This was not a love marriage but an arranged one, he said in a moment of great insight, and thus it is facing problems.

Any marriage, as in any transaction or contract involving two people, has a 50:50 chance of survival, but personally I believe that a love marriage has a marginally larger chance of success. An arranged marriage, by definition, has been conducted on the basis of certain established conventions, which need not apply in the case of a love marriage. Thus, what happens in the former is that the husband, often, is the master of the house, as per tradition. One can differ with that arrangement, even question it, but not deny its existence.

Thus, assuming that the Vajpayee government is like an arranged marriage, what it needs is the husband to assert himself, which is what this husband has failed to do. And when you consider that he has not one but numerous spouses, each jostling for prime space, the importance of spine in his framework cannot be overestimated.

Conceded, the prime minister, realising the tenuous links that bind the warring units of his coalition government, has decided that silence is the best virtue. At the same time, the prime minister is not just another minister in the Union council, he is the first among equals, and is the nation's chief executive. And in case of failure, it will be his neck on the block, not his vague ministers who will anyway crawl back to the states they come from.

So far, this government has been quite a revelation. There has been a lot of criticism against the previous government, another multi-party coalition which as critics -- including myself -- lost no opportunity to point out was a post-poll arrangement. There were a lot of sins one could lay at that government's door, but certainly it did not have the unedifying sight of ministers shooting their mouths off.

The tragedy about that government was that it had no popular sanction. The United Front was a hastily put together patchwork, whose sole aim was to keep the BJP out of power. The electorate, when they got the chance to pass judgement on that, brought in the BJP and its allies. And the tragedy about this government is that in the brief time that it has spent in office, it has belied not just a mandate but the expectations that went with it. And none more so, than the man India awaited.

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Saisuresh Sivaswamy