Having questioned, criticised and even ridiculed them all this while, you now have to begin sympathising with the Left. While the major players in our politics have been all wound up in concerns of such immediate national importance as Savarkar’s place in history, changes in history textbooks, a parallel Godhra inquiry and the “right” to unfurl the tiranga in the Hubli Idgah, only the Left is now trying to bring some sanity back into the discourse by talking of Kashmir, Manipur and other issues of internal security and political governance.
And the Left is concerned with good reason. There is nothing that the people of India punish more strongly than poor governance, or a soft state. In the nineties, the BJP came to power and held it for so long mainly because of the popular view that the earlier governments had been weak and incompetent on the issue of national security. It is nobody’s case yet that this government does not have its heart in the right place. But its handling of internal security has been dangerously incompetent. We are only fortunate that the legislative defiance in Punjab was led by a Congress chief minister who has been restrained from launching further logical but potentially disastrous follow-up steps. And Manipur is still far, out-of-sight out-of-mind, or the clamour for Shivraj Patil’s head would have risen further. Yet, it is the only time ‘ with the possible exception of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed as home minister in V.P. Singh’s cabinet ‘ that a key minister has lost credibility so soon after a government was sworn in.
It is not the first time though that we have seen a home minister look incapable of handling the complex challenge of many insurgencies and rebellions and yet managing other larger challenges like Centre-state relations, reforms in the criminal justice system, and so on, in what is, after all, India’s premier political ministry. Most successful home ministers have been blessed with a combination of high intellect, political horse sense and loads of energy. But in situations where the incumbent was found lacking, yet considered indispensable for whatever reason as, notably, in the case of S.B. Chavan whose protege Patil is, the prime ministers have found a solution ‘ and it is called the minister of state for internal security.
This was, actually, a Rajiv Gandhi innovation and Manmohan Singh should have no hesitation in taking recourse to it. Arun Nehru and P. Chidambaram, still young then, held the portfolio, dealing with the Punjab and Northeast troubles and leading the paramilitary forces. Later, Subodh Kant Sahay and Rajesh Pilot performed the job with aplomb. When the history of how terrorism was fought and finished in Punjab is written, we will know the key role the ministers of state for internal security, notably Pilot, played, being the nodal point in Delhi for clearances, leadership and communication. Besides, since the man chosen for the job was always younger and ambitious, he was willing to travel frequently to visit trouble spots, meet his troops ‘ something a home minister cannot easily do, unless blessed with exceptional energy as in the case of L.K. Advani.
Manmohan Singh has been fortunate so far that Punjab and Manipur, though significant, have happened within the honeymoon period of his government and also when Parliament was paralysed. But if his government’s management of internal security continues to be as poor as it has been so far, by the Winter session it may have some serious and embarrassing questions to answer, particularly, God forbid, if we are hit by any major incidents of terrorism. That, then, combined with the waffling on Punjab and Manipur, the dismantling of the Hurriyat initiative through benign neglect and, finally, the over-politicised withdrawal of POTA will add up to formidable evidence of a combination of spinelessness and intellectual bankruptcy on issues of internal security not seen since the days of V.P. Singh’s government. Surely, that is not what Manmohan Singh wishes to end up with so soon in his tenure, particularly if, as he told us at his first press conference the other day, it lasts for five years.
Since changing a key minister so soon, particularly in view of the coming Maharashtra elections, may not be realistic, he has to find a good, young, ambitious, yet politically weighty, minister of state for internal security ‘ one who travels frequently to the hot spots and provides leadership as well as cuts the red tape for the paramilitary forces and the Intelligence Bureau. Unlike the home minister, he will not be burdened by the need to attend so many cabinet meetings and GoMs and so, hopefully, Manipur will not have to wait through two full months of crisis before seeing a credible face from Delhi. Besides, he will also be a spokesman of the intelligence agencies and the paramilitary forces who right now feel orphaned.
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While you might argue that they were pampered under Advani, today the picture looks bleak from their point of view. Internal security seems (to them) to be a low priority for this government, nobody seems to be connecting with them or providing them leadership at the political level, and the ruling coalition’s theme so far has been the excesses of POTA. The way the Assam Rifles issue has been handled in Manipur does not reassure anybody. This is all leading up to a mood of drift and cynicism. It is dangerous, and it is completely unnecessary.
Whenever asked what new areas of learning he has had to particularly focus on since he became prime minister, Manmohan Singh’s unhesitating reply is, issues of national security and foreign affairs. The last thing he now wants and needs is a sense that his government is either soft or incompetent on these issues. For, if that sense grows, it will play straight into the BJP’s hands. Worse, he will then be seen as a nice guy, but too apolitical and weak to take on the challenge of governing India.
The latest India Today poll has an interesting nugget. In the list of issues that matter most to the respondents, internal security comes at the very bottom, with a mere 3 per cent calling it a major concern. That, to an extent, was an achievement of the NDA and Advani, helped along, to a large extent, by the slaying of the Khalistani dragon under the earlier Congress government. The flip side of this is that people now take an overall climate of peace and tranquility for granted and could be brutally unforgiving if they felt they were being denied this through waffling or lack of focus.
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