Comment

After four years of the UPA government, the underlying theme song is clear: it’s less about the aam aadmi, and more about survival and staying in power.

Nothing wrong in that, for all political parties have the same basic purpose. But a crucial difference with the UPA is the complete abandonment of any pretence of governance.

Starting at the top, we have a prime minister who is in office only because Sonia Gandhi can’t trust anyone else. Not only that, each minister works as an island, running his own fief. Ministers are accountable only to their party bosses, and not the prime minister. They are not even collectively accountable for anything. Manmohan Singh has no authority to do anything whatsoever. We saw a brief spark of independence when he asked the Left to go jump if they didn’t like the Indo-US nuclear deal. The Left called his bluff successfully and it was left to Sonia Gandhi to offer Singh a graceful way out of his embarrassment.

We now know that when it comes to choosing between power, personal credibility and reformist credentials, Singh will choose the first option. True, Singh is still extolled for his integrity and humility. This is nonsense.

Personal integrity is not only about not taking bribes. It’s also about standing up for what you believe in. Even assuming the PM no longer believes in economic reforms, he could still have focused on reforming economic administration, sealed the huge leakages in the delivery of public services to the poor.

There are a hundred things to reform in India — the police, the legal system, the armed forces. But Singh did little in any of these areas. About the only thing one can give him credit for is the Right to Information Act — a landmark legislation. Barring this, Singh has much to be humble about.

Personally, I would not blame a politician merely for putting personal survival above principle, but no one who presides over the steady destruction of national wealth will get my vote. Singh has done precisely that and squandered taxpayer money like no other prime minister has ever done before.

In the last four years, his government has almost decimated the national oil, telecom and airline companies. He has put the country’s energy security in peril by allowing foolish pricing policies to bankrupt the oil companies.

Where will one find the resources to invest in huge refineries and oil exploration if IndianOil and ONGC have one foot in bankruptcy court? With oil above $125 and heading higher, global oil companies are making money hand over fist. In India, they are bleeding to death.

But the story doesn’t end with the oil companies. The public sector telecom companies have fallen behind the investment curve and are gradually losing traction in the marketplace just when private sector companies are getting huge stock market valuations.

Praful Patel’s tenure as aviation minister has seen the national carrier in steep decline. P Chidambaram has at least acknowledged he is practising financial legerdemain. But he is guilty for doing little to improve matters. Taken as a whole, the UPA has done its utmost to destroy national wealth, especially in listed companies.

It’s time investors in government companies and taxpayers got together to sue this irresponsible government for destroying national assets and for lack of fiscal rectitude. Investors in government companies can probably build a good case since it is not difficult to prove that their investments are suffering because the government has wrongfully expropriated public sector companies in the name of public interest.

As for taxpayers, their best bet is to turn up at the electronic voting machines and throw them out.
Email: r_jagannathan@dnaindia.net