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Shourie's column:Calamities Come And Go, But Decision To Stay Remains
From: Dr. Dinesh Agarwal
Calamities Come And Go, But Decision To Stay Remains
By ARUN SHOURIE
The Observer, May 20 1995
"Give me some time and we will get over all these troubles" that was the
prime minister speaking during the Charar-eSharief debate in the Rajya
Sabha.
But had he not had time since February when the mercenaries were spotted in
the town? Indeed, having put the country through abject humiliation at
Hazratbal in October 1993, had he not had a year and a half's time to
prepare for the next siege? And in the Hazratbal case also, the first
report about terrorists moving to usurp the place was given to the
government in July.
The fact is that the prime minister does not plan to do anything with the
time he gets it is just a figure of speech with him. "Leave it to me, I
will make sure that not one guilty person gets away. I assure the House,
from now on I will personally monitor the case on a daytoday basis" On the
securities scam, Bofors, Ayodhya, the functioning of the Congress, the
descent of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar into casteist gunda raj, the manner in
which Channa Reddy was conducting himself, the way in which General K.V.
Krishna Rao was not conducting himself, the paralysis in his own
ministries, the running feud in the home ministry -- on everything he has
stood up and chanted those words in the end.
The last time was when not having done anything to stop Chavan and Pilot
from making a fool of the country, he took the Kashmir portfolio directly
under his charge. The move was hailed: it is positive proof that he is
serious about the matter now, we were told, you will see there will be
decisive action now. In the months since he has had the portfolio, nothing
has been done to organize even the department, let alone doing something
about Kashmir. A single joint secretary is all that the government has
working full time on the matter. And he, too, has not been attending office
for sometime now as he has been down with typhoid.
Nevertheless, once again: "Leave it to me. Give me some time and we will
get over all these troubles." But there are new traits, too, which have
surfaced this time around. First, there is a new device: to claim that the
particular thing was not done not out of neglect but because it was his
policy not to do the thing!
For two and a half years the country has been without a defense minister.
Suddenly the prime minister tells Jaswant Singh in the Lok Sabha that not
having a defense minister has been a conscious decision of his. It is high
time the defense portfolio was handled by the country's prime minister, he
says. Is it because something is going on which is so secret that no one
except he can be trusted with it? Is it that war is imminent? Is it his way
of making sure that no Goldstar siphons off money in defense deals? No
explanation, just "It is high time that ..." Has he not constituted the
Cabinet committee on political affairs too, asked my friend Jaswant Singh,
because he has concluded that it is high time that the prime minister was
his own CCPA?
It has been exactly the same with CharareSharief. Ever since the
mercenaries and terrorists started congregating there in February, forces
on the ground were waiting for a decision on what they should do. The
mercenaries could have been easily plucked out when they were just a few.
But no decision came. They brought in more of their associates. They
transported arms and explosives and, as has now been seen, land mines in
enormous quantities. The whole town knew of their buildup: witness the
residents who left the town in their thousands. But no decision was taken.
Eventually the army was asked to encircle the place. But that was all. They
kept waiting for a decision as to what they should do. None came. In the
event, they were reduced to being mere spectators, crows on a wall, till
three hours after the mausoleum was burned down. "You can go in now." An
exact replay of Ayodhya in that sense.
And whose responsibility was it to take that decision? Of the prime
minister? That is Narasimha Rao. Of the defense minister? That is Narasimha
Rao. Of the minister in charge of Kashmir affairs? That is Narasimha Rao.
Of the minister in charge of RAW? That is Narasimha Rao. The minister in
charge of IB? That, too, is Narasimha Rao. Of the only minister with whom
Gen. Krishna Rao condescends to talk? But that, too, is Narasimha Rao.
And yet, he says that whatever has happened or not, whatever has been done
or not is the responsibility of the state administration and the men on the
spot.
It is this brazenness which is new, and of which I fear we shall see more
in the coming months. "I am the Congress president and I shall decide what
is to be done," he says, and that ends the matter. Development works are
being speeded up in Kashmir, he says in the wake of the Charar being burned
down. It is not just that that is a farce of a response, it is that it is a
total falsehood. The entire local administration of the state has been on
strike for more than two months now. They routinely refuse to carry out
orders -- whether the order is to protect pilgrims on the Amarnath Yatra or
it is to update the electoral rolls and yet the prime minister says,
"Development works are being speeded up."
In the case of Hazratbal it is the same. The government abjectly
surrendered. But the prime minister refers to it as having been such a
success that the government decided to repeat the strategy in
CharareSharief! The result is that the town has been burned down, the
mausoleum is gone, the main mercenaries have escaped, the people are
outraged, and the prime minister is fine-tuning words: the occurrence is
better described as a partial failure of policy, he says, not a complete
failure.
Not just brazenness, with the old cunning there is a new obstinacy.
The prime minister is palming off responsibility not just verbally, but in
a deep sense. To avoid taking a decision he let both sides in his own
government have their say on TADA. As the side advocating its abolition was
more vociferous, in the end he went along with them. And now others must
get a substitute through the country must live with the consequences.
Yet no one can do anything about the matter. The adjournment motions in
parliament on CharareSharief were symptomatic. They have come and gone. The
government's ways will not change one bit as a consequence. Even the
opposition seemed to be just going through the motions: when it came time
to vote only 186 of its 240 members of parliament were present.
Indeed, the discussion became a diversion. The question suddenly became a
matter of one party versus the rest of which side deployed the better
debating tactics.
Our situation is the one depicted in the experiment. Let ten sturdy men
stand one behind the other facing a wall.
At the head of the column put a weakling. Each man puts his hands to the
shoulders of the man in front, the man in front puts his hands to the wall.
Everyone pushes. The strength of the ten counts for nothing; the pressure
on the wall will be no greater than that weakling in front can put on it.
That is our situation. Cabinet ministers grumble, Congress MPs visit each
other's houses and lament, opposition leaders protest, editorial writers
declaim, the people are indignant but nothing happens for the man in charge
just looks the other way.
At the same time, the people, especially pressmen, should not forget their
own contribution. They help create the atmosphere in which such failures
are certain.
Just go back to the days immediately after the government let the
terrorists free at Hazratbal.
How much play the press gave to the secessionists-sponsored demand that the
army be removed from the vicinity of the shrine. It was replaced. The
Border Security Force set up checkpoints well outside the shrine. The press
played up the demand that even these be removed.
CharareSharief has been the same story. If persons going in and out are
searched the howl goes up "innocents being harassed." When as a consequence
they are not searched and the place becomes a stockade of mercenaries the
howl goes up,
"How did the army let so many land mines and the rest get through?"
Worse, there is a certain glee in purveying any and every allegation so
long as it puts our men in the wrong. For five days some of our papers in
Delhi kept repeating the allegation of some resident of the town that he
had seen a helicopter (at dead of night) fly over the mausoleum and
sprinkle powder over it; the place had then been shelled to set it on fire.
This allegation was carried under four to eight column headlines on page
one. And on the sixth day on an inside page one of those very papers
reported that there was no evidence for the allegation at all that the
houses bore no marks of mortar shelling or even bullets.
Officers and jawans who are there are not there for their pleasure. They
are risking their lives, many of them are sacrificing their lives so that
our country may survive. They are already handicapped by the absence of
policy. This broadcasting of allegations and concoctions cannot but cripple
them.
That much must be clear even to those who broadcast the fabrications. But a
certain perversity has entered large sections of which these pressmen are
representative. They will be satiated only when the country actually
breaks. See, we told you they will proclaim it could not survive...
