PMO BEAT But I have promises to break By R. Prasannan Every politician is a ‘promising politician; Narendra Modi, it appears, is “emphatically a promising politician”, as G.K. Chesterton put it. Modi had promised to get back all the black money from abroad within 100 days of becoming PM, and make us richer by Rs15 lakh each. It has been 200 days since he became PM, and we arent any richer. No issue. None of us had booked a limousine counting on the Rs15 lakh. The Manmohan regime had held back names of the blackmoneyed people, citing international treaties. Foul, cried Modi and his men; they are protecting someone. Now Arun Jaitley says he cant give out names. When in opposition, the BJP had wanted the Henderson Brooks report on the 1962 war to be published. There is dirty stuff about Nehru in the report—was the insinuation raised when successive regimes said no. Jaitley even wrote a blog on why it is in national interest to make old war records public. A month and a half after Jaitley became minister, an MP asked for the report. Perish the thought, Jaitley replied: “This is a top secret document.... Release of this report... would not be in national interest.” Whoosh! His old blog also vanished! Ever since Viceroy Lord Wavell stamped ‘Top Secret on the papers concerning Netaji Boses plane crash in 1945, successive PMs have been letting no one see them. Even three government-appointed commissions, several MPs and Boses own family havent been given access to them. Something dirty about Nehru in them, so went the rumour. Rajnath Singh cried from Cuttack, Netajis birthplace, that the country had a right to see those papers. Last week, an RTI activist asked Modis PMO for the Netaji papers. Good heavens! Revealing them would compromise our ties with a friendly power, replied the PMO. When Pak troops shot at our border posts, Modi called Manmohan weak-kneed. When they beheaded two Indian troopers, Sushma ‘Salome Swaraj asked for ten Pakistani heads. Now the figures given by Minister V.K. Singh, once an Army chief, show that Pak troops fired 424 times, and killed 17 Indians, after Modi came to power. Six months in power, Modis chickens are coming home to roost. The opposition in Parliament, though minuscule, is giving hell to the ministers, and Modi is nowhere to be seen in the houses. Planning Minister Rao Inderjit Singh cut a sorry figure the other day when he tried to explain to the CPI(M)s P. Rajeev whether the Planning Commission was dead or alive. It appears it is neither. Looks like Modi is clueless on what to do with the commission. In his I-Day speech, he said it was better to rebuild it than repair it. Then he asked Indias many million key-pad thinkers to give their suggestions on a web forum. Next he called a meeting of the disbanded commission itself to suggest what to do. A few took it as a joke and didnt attend. Now he has called an ideas session with chief ministers and chief secretaries on December 7. Modis MPs worry lay elsewhere. Millions of farmers had voted them, believing Modis manifesto promise to pay them 50 per cent more than what they had spent to produce their grain. But what the farmers have got so far is not 50 per cent more, but just 50 rupees more for wheat. Now with world grain prices falling, farmers would be lucky if they get the cost price. TAILPIECE: Congressmen are no angels. They had come to power in 1991, giving a time-table for implementing each manifesto promise. But a day or two after he was sworn in, finance minister Manmohan Singh, a political greenhorn then, glibly told a press conference that politicians make many such promises to garner votes, all of which cant be kept. Hell broke in the Congress; finally, PM Narasimha Rao had to intervene to pacify his party Mps. prasannan@the-week
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 12:09:05 +0000