It is only to be expected that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s New Year address to the nation will consist mostly of homilies. He promised to ensure honest and efficient governance and to offer a competitive and productive economy combined with an equitable social and political order. But can he rise to the occasion? He has recently made a number of compromises, especially the surrender on FDI in multibrand retail. The Lokpal Bill is also in suspended animation. Of course, the PM’s role is hamstrung by institutional and practical constraints. According to the Constitution, he is only first among equals. He heads a motley group of political parties forming a coalition, the UPA. He is pushed around by the numbers game in Parliament with not only the Opposition but also some allies throwing a spanner into the works. Manmohan Singh can hardly be a doer, he is at best a negotiator.
Manmohan Singh has also drawn flak for some questionable decisions. He was somewhat authoritarian in negotiating the nuclear energy deal with the US. And he fell down on the job of pushing through reform of which he is acknowledged to be a global architect. A laissez-faire economist, he has consistently pursued a consensus approach on GST, sectoral liberalisation and amendments to the obsolete Land Acquisition Act. But success has been stymied by the BJP’s opposition and the negativism of some allies. Economic sense has been vitiated by pro-poor populism. The BJP and the Trinamul Congress have made a big issue of federalism in opposing legislation on the Lokpal and the Lokyuktas. The Constitutional status of the Lokpal freeing it from political control has also been thrown into a muddle. Corruption and political arrogance pollute politics both at the Centre and in the states. The issue of the divide between the party and the PM also undermines the polity.
