Thursday 12 July 2012

An Open Letter to the Prime Minister

Respected Sir,

Hindsight, often acts as an antidote to flights of fancy. In hindsight, we sometimes think that our prayers should not have been answered by the higher authority. As a youngster, I often prayed that India should have a Prime Minister like you for at least 10 years, but the last 3 years of your leadership have given me enough reason to lament my prayers.

The aam-aadmi, that your party claims to represent, may never have the opportunity to read the Time magazine, which dubbed you an underachiever, but comes face to face with your actions (or rather inactions) on a daily basis. He may laugh off the occasional inaction, but do not confuse this laughter with amity, because behind it may be a seething anger that may turn into rage. That rage will be evident on the political day of judgement - the voting day, where the janata may order you to go to the saltmines of the opposition, from where position of power is just a distant mirage.Your party is ruled by masters who act dumb in their lofty silences, in the hope that the people are dumb not to see through it. It is a hopeless hope.

If someday you decide to act, you may find that you will have a luxury to choose between the problems to solve. Not many in your government can claim a moral ground in the quicksand of corruption, and a clean up seems to be a dirty job. Your allies seem to do a better job at stymieing your initiatives than the combined opposition. Each passing week seems to unearth a new scam and while the old one's never seem to be bought to justice.

As if this is not enough, your ministers seem to be running for the top prizes in a foot-in-the-mouth contest. Salman Khurshed publicly abuses your inaction and then tries to privately pacify you. P Chidambaram had his Marie Antoinette moment when he chided the middle class for buying ice-creams, when in reality they find difficult to put 3 square meals a day. The statements by the defence minister during his spat with the army chief did not add any halo to the aura of this government.

It is ironic that a prime-minister who has claimed that his life is an open book, heads the government that has nothing to offer but a series of closed books, unsuccessfully hidden from the glare of the omnipresent media. You had a track record in 2009 to campaign upon. You still have 2 years add to the credit section of goodwill and reduce the overdraft of credibility.

We know that you have many academic honours to your name, yet there is one that is not mentioned in your CV. The graduate degree that you have earned in the P V Narsimharao School of procrastination, has come with a fee that the nation is paying for. Your government seems hesitant to make decisions. The latest instance of this ill was manifested during the Presidential nominations. The decision was not taken when you had options to mull, but when your allies had plunged a dagger into the coalition.

History seldom provides the same person with two opportunities to achieve greatness. You made the best out of it in 1992, and 20 years later in the summer of 2012, the opportunity beckons again. If you decide not to take it, in 2014, the congress will be defeated not by the opposition, but by itself. Because in politics, death seldom comes by murder but often by suicide.

Yours Faithfully (Only if you act),
A concerned citizen.