In recent weeks, Salman Khurshid, the minister for law and justice as well as of minority affairs, has emerged as the face of the UPA government. He is on every channel, almost everyday, presenting the government’s case calmly but firmly, whether it be the 2G scam or the Lokpal Bill or about the strife in the Cabinet. He is the government’s man for all seasons, a kind of Rahul Dravid, implacable and solid, but not without the occasional flourish and with a lot of style. It appears that all the other ministers of the government have gone into hiding; whenever there is a TV interview request and when there are fears that the questioning may get uncomfortable, Mr Khurshid is sent out to bat. And he does the job, with aplomb and reliability.
The UPA coalition government has many well-qualified people in its ranks — the Prime Minister himself leads the way with his Oxford doctorate and much more. The Congress bench is particularly strong, full of top notch lawyers, economists, engineers and management graduates, with impressive foreign degrees and vast professional experience.
Yet, this distinguished bunch has floundered and flailed in the last few months as it tried to cope with the multi-level crises that hit the government in rapid succession. The various scams, the challenge from civil society groups and the 2G note from the finance minister’s office that brought simmering rivalries out into the open; the UPA has been unable to present a cogent response to any of them, forget defending itself. It is not merely the lack of PR or communication skills — though those are important in this hypermedia age — that stand out; it is the inability to take steps that look decisive, well thought out and convincing. Each counter-move seems to have exacerbated the problems.
The missteps during the Baba Ramdev/Anna Hazare agitations are a good example of how not to handle a situation that looks set to turn explosive. In the first case, the sequence of events, beginning from the decision to send high-powered ministers to the Delhi airport to receive a TV yoga teacher right up to the decision to lathicharge, his supporters showed a clear lack of direction and tactical thinking. Ignoring the baba would definitely have been the best policy.
The second instance, the so-called “civil society” crusade, was even more poorly handled. The government had no answer to the challenge thrown by Mr Hazare and his team, though clearly what he was doing was nothing short of blackmail. All his grandstanding and the outrageous demands made by his advisers ended up sounding reasonable — thanks to a lot of help from a mesmerised media — and all the sober arguments advanced by analysts and the government looked churlish. Again, clear strategic thinking would have helped the government’s cause; instead, some bright spark came up with an ultra-legalistic response and Mr Hazare was taken to jail. That was the best scenario for Mr Hazare since he immediately took on the mantle of the martyr. Eventually the fast ended when finance minister Pranab Mukherjee entered the scene and Vilasrao Deshmukh — of all people — was roped in. That was the time when Mr Khurshid began speaking for the government and he has been at it since.
What does this say? Mr Khurshid himself is among the highly qualified ministers in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet; he studied and taught at Oxford. But he has something that many others — Kapil Sibal, Jairam Ramesh and even the Prime Minister — don’t: he has political experience on the ground. As the chief of the Uttar Pradesh Congress and as a campaigner, he brings a political perspective to things. The same applies to Mr Mukherjee and Mr Deshmukh and to many others in the government; they are politicians, in all the senses of the word. That gives them a distinct edge.
Never in recent memory has a government been so full of technocrats who are so totally bereft of political experience. These are rootless wonders, ultra-bright no doubt but without that sixth sense that automatically assesses a situation in a political framework. Politicians are a much-reviled species and our middle classes (and the media), fascinated by those with the right academic backgrounds and accents, feel that the government should be run by professionals and technocrats since “they know their job the best”. Regrettably, the Congress Party of today seems to agree with them and has been bringing in more and more technocrats, despite the fact that Sonia Gandhi has the right political instincts. But politicians are the best practitioners of politics and governments are not merely about the technical aspects of policy and governance but also the political. For the technical nitty-gritty there are experts and civil servants available; but only a politician can measure how something will play out politically, with all the adjustments, manouvering and even compromises it involves. That is what made Mrs Indira Gandhi such a fine politician; she had the measure of what could be sold to the country and how.
The troubles of the UPA government have not gone away and as the elections appear closer, they will only increase. This is the time to sharpen the political team. There is no dearth of good politicians in the party and more should be encouraged. Technocrats are necessary and look good in the pink papers and at international conferences. They have great ideas too. But ultimately, a political party and the government it runs will have to rely on its politicians if it wants to stay relevant.