A blame game has begun in the UPA with insiders holding the “crisis managers” of the Congress in the government responsible for mishandling the crisis which has virtually isolated the ruling coalition.
Citing examples of mishandling crisis they said it had begun from the 2G spectrum scam. The Opposition had wanted a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to probe the scam, but the government’s rigid stand against it had washed out the entire Winter Session of Parliament. The government finally agreed to it at a time when the matters reached to the court.
Then Mr Anna Hazare’s first fast on a Lokpal Bill at Jantar Mantar. He would not have sit on the fast if Union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh was involved to persuade him not to take this step. “Vilasrao had enough experience of tackling Mr Anna Hazare. That time he was in Sri Lanka. But before he was approached, Union minister Kapil Sibal contacted Prashant Bhushan and he was confident to check Anna,” they said.
Third mistake was constitution of the joint drafting committee on a Lokpal Bill. “Only civil society members and the Congress ministers were nominated to the committee ignoring the Opposition and even the allies. It was suggested that the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury should have been included in the committee with a calculation that this would help in the passage of the bill in Parliament . But the crisis managers were over confident to manage the crisis,” the insiders observed.
And the fourth blunder was sending four top ministers at Delhi airport to placate Baba Ramdev. They went there along with the Cabinet secretary, which had never happened.
And the latest is of arresting Anna Hazare.
“The UPA is not in a comfortable position as the numbers in Parliament are concerned. It is depending on the Samajwadi Party, BSP, RJD, one member parties and Independents for support. Now, the supporting parties are playing to the gallery on the Lokpal Bill,” they said.
According to them, the “crisis managers” had never handled any crisis. They are basically professionals. Their attack on Mr Hazare has created sympathy for the social activist. The Opposition’s job is not to help the government to come out of crisis, they pointed out.