Historic Opportunity for Mr. Singh

Bikash Choudhury


Meet, Sarat Mohapatra(name changed on request) otherwise, an educated person with a stable income and a small family to look after, in the remote village of Gokhapada, encircled by river in Mahakalapada block of Orissa. Ask him, if he were to be the Prime Minister of the country, what he would like to do? He would promptly answer without blinking an eyelid that he imagined of a strong and self confident India who does not have to prostrate before global powers every now and then. We will get millions of people like him who are indulgent about their country and aspire to sit on that coveted chair to be able to implement all of their ideas to see India as one of the global power. Now, if we ask our incumbent PM, Mr. Manmohan Singhji, if he gets to put all his ideas into work in progress? He would definitely lament on less than supportive, 10 Janpath and un-cooperative colleagues in the cabinet. Bit sad; even, PM of the country does not have the power to implement ideas as per his choosing. Mr. Singh actually had a historic opportunity with an improved mandate second time; but, failed to capitalise on political space that was offered to him by virtue of fractured verdict of 2009.Mr. Singh could have shown the statesmanship to establish a working relationship with opposition leader Sri L.K.Advani to chart an audacious and adventurous journey in framing bold policies to clear the baggage of imperial regime and many of our own previous Govt. to lead the country into a position of influence in global affairs. India still can make it. Challenges faced by the Govt. can be broadly divided into three categories, viz., Internal Security, External Threat and Infrastructure Deficiency. Let us look at each of them separately.

Internal Security: Difficult to own the fact that the present precarious internal security situation is a by product of denial of justice to innocents for long time and compulsion of law enforcing agencies to look at the rule book only when it is politically expedient; that has corroded entire system beyond repair. This requires a national consensus to overhaul the Police, Judiciary and IPC for preserving a peaceful, equitable and a progressive society. If, we commission a research; I am sure that will confirm fifty percent of extremism can be dealt with by non-violence tools and balance can be dealt with a shrewd military strategy that removed ferocious LTTE from earth. Completely dealing with the internal security challenges would offer substantial strength both moral & material to deal with external threat and infrastructure deficiency.

External Threat: It is common knowledge India has always remained under military threat from western and northern borders. Pakistan is fast moving towards a civil war. In few years Pakistan situation would have a mirror image of Afghanistan. Risk of a military engagement with Pakistan would remain very high in coming years with J&K as an excuse. China has recently started showing its colors on the back of its growing economic strength. Apart from dealing with the threat with a suitable military plan; India could also gain a very advantage position vis-à-vis military threat by crafting an apt diplomatic strategy to remain on the top of the global mind space that would work as effective antidote to our belligerent neighbors. India could actually lend a helping hand to US President who has been apparently isolated and cornered by US law makers and bureaucracy to unveil his global agenda. Again, attempt can be made to befriend Russia by recreating cold war closeness which has rich history. Further, India must make an audacious attempt to convert South Asia into a common market with Indian currency as the single currency just like European Union. It will add a jing to the Indian aura in global affairs.

Infrastructure Deficiency: The poor civic conditions in our metros and cities have already reached alarming proportion. The road network in the country is far from optimum and quality of roads still remains much to be desired. Railways have not been able to keep up with the demand of billion plus growing population. Our rivers and other water bodies have been polluted to be fit for human consumption; inland water way and interlinking of river basins have been left as ideas to be discussed only in seminars. Now, we have reached a point where just incremental changes in catering to infrastructural deficiency are not going to do any good. Country must first have confidence to deal with the subject lock stock barrel and the stomach to generate domestic capital or attract foreign capital to the tune of $500 billion-$1 trillion US dollars to invest in infrastructure sector for ten years to bring the quality of our infrastructure to global standards.
Our Prime Minister is just sitting on the lap of opportunity; he just need to draw courage and make a genuine effort to display statesmanship to collaborate inside his party and outside with the opposition to drive this great country to its rightful position under the sun. Manmohan Singhji would never fall short of good Urdu couplets ever.