Macavity

Cat -Pablo Picasso

Macavity

He always has an alibi and one or two to spare
Whatever time the deed took place, Macavity wasn't there!

The Mystery Cat-TS Eliot



The Prime Minister’s bravura, brazen, evidently much rehearsed performance, at the interaction with the senior broadcast media recently, was reminiscent of poet TS Eliot’s poem about an elusive mystery cat he called Macavity.

As spectator sports go, one finds the packaging of a position between a rock and a hard place particularly fascinating. But still, the nation waited and waited for a gritty, integrity-laden truth out of the whole thing. Instead, we were treated to a series of anodyne and self-serving statements. But perhaps, to read the tea leaves properly, our wait will have to be extended. Because the only clear-cut thing Dr. Singh said is that he wasn’t quitting, and that he intended to do some restructuring of the cabinet after the Budget session.

But verily, he has matured and ripened as a politician. Dr. Singh now uses his natural gifts of modesty, personal honesty, erudition, the familiar white bearded and sky blue turbanned persona, to not just give an appealing and sympathetic account of himself but attempt an audacious suspension of disbelief worthy of a master cinema director.

Many senior media persons and Opposition politicians have already marvelled at how the PM has positioned the precarious state of governance with corruption and bad news pouring out of every orifice, as a matter he is just about to tidy up, having recently located his misplaced broom.

The transmogrification, over the years, of the once decidedly Leftist professor and economist turned World Bank inspired reformer, liberator of the Indian economy in 1991; eliding, kaleidoscopically, imperceptibly, into the blasé politician of today, is impressive.

The Dr. Singh of 2011 must have been reminding himself, as he fielded questions with a practiced ease, that he was exactly where he wanted to be. He was informing us that he was determined to go down in history as the first non “family” Congress PM to stay for two full back-to-back terms.

And, by implication, he underlined that there was no one in the UPA or the Opposition who could unseat him. And increasingly, this very durability and tenacity of tenure may turn out to be his lasting testament. This, and the knack he displays to see his pet projects through. In this, he has quite a lot in common with former US President George W Bush who was also not thwarted from his essential purposes by mere criticism.

Besides, even if we cast Dr. Singh into the Faustian mould of having struck his particular bargain, to share power with the Congress party head, we can’t fail to note his emphasis on the satisfactory performance of the GDP growth under his helmsmanship. And based on this success alone, Dr. Singh seeks to minimise the impact of all the corruption on his watch.

Besides Faustian pacts aside, a sharing of prime ministerial power is hardly unprecedented. Our first PM Jawaharlal Nehru had to do so with both the Mahatma and Home Minister Patel, while they lived. More recently, the charismatic Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee shared his primus inter pares powers with his friend and comrade in arms, Mr. LK Advani. Besides, it has taken Dr. Singh off the hook on matters connected with the electoral success of the Congress Party.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the binary of power, all does not seem well. Electorally there have been hardly any state assembly or by-poll successes. Equally, we can’t help but note the shambles in the poverty alleviation and rural employment programmes for the aam aadmi.

Dr. Singh could therefore be consciously benefitting from the weaknesses in his own Party. He also seems determined to reach out to the Opposition to rescue the Budget session from the fate that befell the Winter Session, even if it means finding a way through to appearing before the much demanded JPC. And, in this, he is likely to be met more than half way by the Opposition.

Dr. Singh, the politician, is also adept at breaking logjams. He did it in UPA 1 to get the Left off his back by deftly utilising Mr. Mulayam Singh’s numbers in the Lok Sabha. The Left has been floundering both politically and electorally ever since.

To assess Dr. Singh as politically naïve or weak may be a classic misjudgement. He knows how to play the hand he has been dealt adroitly. He also knows age and health dictates that this is his last dance in active politics. And while minding the store and sweeping out the Augean stables of domestic politics interests him, it is not by any means his passion. The economy qualifies in this regard, as does foreign policy.

Dr. Manmohan Singh will see to it that that India tilts decisively towards the United States by way of our defence purchases before he leaves high office. This will reduce the strategic disadvantage we have always found ourselves in with regard to neighbouring bugbears China and Pakistan.

Both these countries are occasionally strident in their relationship with the US but know which side their bread is buttered. They have consequently benefitted enormously from being perceived as allies.

By way of contrast, India has long been in the Soviet camp while pretending to be non-aligned. The Russians today may also be selling us military equipment on more or less favourable terms, though the Admiral Gorshkov affair and the faulty Sukhois sent to India lately seems to give the lie to this.

An economically pressured America and Europe now won’t be that far behind in pricing and technology transfers too. To hark back to the nuclear fuel stoppages after our covert nuclear weaponisation as American/ Canadian/ European unreliability ignores the Civil Nuclear Deal which couldn’t have come off without their concerted support. Besides, Russia stopped supplying us the cryogenic engines too.

Fact is, we have to trust in our own usefulness, not so much in the old way of the world divided into blocks, but the emerging new world order of functioning democracies and/or economic clout. China, in the contest of the permanent UNSC seat for India, is beginning to see India in these terms, despite itself. After all, in a changed world, the future may need India and China to jointly pick up the pieces that used to be Pakistan.

(1,063 words)

20th February 2011
Gautam Mukherjee

Published as Leader Edit on Edit Page of The Pioneer as "Macavity of our times" on Saturday 26th February 2011. Also online at www.dailypioneer.com where it is archived under Guest Columnists. Also published in The facsimilie edition on 26th February 2011 of The Pioneer ePaper.