Parallax View: The government has lost its capacity for rational thinking

No matter which side you were on during Baba Ramdev’s Ramlila Maidan agitation – on Ramdev’s side,

on the side of Manmohan Singh, or simply undecided – I don’t think you can deny that the way in which the episode ended was a substantial and considerable reverse for the government.

Seldom has this government seemed so short-sighted, hypocritical, panicky or vengeful. The episode tells us several things about the current health of this government.

 

   First of all, this is a government headed by many decent people. I don’t think anyone can argue that Manmohan Singh, P. Chidambaram, Pranab Mukherjee or Kapil Sibal are corrupt. But they are also people for whom the battle against corruption is not a priority. So, the middle-class agitations on the issue have taken them by surprise. Because the government has no long-term plan to fight corruption, it has to make up its responses as it goes along. When the likes of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev demand changes in the law or in public policy, the government scrambles to find answers. It has no well-thought-out position that it can offer as an alternative.

 

   Secondly, this is a government that is so panicky that it has lost confidence in its moral authority. Ramdev may have been entitled to a response when he put forward his demands. But there was no justification for bending over backwards to pacify him. The sight of four ministers rushing to the airport to receive him as though he was some visiting head of state suggested that the government had lost its nerve.

 

   These were not the actions of a government that seemed in control. These were actions that gave off the stench of panic.

 

   Thirdly, this is a government that believes that public agitations are best resolved through private deals. You can say what you like about the deal that Ramdev first struck with the government – about a token, time-bound fast – and then reneged on. You can deny, as Ramdev does, that it shows the yoga guru in a very poor light.

 

   But what you can’t deny is this: it shows up the government as a coterie of deal-makers and secret negotiators. The man was launching a public agitation with political undertones. He should have been given a public response at the political level. Instead, the government chose to function through secret deals in incense-filled rooms.

 

   Fourthly, the government has forgotten how to operate at the political level or how to gauge the public mood. There is no denying that there is massive anger over corruption. But it does not follow that all of those who are angry have taken leave of their senses and will blindly follow anyone who raises the corruption issue.

 

   By the time that Ramdev started his fast, there was already considerable public disquiet over the nature of his demands. Nobody was sure whether it was a good idea to demonetise Rs 500 notes. Nobody believed that raising the support price for grain procurement – one of Ramdev’s demands – was an integral part of the battle against corruption. The rest of his agenda was plain bonkers: replace English with Hindi as the medium of instruction in medical colleges; homosexuals are an abomination in the eyes of God, etc.

 

   There was also the political agenda. It is no secret that Ramdev itches to join politics. Over a year ago, he announced the launch of a political party of his own, only to abandon his plans a little later. His links with factions of the Sangh Parivar are no secret. He has appeared on quasi-political platforms with Sangh Parivar figures. His agenda often echoes the Sangh’s. And on the first day of his fast, he allowed Sadhvi Rithambara – whose brand of communal poison makes the rest of the RSS seem like Mani Shankar Aiyar in comparison – to share the dais with him.

 

   By the time the letter written by Ramdev’s ‘partner’ to the government, outlining the terms of their secret deal, was made public, the Baba’s allure was already beginning to fade. Journalists asked him tough questions about the deal and Ramdev was not his usual confident self while providing answers.

 

"Faced with a fiasco of this magnitude, a sensible government would have tried to come up with plausible explanations. Instead, it has fallen back on abuse."

   A sensible and mature government would have put its faith in the intelligence and essential fairness of the Indian people. It would have waited for Ramdev to expose himself.

 

   But this government is neither mature nor sensible.

 

   Fifth, even assuming that Ramdev had gone back on a secret deal, there was no provocation or justification for the late-night crackdown. The government says that there would have been no need for a police crackdown if Ramdev had gone quietly with the cops. But was this ever likely? Did anyone seriously believe that a man who was publicly fasting in front of 50,000 supporters would simply jump up and tell the crowd, “Okay guys, now I am off with my friends in the police so you can all make your own arrangements.”?

 

   Any fool could have predicted that a confrontation would ensue and my guess is that the government realised that it had a battle on its hands; why else would 5,000 cops have been assigned to this operation?

 

   Even if Ramdev had to be arrested/externed because the government regarded him as a charlatan who had welshed on a secret deal, what of the people who had gathered at Ramlila Maidan? Assume for a moment that there had been no lathi charge and no stampede. Even then, what are 50,000 people, many of them women and old men, expected to do at 1 am? A large proportion of the crowd consisted of out of towners. Were they expected to walk to New Delhi railway station and to huddle on the platforms till they found trains that would take them home? The short answer is: the government did not give a damn about these people.

 

   It reacted as all panicky governments do when events are slipping out of control: with anger, with violence, and with all the force at its command.

 

   Sixth, faced with a fiasco of this magnitude, a sensible government would have tried to come up with plausible explanations. Instead, it has fallen back on abuse. Ramdev is a thug. Ramdev is a cheat. Ramdev is an RSS man. Ramdev’s companies are guilty of economic offences. And so on.

 

   All of this begs the obvious question: at what stage did Ramdev become a thug and a cheat? Three days before you externed him and beat up his followers, you were treating him like a visiting dignitary and issuing officials responses to each of his demands no matter how unreasonable and idiotic those demands were. So when did Ramdev make the transition from spiritual leader and national statesman to thug and cheat?

 

   I hold no brief for Ramdev. I cannot agree with most of his more outlandish demands. But as far as I am concerned, Ramdev is not the issue. The government is.

 

   And the events of the last week suggest that we are being ruled by a government that has lost its confidence, its nerve and even, its capacity for rational thinking.