Team Manmohan flounders in 100 day test

By M H Ahssan

The first 100 days of any government are considered the honeymoon period, when the media is generally charitable about its first few faltering steps. This UPA government was more or less an extension of the previous one, but its election was greeted with an audible sigh of relief. For weeks before the elections, all kinds of permutations and combinations were being worked out and several names doing the rounds as putative prime ministers, from Sharad Pawar to Mayawati to even Ram Vilas Paswan. All of them came a cropper; the Congress surprised pundits and prophets with its victory margin.

The UPA saw this victory as a vindication of its policies, from rural schemes to the nuclear deal. The new Cabinet came in all fired up and one after another the ministers announced ambitious plans for the next 100 days. Each was batting as if it was a One-dayer or even a Twenty20 game rather than a five-year Test match; the 100-day programme became a mantra.

Well, the 100 days will be reached at the end of this month and going by what we have seen so far, after all those early rhetorical flourishes, the governmenthas mostly floundered. The general mood is hardly optimistic. Not all the problems are of the government's making of course -- no one could have predicted such a poor monsoon -- but it is worth looking at the manner in which various key ministries have dealt with issues and problems in their domain. Here goes:

External Affairs: A huge disappointment. By bringing in SM Krishna, the prime minister was making it clear that foreign policy would be run from the PMO. Krishna was an amiable enough chief minister and governor but had no experience at the Centre; was giving him such a high-profile post a good idea? His first real test came when reports of Indian students being attacked in Australia began pouring in. There was a general air of cluelessness in the ministry on how to handle this. By the time the Sharm el-Shaikh fiasco happened, it had become clear that Krishna was out of his depth and perhaps out of the loop; it was Singh's show all the way (and he has been severely pilloried for it.) Krishna's deputies, the tweeter Shashi Tharoor, darling of the social circuit and the largely invisible Preneet Kaur don't inspire much confidence either. How soon before some changes happen here?

Petroleum: Apart from the unpopular job of raising petrol prices, this is not a ministry that normally gets sucked into too many public controversies. But it got singed by the fratricidal war between the brothers Ambani when Anil Ambani openly attacked the minister Murli Deora for partisanship and the matter got debated in Parliament. Now Deora, a veteran politician but not an experienced minister, is caught in the cross-fire between two powerful business rivals. But he has also to ensure that the public sector NTPC is protected and national interest is not compromised. An unenviable position and his every decision will be watched closely.

Civil Aviation: A big mess. The national airline is facing humungous losses and the private airlines are in a downward spiral. Praful Patel has blamed everyone -- the managements, the workers, fuel hikes, the recession -- but that does not absolve him. He was one of the few to get the same ministry as he had in the last government, so it is he who must take responsibility for the crisis in the sector. When was the last time one heard of an entire industry's owners threatening to go on strike? For some unknown reason he is a favourite of the prime minister and therefore protected, but for how long?

Agriculture: Sharad Pawar is a pale shadow of his former self. At one time, he was known for his administrative acumen. No longer. A few months ago he had dreams of becoming the next prime minister, but the poor performance of his party has meant he has to now make sure the NCP's alliance with the Congress in the forthcoming Maharashtra elections does not break up. Besides this, his cricketing affairs keep him busy. Meanwhile, agriculture is in a crisis and there is a drought in parts of the country. This is going to be a challenging year.

Health: Ghulam Nabi Azad is an old warhorse at the Centre, but he appears to have been taken by surprise at the intensity of the swine flu pandemic. It looked innocent enough in the beginning and the few measures at the airport were seen as adequate. But with the death of a young girl in Pune, it has blown into a full-scale panic and Azad, instead of being seen as leading from the front, is fobbing off allegations of making some bizarre statements. The ministry failed to rise to the occasion even as it was becoming obvious that swine flu was a potential problem. Though it is dawning on everyone that the hysteria over the flu may be unwarranted, it is no thanks to the ministry or the minister.

It's not as if governance has collapsed nor it is a story of all-round incompetence. Ministers like Kapil Sibal, Salman Khursheed and Veerappa Moily have gone about their jobs in a business-like manner. But the overall impression is that of a government which is spluttering and as the leader Manmohan Singh must take some of the flack. Rarely has a government been buffeted by so many controversies in the first few months. It has been a poor start and many more problems are yet to come. Is this government, in its present avatar, capable of handling them?