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The Rediff Special/ Virendra Kapoor

A mixed year of Vajpayee government: fine initiatives marred by allies

The Vajpayee government has completed one year in office. That, like it or not, is an achievement by itself. For, a year ago hardly anyone, barring the most optimistic of its supporters, gave it even a year.

The teething problems attendant upon its birth got further aggravated during the course of the year. Gentleman Vajpayee was unequal to the cold blooded ruthlessness of some of the allies without whose support he could not prove his majority in the Lok Sabha.

The BJP was by far the largest party in the ruling combine, but once in its questionable wisdom it had decided to try and form a government it was on the mercy of small groups of even twos and threes to reach the magic figure in 272 in the House. J Jayalalitha's tantrums, Mamta Banerjee's antics and the Samata Party's existentialist divisions had added to the prime minister's woes.

Compounding further the problem of governance was the lack of experience of most of its ministers who made gratuitous mistakes and consequently caused the government great embarrassment.

But the government has survived. And lives on to do some real good to the country. But unknown to most people, the government's feat is all the greater given the concerted all-round assault it has been subjected to from the word go by the media.

For the first time since Independence, the Press does not have to look over its shoulder for the hidden hand of government while it excoriates it for its ills of omission and commission, real or imaginary. For so long as the Congress was in power, the media had by and large played a docile role. The big papers did not dare criticise the government for fear of the latter turning on the screws on their proprietors for their multifarious transgressions of law. The smaller papers were either too small to make a difference, or else, too keen to be in the government's good books. But not anymore.

With the advent of coalition government, the fear of officialdom has lessened to a great extent. The media is far more powerful now than at anytime since Independence. The welcome result is that it now subjects all governmental actions to merciless scrutiny. Quite aside from the print media, the Vajpayee government has had to reckon with the hostility of various satellite television news channels.

No other government before Vajpayee's had to contend with the incessant onslaught of the 24-hour Star News Channel. Its chief anchor and co-owner of the company producing news-related software, Prannoy Roy, makes no bones of his visceral hostility to the present government. And it shows in every news telecast on Rupert Murdoch-owned media behemoth which is out to colonise our airwaves by suborning the loyalty of a handful of upwardly mobile Indians.

The other 24-hour television news channels are no friends of the government, either. Not being able to pander to their excessive demands, the prime minister has learnt to live with their hostility.

The fact that the Vajpayee government has survived the constant pinpricks of its allies and the merciless scrutiny by the media, particularly by the television news channels, is no mean feat by itself. But that it has survived without causing any financial scandal is the most remarkable feature of its year in office. Its clean image sets it apart from all the previous administrations.

The Congress leadership is worried by the three Bs -- Bus, Bihar and the Budget: Virendra Kapoor, continued

The Rediff Specials

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