'...and that is good and honest governance and rule of law. There should be visible evidence that the government is determined to deal summary justice to the corrupt and the venal, rid legislatures and cabinets of persons involved in crimes, and inculcate sensitivity, empathy, responsiveness, commitment to values, dedication to the public weal and, most of all, humility in public servants from top to bottom.'
To command credibility on the external front, it must get its act together on the domestic front, in terms of both honest and effective governance and tolerant and mutually accommodating political culture.
'We, the People,' the acknowledged sovereign masters in democracy, can only hope that your own vigilance and the idealism and acute sense of right and wrong of the young blood you have inducted into the ministry, as also of the 226 newly elected MPs who are below 50, will help nip in the bud any acts of malfeasance and misuse of power.
In the interests of public accountability and transparency, as also to avoid any future controversy, Narayanan and Menon should, with the permission of the government, come out with what actually transpired during their elaborately set-up discussions on the eve of election with Holbrooke and Admiral Mullen.
It is incumbent on mature and dispassionate analysts not to look at the CEC's report through political or ideological spectacles and import into it hidden purposes and meanings, says B S Raghavan
Being a historic first and endowed with qualities making for inspirational leadership also raises expectations to fever pitch. The nation would demand from Obama far more than they would from others, and within a much shorter time.
Nothing is lost, as far India is concerned. It has braved oil shocks, Asian meltdown, jihadi depredations, insurgencies, insurrections, the works. When they struck, they looked like the end of the world. Can anyone bear to recall with equanimity the baptism in blood of independent India at the time of its birth, the massacre of the millions and the influx of refugees and their settlements all over North India and in West Bengal?
The so-called fiscal stimulus with which the government spokespersons have gone to town is actually a crazy quilt of disparate offerings devoid of any evidence of their having been woven together with any larger design or purpose.
The election of Obama as President is bound to be a matter of rejoicing for the downtrodden sections of society everywhere in the world. Most of all, the immediate effect will naturally be on the black population of the US itself. There will be a surge in their self-esteem and sense of integration with the mainstream and this will be all to the good, says B S Raghavan
The Centre could have set all speculation at rest if, with all the mighty and extensive intelligence and investigative machinery at its disposal, it had ascertained the truth behind the murders of the Swami and his associates and unhesitatingly named the desperadoes. Its own inability, or unwillingness, to expose the forces that were behind the killing should be taken to have contributed to the flare-up that followed in Khandamal
None of the serious issues concerning the two countries seem to have been touched upon, leave alone covered in depth, as is evident from the fact that both sides did not find it worthwhile to issue a joint statement. To all appearances, the visit has turned out to be a damp squib.
The US State Department's reply to Chairman Tom Lantos covered by the Washington Post is not a revelation, but only a repetition of what was plain as noon-day sun for anyone with a modicum of political savvy. In that sense, again, US Ambassador to India David Mulford is spot on when he says that all that the letter says had already been conveyed in an open and transparent manner to New Delhi and was already known to those whose business it was to keep track of developments
The impression is that few public functionaries paid out of taxpayers' money feel answerable to anyone, least of all to the public.
In short, if India Inc lives up to the expectations in the required measure of resilience, innovation, initiative, imagination and leadership, it can help harmonise the imperatives of growth with control of inflation.
The unrest could have easily been avoided if only both the state and central governments at the highest levels had had the leadership, imagination and sensitivity to gauge the delicate nature of the crisis at hand and taken effective measures to address it.
It would have indeed been tactically a vastly superior move on the part of the government to have made the Left to move a motion of no-confidence. Apart from tactics, it would have been proper too.
The Left too, assuming it finds it possible to lay aside its fundamental objections (subservience to the US, infringement of India's sovereignty) to the main nuclear deal, would find little in the contents of the agreement to which it can take serious exception.
The Left under the stewardship of the impulsive and inexperienced Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechuri and the like has overplayed its hand and needlessly thrown the nation into turmoil, besides finding itself outmaneuvered.
Raising the prices of petrol and diesel notionally is neither here nor there, and only puts off the evil day. Tentative tinkering will only mean the double jeopardy of the crisis continuing unabated and stoking the fires of inflation.
If the government does not shake itself out of its stupor, and deploy and use all the resources under its command now, those forces inimical to the nation will see to it that it does not get a second chance. In the war on new terrorism, there is no mercy for ditherers.
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