NEW DELHI, 30 August 2004 — An aggressive opposition, demanding allies and uneasy power equations with the Congress party marked the initial 100 days of the Congress-led coalition at the center that has had anything but a period of honeymoon.
In his inimitable low-key style, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has tried to grapple with multiple problems, but controversy has engulfed his government right from the day he took office.
“Tainted” ministers, drought, floods, insurgency, inflation, water disputes, hostage crisis, topped by a row over a meeting with Opposition leader — Manmohan has moved from one trouble to another during his first 100 days in office. Manmohan, a late entrant into politics, has endured 100 days of turmoil in a stoic manner but last week he did give vent to his feelings at a function when he said his government was going through “abnormal” times and was not allowed the normal trouble free gestation period.
In fact, Cabinet formation itself led to considerable acrimony and marked the beginning of what is now known as the Paswan-Lalu divide, leave alone DMK’s famous sulk. Swearing in of RJD ministers, including Lalu Prasad Yadav who got the prized Railways portfolio, gave the BJP-led opposition, which was yet to recover from a shock defeat at the hustings, an issue on a platter with which began the deadlock in Parliament.
Manmohan was anguished over the logjam due to which he could not even introduce his Council of Ministers and there was no debate on the president’s address — something unprecedented in parliamentary history. The demands for grants for the Railway Ministry, the general budget and the finance bill followed suit in the budget session.
“We are living in abnormal times, never in the history of any government, the first 100 days have been characterized by the daily turmoil that we witness in Parliament,” he said.
Ever since the swearing in of Manmohan’s Cabinet, the “tainted ministers” issue has proved to be its Achilles heel with the opposition using it as the chief weapon in its armory. Matters came to a head when arrest warrants were issued against Coal and Mines Minister Shibu Soren who caused much embarrassment to the government and was asked to resign.
Constantly, Manmohan had to be in a fire-fighting mode facing not only the opposition onslaught but even his United Progressive Alliance (UPA) allies, particularly the Left Front, on economic issues. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram bore the brunt of the Left Front ire on the issues of foreign direct investment, cutting of interest rates on employees’ provident fund and truckers’ strike. But the prime minister pulled on relentlessly.
Another front on which the UPA government faced trouble was Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s action of getting a bill passed by the state assembly abrogating all water sharing agreements with other states.
Likewise, Manipur Chief Minister O. Ibobi Singh partially repealed the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in the state, a move which apparently did not have the consent of the Centre. In his Independence Day speech, he steered clear of announcing grandiose schemes. Instead he said, “I have no promises to make but promises to keep”
