Closed, Sealed, Confidential letter to the PM

Manmohan Singh on board the Air India One Flight

Sir,

You must be tired of Open Letters, especially when you receive so many of them these days. Anybody and everybody in media, be it the all powerful Editors-in-Chief of Print or Electronic media or the once powerful-now humbled Editors or the emerging creed called Bloggers, seems to think that it is his fundamental right to write an open letter to you, ask 6,8, 10 or other varying number of questions to you. But I want to catch your attention; hence this closed, sealed, confidential letter. As has been your practice, you can “acknowledge” this letter. As has become the fashion these days, I can leak this letter and your “acknowledgment.” Aap be kush; main be kush.

You complained in your Air India One flight yesterday that the opposition was prematurely restless and wanted to force an early election. You made your point, at the right time so that the electronic media could dwell on it rather than the Chidu- Pranab conundrum during prime time debates. Clever!

Now that your interview is over, you can put on your seat belt, sit back, relax and ponder over a few things.

Faced with a deluge of scams, I know you would not like to ponder over them; you will again be tired. Don’t worry. I want you to look at the positives you have brought in corruption management. It will be music to your ears. When one senior minister ‘allegedly’ bugs the office of another so that he can proactively prevent the latter from indulging in anything murky, the latter pays back with impunity; he authorizes a ‘low level’ Deputy Director in his ministry to release a note accusing his predecessor of inaction, that too when he is in a foreign country. When there are such internal checks and balances, does the country really need a Lokpal? Opposition is really restless!

Since Gujarat Government cannot boast of these checks and balances, it needs a Lokayukta. Pugnacious Narendra Modi does not understand this and hold a Maha Rally. Obviously he had to be ignored while appointing the Lokayukta. And this is not done without a precedent. When Sushma Swaraj did not concur with the other two members of the committee, was she not ignored in the appointment of CVC? It is another matter that the Supreme Court later set asidehis appointment.

Supreme Court was also flexing its muscles a few months back. After the resignation of the Solicitor General and the shifting of the then Law Minister, you seem to have managed the problem for the time being. Also the threat that you have incorporated in the Judicial Accountability Bill viz. ‘no unwarranted comments during hearing’ seems to have had the desired effect in silencing the Supreme Court. However let’s not prematurely conclude on this, like the opposition. Let’s see what the Court has to say on the need to investigate Chidambaram’s role.

Let’s turn to Governance. They say that a good government is one where people do not ‘feel’ the government. UPA 2’s performance is unparalleled in this regard. Telengana agitation has been continuing for days. Has anyone ever felt that there is a government which will solve the problem? Terrorists have been bombing Mumbai and Delhi. Your Home Minister told the people that security is their business! Has he not successfully moved governance to people?

The independence you have given to your council of ministers has not been appreciated either by the opposition or by the media. Dayanidhi Maran, and later on Raja could decide on spectrum pricing, independent of the GOM. Murli Deora could gift 25% of the Total Contract Area in KG Basin to a private company. Chidambaram could promise a separate Telengana and shamelessly could go back on the promise. Jairam Ramesh or Jayanti Natarajan could hold economic development to ransom in the name of environment protection. Mamata Banerjee when she was the Railways Minister could make Indian Railways the West Bengal Railways. If the opposition equates this empowerment with abdication of responsibility, it is of course its myopic view.

Media says growth is slowing down- from the expected 9% to 7.7%. But why don’t they see that inflation is going up. If something is going down, is it not compensated by something else going up?

Arun Jaitley says that your government will not last the full term. How dare he... 


"We are commencing our descent." That's the pilot. Please do not mistake him; he is talking about the flight. Please sit straight and get ready for the descent.

Yours Sincerely,

Aaam Aadmi