Sunday, December 11, 2011

NATION IN CRISIS: OPEN LETTER TO SHRI PRANAB MUKHERJEE

B.RAMAN

Dear Shri Mukherjee,

The nation is in a very serious crisis the like of which we had not seen before since we became independent in 1947.


2.As someone who had served in the Government of India for 27 years under Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh,Indira Gandhi again, Rajiv Gandhi, V.P.Singh, Chandra Sekhar and Narasimha Rao, I feel concerned over the depressing state of affairs marked by perceptions of uncontrolled corruption, policy mismanagement, inept governance and a total lack of political and administrative acumen at all levels of the political leadership and the bureaucracy.


3. My depression is rendered even more acute by the intellectual sclerosis that seems to prevail in Governmental and political circles in New Delhi marked by utter insensitivity to people’s anger and incomprehension of the implications of the dangerous drift leading the nation towards a precipice with no return.


4. The youth of the nation is totally alienated. There is no inspiring, wise leadership that can give them cause for hope for the future.


5.A nation without hope is a nation without a future. Nothing illustrates more dramatically and more shockingly the total lack of leadership and wisdom than the manner in which the political leadership has dealt with the anticorruption agitation of Anna Hazare, which has wide support among the youth of the country.


6. Instead of understanding and appreciating the depth of public anger reflected in the Anna movement and taking action to mitigate the anger, the political leadership has been playing games with it, making solemn commitments to persuade Anna to break his fast in August and then ignoring those commitments.


7. One embarrassment after another---the 2 G scam, the Commonwealth Games Scam, the mishandling of the appointment of the Central Vigilance Commissioner, the failure to do the political homework before taking the important decision on allowing foreign direct investment in the retail sector etc--- has not only severely damaged the credibility of the Government, but has also earned for it the contempt of large sections of the people.


8. The shocking nonchalance of the Congress leadership in the face of the spreading confusion reminds one of the Bourbon Kings of France before the 1789 Revolution---having had nothing to learn and nothing to forget.


9. This is the time for robust and wise leadership activism. Instead we find a semi-comatose leadership in the party and the Government. The Prime Minister and the Congress leader Mrs.Sonia Gandhi--- instead of acting to dissipate the darkness engulfing the country--- have chosen to live inside a well where others can't see and hear them and they can't see and hear others.


10. There is a total drought of communications between the leadership and the people. Instead of interacting transparently and vigorously with the people, the media, Team Anna and the youth supporting them, Dr.Manmohan Singh and Mrs.Sonia Gandhi have withdrawn into a shell looking over their shoulders suspiciously at each other worrying what the other is up to.


11. Jawaharlal Nehru often used to speak of administering a shock treatment to a nation in crisis. The time for such a shock treatment has come. Only you can---- with your vast political wisdom, courage and experience--- encourage such a shock treatment in the form of a national coalition to deal with the immediate crisis before things get out of hand and pave the way for fresh, premature elections.


12. The citizens of this country with no axe to grind look up to you to lead.


With warm regards,

Yours sincerely,
B.Raman, Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi.

12 comments:

Iti Neti said...

If the imminent balance of payment crisis for country is true, this bodes very ill. We will be back (or even behind) where we started in 1991. In the meantime, country is up for grab by almost anybody powerful enough. Juts for the votes (and indeed effective as they won last election) government started MNREGA, in effect creating large hole in our budget and at the same time making poors perpetually dependent on government largessee. Also, outside our capability so much expense is being done in the name of security, against china, against terrorist..we simply are in no position to afford so much of this. Greece was a right example, now we will be making ourselves a laughing stock for the whole world.

Iti Neti said...

Lesson from past few years, which countries emerged most powerful n past few years - China and Germany. What is common between between these two...economy, the produce and export more than what they consume. Rest everything follows money. What has out country gone to..we are consuming nation, our largest source of income - service (IT, call centers etc) and remittance by outside Indians. What we are making ourselves, a servant country heavily dependent on outside masters in US, Europe and Middle East.

Iti Neti said...

Frankly speaking I don't have high opinion about Pranab Mukherjee. He is experienced yes, but since Indira Gandhi time, he is considered in the good books of Ambanis. Recent propaganda about him being the best in cabinet is propagated by the paid media. Shrewd as he is, he won the power game against Chidambaram. He can't do anything to solve the problem. In all likelihood, he will blame RBI for the crisis. RBI in fact are the sole warrior to try manage the situation, whereas Government fiscal policies are entirely to blame. The blame game, Govt, Hajare, Opposition etc etc will make the situation worse. We need some unity, some leadership. I am really very very pessimistic today. God save my country.

ambi said...

I think congress should thank team anna. There is just so much anger; he is channelising it in non violent and positive way.

Vivian Richards said...

The UPA was the most incompetent choice to run India. Yet people such as Raman chose to endorse the UPA over the NDA. I do not like the NDA either. I think they are not hindutva enough for me. But they would certainly have run the country better than the witch sonia gandhi.

This episode only proves we cannot trust our nation to the likes of Shri Raman anymore. All I see in his posts are hypocrisy and secular double standards.

Vivian Richards said...

The best thing to happen from the fall to grace of the UPA has been the emergence of Dr Subramaniam Swamy. He has proved himself to be the true son of India and true nationalist.

I do not really care for the delhi BJP leadership. But having swamy lead an alliance with BJP without the delhi morons would be the best thing for India.

Hopefully by that time paid media and seculars such as Raman will have been fully discredited and totally irrelevant to ever cause the UPA to spring back to power again.

We just cannot afford another UPA term.

Ramesh Bashyam said...

Its Subramaniam Swamy and the Indian population against the system, politicians, bureaucracy and the media. People power will win

Itsdifferent said...

Dear Mr Raman
Another inaction thats been a national shame, the navy/armed forces' inaction with the Sri Lankan navy's skirmishes on our fishermen.
I would appreciate your inputs on this issue.
Thank you.

Unknown said...

For all the people who are heaping abuse over UPA and Gandhi dynasty, I have a prediction for you. I hate them myself, but the sad truth is that the next national government will be non-UPA (for sure), but extremely shaky from the start. Why? Because no other party has a larger pan-India presence than UPA. BJP is just not strong enough to form a stable NDA government. All you guys who dream of Narendra Modi or S. Swamy becoming PM, forget it! These guys do not stand a chance. If they were declared the PM candidate by BJP, no other party would be willing to form a coalition with them. NDA will disintegrate even before the elections. Also, great-grandfather Advaniji is still hoping for one more shot at the PM's chair (at age 92!). This will cause the next 5 years to be full of horse-trading and vote-of-confidences. Finally the government will fall and the people fed up with instablity will vote Rahul Gandhi to the PM post (perhaps with a larger majority than now!!)

Yeh hai India meri Jaan, Gandhi parivar ka khel ka maidan!! :)

shyam lal said...

"good one" Mr .Raman.......

kl said...

Noboby in this country is despeate that the UPA should continue in power with all its misdeeds & blunders. Mandate given by the people is not to fleece the nation and gag the dissent using all the state machinery. CWG, 2G, Adarsh etc may be mere embarassmets to Govt in the eyes of Mr Raman, but for common man it is the criminal loot of the nation which is a very serious matter. Pranab Mukerji may be a better politician compared to others in congress, but he cant simply wash his hands off the dirt of the ruling congress. Mr Subramanian swamy in his website makes serious allegations on Pranab regarding the Blacky Money. No one seems to be clean in Indian politics. Good that people have woken up and its time Mr Raman also wakes up and gets real.

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