NEW DELHI: There is intense inactivity in the Union Government as the date for elections to the Lok Sabha get closer, with policymaking at a standstill and implementation in near paralyses ‘Unfounded rumors last week of the resignation of Prime Minister P. Narasimha Rao in the wake of the latest Supreme Court’s order on the hawala scandal inquiry bestirred the bureaucratic behemoth briefly and served to underline the inertia that has gripped the Government since the last winter session of Parliament.
In the day’s preceding any general election, the Central Government ends to become a “lame duck” Government ‘as new policy decisions are put off till anew Ministry is in place. Only routine matters are generally attended to.
With the incumbent Congress Government, however, the drift in affairs of the State seems to have set in early, helped along by the characteristic indecisiveness” of the present Prime Minister.
Visits 10 various offices indicate that a palpable state of inertia started to set in Government just after the hawala case took a momentous turn on January 16, when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) informed the Supreme Court that was charge sheeting’s even prominent political leaders, and that it intended to prosecute three Cabinet Ministers.
And when allegations of the Prime Minister’s involvement in the hawala scam surfaced, then i looked as if it were time for most of the bureaucracy to sit back and relax in anticipation of the Lok Sabha polls, which by most indications are likely to take place in mid-April.
There is virtually no work being done by the Government, other than that of some vital Ministries.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 7, 1996
