It happens only in India. Sushil Kumar Shine, a power minister responsible for the world’s worst grid failure is promoted as home minister the very day the grid collapses. He comes on television networks to brazenly justify the blackout and resultant chaos for two successive days as having happened ‘even in the US’ as if somehow that should make all of us feel happier, and more settled. Then to top it, he gives himself an ‘excellent’ rating as power minister, saying he electrified over a lakh villages during his term. Then just as we were thinking this was more than we could handle, he goes on to take charge of the Union home ministry bowing and scraping before Congress president Sonia Gandhi for making a ‘Dalit’ the home minister!

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India is certainly growing, from the collapse of one grid affecting nine states we moved within 24 hours to three grids and 23 states. At the end of it there was not a word of apology from anyone in the UPA government, no emergency meetings by prime minister Manmohan Singh, who should have immediately swung into action, with the Congress party and government focusing on making Shinde home minister and moving P Chidambaram to the finance ministry despite the corruption charges against him. One is no expert to say why the grid collapsed but experts are almost certain that the overdrawing of electricity is just a small part of the problem. And the rest has to do with an archaic grid control technology that has not been revisited for years. Despite promises, little has been done to increase power production and transmission capacities. Everyone knows that demand has overtaken supply but the question is: why has the government and Shinde not taken steps to increase power supply? Poor infrastructure, bad maintenance, all indicators of apathy and indifference are clearly some of the major reasons behind the grid failure.

The embarrassment that could be expected after the grid failure hit global headlines was also missing in this government that has adopted the unflinching policy of never admitting fault, and shrugging all issues and problems aside. It is as if it never happened, and clearly given the line of argument established by Shinde that this happened in the US as well, not much can be expected from the government in terms of serious remedial action. The deaths in Assam and the fact that lakhs have fled their homes in the terrible violence between Bodo tribals and the Muslims has also not elicited an adequate response from the government that seems not to be particularly concerned about the northeast and such border states anyway. The Pune blasts have hit Shinde on his first day in office and he has convened a high level meeting to assess the security situation in India. Just as Chidambaram had been doing before him.

The UPA Cabinet is a bit of a joke really. Many ministers are Rajya Sbaha MPs with little or no contact with the people. The pressure of the constituency that is important, indeed imperative, for accountability is not felt by these ministers who live in the comfort zone of Lutyens Delhi where there is never a shortage of power or water, the roads are nice and wide, and the security convoys ensure them free passage through the normally traffic-locked capital. Many of them are holding charge of more than one ministry, and in the process doing justice to neither.

It does seem that the Congress has shrunk dramatically in the past few years. The dearth of talent is visible in the quality of this government. And the dearth of men and women to occupy ministerial posts is visible in the reluctance of the Congress president to expand her tiny group into a more representative Council of Ministers. Maybe, as some say, it is a lack of trust and confidence in the Congress leaders outside the current group of ministers, but the decision makers have shrunk into a virtual coterie. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh does not travel in India if he can help it. He likes going abroad and would like to sign off with a visit to Pakistan that has been on hold for eight years now. Visits to the little towns and districts, or to states facing huge problems like Assam, are not for him. Sonia Gandhi has also given up travelling within India, with a visit to Rae Bareilly being touted as a major adventure by her party managers. She travels abroad but mostly for personal reasons that are kept a closely guarded secret. Travel, as every politician knows, is important as it keeps the connect between government and the people, establishes direct contact, educates the leader about the masses, and brings to governance a certain humility and sensitivity. This is essential to guard against destructive arrogance, and prevent inept ministers from giving themselves clean chits and ‘excellent’ ratings for a job not done.The writer is a senior New Delhi-based commentator