On Jairam Ramesh’s track record

This blog has a dim view of professionals in politics for reasons described elsewhere.  Jairam Ramesh, however, is different.

For one, he has truly stepped out of the secure confines of a professional lifestyle to pay his political dues by spending years in the back rooms of the Congress.  The winning campaign of 2004 with its popular slogan, “Congress ka haath, aam aadmi ke saath,” is widely attributed to him.  So if he has an opinion and chooses to state it, Ramesh deserves more leeway than Shashi Tharoor.  While his remarks in China presented a uncoordinated image of India, they did not warrant Ramesh’s resignation.

Further, Ramesh has been a gust of fresh air to the country’s Environment Ministry.  Used to being either a doormat or a rubber stamp since its inception, the ministry’s environmental agenda has had to be pursued by the country’s civil society.  This has led to the proliferation of remarkable leaders including Medha Patkar, the late Anil Agarwal, Sunita Narain, Sandeep Pandey, and Sunderlal Bahuguna among others.

Ramesh, however, is the first Environment Minister to have a distinct perspective, commitment to due process, and the strength of political conviction to do the right thing.  One knows this is true when India’s civil society stands up for a minister as Sandeep Pandey does in this article.  Excerpts follow:

Jairam Ramesh has given teeth to the environment ministry as T N Seshan [ Images ] had done to the Election Commission. Nobody used to take the environment ministry seriously earlier. Projects used to go on without environmental clearances or conditional clearances which were never honoured. It was believed by the development enthusiasts, especially promoters of big projects which had an environment cost, that this ministry was essentially an obstacle which was not insurmountable.

…

He stunned even his own Cabinet and party colleagues by deciding to go around the country to conduct public consultations on the issue of the introduction of bt-brinjal in India. In a country where decisions are normally taken behind closed doors; even after an RTI Act is in place most departments and ministries would prefer not to disclose their decision making process.

…

He is truly India’s first independent thinking environment minister and it is also probably for the first time that an environmentalist has become a minister. He is taking positions which are normally taken by activists and their organisations. But he is not somebody who can be merely dismissed as one moved by passion alone.

Tharoor’s travails

Shashi Tharoor must quit or be fired.  That is the price for his lack of (and refusal to learn) political sensibility.  Beginning with a series of minor but irritating indiscretions that did not amount to anything more than speaking insensitively or out of turn, Tharoor has now landed himself in serious trouble.  (As an aside, for the 30 odd years spent at that temple of global diplomacy called the U.N., Tharoor demonstrates little skill at being diplomatic or understanding new cultures as reflected in his insensitive “cattle class” tweet.  The rumors of the U.N. being a moribund institution populated by ineffective, narcissistic wonks are perhaps not exaggerated.)

He is accused of supporting the Kochi IPL Cricket franchise because of the potential to profit, albeit by proxy.  Besides financial impropriety, the issue is marred by personal slander.  This controversy is a distraction at a time when there are larger political issues and Tharoor is no albatross the government need carry.

Of course, this blog is no fan of Tharoor.  We were lukewarm to Tharoor’s foray into politics because we do not share the popular but misplaced perspective of India’s middle class that professionals and the educated must be accommodated in politics.  The underlying assumption is that professionals’ educated mindset equips them better to serve India’s interests while their experience results in skills transferable to administration.  Humbug.

Our view is that electoral support at the grassroots must be the sole arbiter of political influence.  Political experience at the grassroots provides leaders with:

-         a true understanding of the issues that matter,

-         an ability to implement ideas and policies,

-         the maturity to cooperate with different stakeholders, and

-         the strength to assume and stand strong on positions.

While professionals will likely have a richer understanding of issues and policy alternatives, they are often ineffective because of the inability to push initiatives.  These weaknesses are accentuated by continual insecurity and the resultant hesitation in speaking truth to their political masters.

The history of Indian politics is replete with failed professionals-turned-politicians.  The firebrand journalist Arun Shourie spent his days as a minister conducting studies on how long files take to navigate the government bureaucracy.  Mani Shankar Aiyar overstepped his brief as interim petroleum minister to be relegated to an inconsequential berth.  Manmohan Singh has been an honorable exception but he has been uncompromising with ideas (e.g., economic reforms in the 1990s and the nuclear deal this decade), ethics, and integrity.

Finally, in the year that Tharoor has spent in power, he has been in news for his many indirections rather than for having been an effective foreign minister.  Of all worker classes, it is professionals who ought to know that performance appraisals are conducted annually, contributions matter over visibility, and that there are consequences for falling short.  Unless, of course, one spends their life at an organization such as the U.N. with a sense of self-entitlement gained only at St. Stephens.