New York, Sept. 25: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has opted to brave out the 2G crisis as if it is business as usual even as the Opposition assault on the UPA government continues unabated.
Ambushed by more than three dozen Indian reporters travelling with him to New York as he came out of the UN General Assembly yesterday, Singh said he was not bothered by the Opposition campaign against his government on home minister P. Chidambaram’s alleged culpability on the 2G allocation.
“Why should I be bothered?” the Prime Minister responded when he was asked about his reaction to the political crisis.
“The business of the Opposition is to oppose or depose the government,” he said, adding: “There is nothing unusual (in what) they are doing.”
At the end of 24 hours of wild rumours and speculation, Singh confirmed that finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will meet him in New York on Sunday morning. But he sought to minimise the significance of that meeting in political terms by insisting that was also business as usual.
“There are lot of things happening in the world. There is a global economic crisis. So he would like to brief me,” the Prime Minister said of the agenda for his meeting with Mukherjee, who will arrive in New York late tonight after attending the annual meetings of the World Bank Group in Washington.
At the same time, he expressed confidence in the finance minister just as he had expressed full confidence in Chidambaram two days ago as the home minister was thrown full force into the centre of the latest twist in the 2G scam. “Of course, all my ministers, they enjoy (my) confidence in full measure.”
But beneath the brave front that Singh is putting on, there were tell-tale signs of the deep morass that is slowly but steadily engulfing the UPA government well beyond the immediate context of the 2G controversy.
As far as anyone here can remember, Singh has become the first Indian Prime Minister to visit New York for the UN General Assembly and not have any interaction with the Indian American community. It has been customary for Indian heads of government to address a huge reception in New York organised by the Indian ambassador to the US.
But it was decided this year that Singh will not have the reception. Even during the years when Prime Ministers did not attend the General Assembly, Mukherjee as external affairs minister, for instance, was feted at such a reception.
When P.V. Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister, he often made it a point to announce policy decisions affecting non-resident Indians at his New York receptions.
These receptions acquired special significance in recent years after the Indian American community acquired growing prominence in the US and worked with India to overcome Washington’s sanctions against the 1998 nuclear tests and helped conclude the Indo-US nuclear deal between 2005 and 2008.
The official line being touted here is that it has been only a few days since India’s new ambassador in Washington took office and there was not enough time to organise the reception given the requirements of security and logistics.
But other sources said there was concern that the huge support among Indian Americans for Anna Hazare might be given expression at any such reception and create ugly scenes if the Prime Minister were to address the gathering. Indian diplomats in the US had to face hostile compatriots at various venues when Hazare was fasting and in the build-up to his campaign against corruption. They had also reported home the daily demonstrations in front of the Indian embassy in Washington during the Hazare problem when petitions were given against the government.
One source said the Prime Minister was personally asked by his aides in New Delhi several times about hosting a reception once he decided to attend the General Assembly. But Singh was non-committal each time about the idea. In the end, the officials chose discretion instead of valour and decided not to have any reception.