In defense of a few good men

The last few months have seen a continuous attack on two good men from either side of the globe- Obama in the U.S and Manmohan Singh in India. Obama has been battered by his critics and even by some of his own supporters, for his weakness and lack of leadership in dealing with the Republicans on the debt ceiling debate while on the other side of the globe Manmohan singh is similarly lambasted for his spinelessness in combating corruption among his colleagues. Yet the public in both countries continues to hold both of these leaders in high regard for their honesty and uprightness. Lost in all this cacophony is the fact that both these good men have achieved a great deal in their respective countries against tremendous odds and their failings, such as they are, should really pale in insignificance if weighed against their achievements.

In the atmosphere of Obama bashing that is all the fashion today, it is well to remember what he has achieved in the past two years: he won passage of a stimulus bill that prevented a 1930’ type depression in the U.S and a severe downturn in the world economy, passed a landmark healthcare bill that Democrats had been trying to pass for the better part of a century, signed a financial reform bill, and much needed reform of student loans. And more, he was responsible for a firm end to the Bush torture regime, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a hate crimes bill, a successful rescue of the American car industry, and resuscitation of the NLRB. We might also throw in new regulation of the credit card industry, new regulation of the tobacco industry, a national service bill, expanded stem-cell research, the most sweeping land-protection act in 15 years, and the confirmation of two Supreme Court justices, both women.

Even in the case of the much maligned accord on the debt ceiling, the obvious thing Obama could have done differently was to insist that it be included as part of the lame duck deal last year. But for all the grief he’s gotten over this, it’s worth keeping in mind that Obama got a lot out of that deal. In the end, he got a food safety bill, passage of the START treaty, a stimulus package, repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and a 9/11 first Responders bill. Maybe it would have been worth risking all that over inclusion of a debt ceiling increase, but that’s hardly an open-and-shut case.

Oh, and he killed Osama bin Laden too.

The fact is that in two years Obama has done more to enact a liberal agenda than George Bush did for the conservative agenda in eight. A conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan notes “given his inheritance, this has been the most substantive first term since Ronald Reagan's. And given Obama's long-game mentality, that is setting us up for a hell of a second one.”

Manmohan Singh on the other side of the globe has presided over the longest peacetime economic development of India.  He has been the key architect of India's reforms program. In 1991, when he became the finance minister, India was on the brink of bankruptcy. Its fiscal deficit was close to 8.5 per cent of the gross domestic product; the balance of payments deficit was huge and the current account deficit was close to 3.5 per cent of GDP. India's foreign exchange reserves were barely a billion dollars and foreign direct investment was almost non-existent. He began the restructuring process of the Indian economy and opened up the economy to competition and foreign investment. Singh, unshackled the country from the bureaucratic controls and licence-permit raj, and took the economy to a high growth path of 6-7 per cent during his first five-year stint at North Block. Nearly 10 million new jobs were created, an environment of liberalization was set in motion and the foundation of an information technology and telecom revolution was laid. And not only that, he was instrumental in educating his countrymen about the desirability of pursuing economic progress in an open-economy framework. This is no mean achievement, if one realizes that economic nationalism has been the most influential political religion in India. Despite the rapid economic growth of the last few years under his prime ministership since 2004, these are the best of times and worst of times for India. The economy is growing at a steady clip, and aspirations of people continue to soar. A growth rate of 8.5% is virtually guaranteed for the India, making it one of fastest-growing large economies.


But in recent days corruption scandals, high inflation, the breakdown of bipartisanship, a stalled parliament and a worrying drift in governance threaten to sully the narrative. His assiduously cultivated image of impeccable honesty and integrity has been sullied in recent weeks by three scandals: first, the cash-for-votes scandal that saved his government and the nuclear deal in July 2008 has come back to haunt him# Then, his own cabinet colleagues and burecraucrats, have spoken of how much the PM (and others in the cabinet) knew about the Rs 173,000 crore scam in the allocation of 2G spectrum ; and now the Commonwealth Games scam has thudded even more dangerously into Manmohan Singh’s court, showing how the PMO looked the other way while corruption ran rampant around him.

So both of them are now embattled in their own countries with their countrymen wanting new leadership and new initiatives.

Paradoxically the way forward for both of them is the same – they need to go back to their roots and find in them the kind of bold initiatives that brought them to power in the first place.

In the case of Obama, he could tackle the joblessness problem by organizing a National Reconstruction Project by mobilizing the ground roots. To finance them he could use bold ideas like issuing state bonds, guaranteed by the federal government, compel Banks to buy these bonds as was done during the WWII, and offer them also to the public and the private sector. He could use the returning veterans to manage the reconstruction effort and put to work over 1-2 million people in a short period of time.

In the case of Manmohan Singh, he could set up an Ombudsman to cover all politicians including his cabinet and proceed to prosecute the corrupt in all walks of life. And ensure that the guilty were punished in short order. It could be his last gift to the country.

In short what they need are a few bold new initiatives…