Show me the Intent, Mr Prime Minister

Mr Prime Minister,
I am writing this letter because I want to give you one last chance; not for what you are, but for what you were and what you can become once again for me. You seem to be at a loss to understand the reason behind what is happening; I am hoping that if I explain this to you, you may change and do what you seemed to be the ideal person to do.

What does the ordinary citizen of this country, the voter, a person like me, really want from our leaders, from you? He wants to see in you the intent to do something good for the country and its citizens, the will to improve our lot. I had seen this intent in you and your government in the last elections; in your implementation of the NREGM, in the waiver of loans for farmers, in the way you pushed the nuclear deal. And that’s why I had voted for you. I had not read the minutes of the nuclear deal when I made the decision to support it, nor had most of those who supported it. But my support was still an informed decision. I knew the broad outline of the Deal, I had listened to many debates and discussions on it, and I believed that it would be beneficial for the country. I cast my vote for you because you showed the intent to do something which you believed would benefit the country and you were willing to even risk your entire government for achieving that purpose. Post election results, it was quite clear that my stand was also that of most of the country. I genuinely thought that you had got this message we were trying to send to you by our vote.

Two years have passed since then. And the basic principles of the public and the voters have remained the same. They are still supporting a person who is willing to stake it all for the benefit of the country. Many critics (cynics is a better word for them) say that people don’t even know what they are supporting. That may be partially true. But the public is not naïve Mr Prime Minister; they can differentiate black from white, as also from different shades of grey. The public who realized that the complex nuclear deal is beneficial for the country and voted for you realizes even better and clearer that the Jan Lokpal Bill is also something which is necessary. They need not know the nitty-gritties of the Bill, but what is clear in the minds of the people is that it is better than the government version. And this is clear to them because of your inaction Mr Prime Minister.

What you and your government, the critics (and in the previous elections, the opposition) have failed to realize is that while the people may not understand all aspects of the Bill or the Deal, what they can clearly see is the intent of the leaders. What the public really supports is the intent to honestly want to do something good for the country. They saw it in you the last time and supported you. They see it only in Anna and his supporters this time, and hence they are supporting him.

Where is the intent seen in the government to fight corruption Mr Prime Minister? You had over three months to draft a strong anti-corruption bill, but you spent it instead on fighting with the civil society and launching smear campaigns against them. If your government’s stance was that there should be a separate Judicial Accountability Bill to cover the judiciary, what stopped you from drafting the same in these three months? But you didn’t do so. While I did not support all of Baba Ramdev’s demands, the way the government dealt with him stank of arrogance and intolerance. There were supposedly 3-4 points on which your government had agreed with Baba Ramdev and which you were going to announce when his fast was supposed to end as per your ‘secret’ deal. If your government was serious about the black money issue, what stopped you from announcing and enforcing the same once you had suppressed Baba’s agitation? But you didn’t. Instead, all we saw was a vicious personalized maligning campaign against the civil society.

The public is not blind Mr Prime Minister. If you had initiated a Judicial Accountability Bill, if you had done something for bringing back black money besides investigating Baba Ramdevs accounts, if you did not have provisions in your Lokpal Bill in which the accuser is punished even more viciously than the guilty if he fails to prove his accusations, and if after doing all this you had come and stated openly that you believe that the office of the PM should be outside the purview of the Lokpal, I would have trusted you and your government’s judement (as I had the last time) and given you a chance. But you have not shown me the intent this time round, Mr Prime Minister. And so you have lost my faith and support as well. Power corrupts, they say. Well, it also blinds and deafens is what you have proven this time.

But you still have a chance Mr Prime Minister. Show me the intent. Show me the will which you had shown during the nuclear deal. Do all that you should have done three months ago. Treat the civil society and the middle class with respect. Hear our voices, our demands, our aspirations, and we may listen to you yet again. We the people have a very short memory and a very large heart. You may still win our forgiveness and our support. Otherwise, as Anna said, lao ya jao.