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It's been a long year for Vajpayee

As Atal Bihari Vajpayee completes one year as prime minister, against all odds, defying all expectations, disproving all Cassandras, it's illuminating to find out just how able and stable his government -- the slogans on which the Bharatiya Janata Party went to the polls in 1997 -- has been. But before that, a quick look at just how the dictionary describes these two adjectives. This is what mine says:

A·BLE (AĆbĂl), adj., a·bler, a·blest.

-adj.
1. having necessary power, skill, resources, or qualifications; qualified: able to lift a two-hundred-pound weight; able to write music; able to travel widely; able to vote.

2. having unusual or superior intelligence, skill, etc.: an able leader.

3. showing talent, skill, or knowledge: an able speech.

4. legally empowered, qualified, or authorized.

-Syn.
1. fit, fitted. ABLE, CAPABLE, COMPETENT all mean possessing adequate power for doing something. ABLE implies power equal to effort required: able to finish in time. CAPABLE implies power to meet or fulfill ordinary requirements: a capable worker. COMPETENT suggests power to meet demands in a completely satisfactory manner: a competent nurse. 2. talented; skilled, clever, ingenious. 3. apt.

-Ant.
1. incompetent.

STA·BLE (stĆbĂl), adj., -bler, -blest.

1. not likely to fall or give way, as a structure, support, foundation, etc.; firm; steady.

2. able or likely to continue or last; firmly established; enduring or permanent: a stable government.

3. resistant to sudden change or deterioration: A stable economy is the aim of every government.

4. steadfast; not wavering or changeable, as in character or purpose; dependable.

5. not subject to emotional instability or illness; sane; mentally sound.

6. Physics. having the ability to react to a disturbing force by maintaining or reestablishing position, form, etc.

7. Chem. not readily decomposing, as a compound; resisting molecular or chemical change.

8. (of a patient's condition) exhibiting no significant change. [1225-75; ME < OF estable < L stabilis STABILE]

-Syn.
1. fixed, strong, sturdy. 4. invariable, unvarying, staunch, constant, reliable, steady, solid.

Having seen what these words actually mean, surely it cannot be the case of the prime minister's spin doctors, who are going all out organising a huge jamboree to tomtom their survival in office, that this government has lived up to its pre-election claim.

Frankly, there is no reason whatsoever for Vajpayee & Co to claim that they have given the nation a year of ability and stability. And, perhaps it could be because the prime minister himself thinks along these lines that he is inclined to give his government's birthday bash a miss.

As far as ability goes, BJP apologists could claim that this has been demonstrated by the government's decision to make the country nuclear, but this is a claim that is open to question. Both the timing of the decision, and the follow-up measures since then, show conclusively that this is a decision that was taken in haste, without the necessary groundwork having been laid, and that no one was quite prepared for the fallout.

Even on this front, if at all credit-taking is due, the BJP can only lay claim to the actual decision, a decision that previous governments either lacked the guts to take, or were dissuaded by the adverse cost-benefit ratio. The scientific wherewithal that went into the decision has been there for decades, and the BJP had nothing to do with either creating or nurturing it.

The only other decision that this government can lay full claim is to the bus diplomacy indulged in by the prime minister. And regardless of the fact that it was the prime minister acting on his own, against the grain of his party upbringing, who was responsible for this biggest peace initiative Indians have been subject to, it is also clear that in the interim, between last May and this February, there has been nothing path-breaking from this government.

P V Narasimha Rao is today universally reviled as an inefficient prime minister, but one of his major contributions was that he succeeded in bringing economy to the centrestage of the nation's agenda. And, here, for the first time, was a government that had a distinct worldview, one that had a clear chance to break free of the past's shibboleths. And yet, economic recovery seems far away, despite a slew of long-awaited decisions.

Historically, the Union Budget is the occasion for the government of the day to parade its wares, for it to outline its economic blueprint for the nation, to do some serious road-mapping. Two budgets later, this government gives off the impression that it is yet to grapple with the minutiae of governance, Yashwant Sinha's second effort winning laurels only because in comparison, it is judged better than his maiden one.

Politically, too, there is hardly any ability in evidence. No decision of this government has had a smooth sail, its diverse allies taking up cudgels everytime either South Block or North Block makes an important announcement, its subsequent actions earning it the sobriquet, 'rollback government'. Thanks to the BJP's wetness behind the ears, for the first time in the Republic's history even a presidential proclamation was rolled back, only because the government's minders misread the signals from the main Opposition party, without whose support it could not have pushed through the dismissal of the Rabri Devi government in Parliament.

On the stability front, even the most ardent BJP supporter will not claim that Vajpayee has slept peacefully the last year. Conceding that this government is bursting with good intentions, it has been simply unable to see eye to eye with its own allies, who take turns to issue threats of discontinuing support if their various demands -- ranging from transferring inconvenient judges to dismissing state governments -- are not met.

The effect this has on both governance, and on the economy, are too well known, but it is this instability that has given rise to inability, falsifying the government's pre-election claims. Sajid Bhombal, a regular in Quorum, summed it best when he said that the next time the BJP could change its election slogan to: vote us into government, and get an Opposition free!

Thanks to one year of bungling, the BJP government's main problem today is one of credibility. And nothing sums this up better than the fact that while the prime minister himself continues to enjoy widespread support, his government and party don't stand a snowflake in hell's chance of being trusted with the nation's destiny.

Saisuresh Sivaswamy