The Hindu Business Line : Avoiding policy capers

BY EVERY account, including the initial shock to the stock market by statements made by a couple of Marxist functionaries, there is much to cheer regarding the "functioning" of the United Progressive Alliance Government the past three weeks.

This is not to suggest that, based on this early experience and on the ground that the morning usually shows the day, the future of the Congress-led Government is bright.

No serious analyst can make such a prediction at this point of time given the composition of the coalition that holds office at the Centre.

But it will have to be conceded that every effort is being made by the new Government to steer a stable course as far as policy direction is concerned despite the vast ideological differences among the alliance partners.

Perhaps the most striking effort made till now not to rock the boat of governance too strongly relates to the new Defence Minister's stand on the NDA regime's conduct of the Kargil war.

This approach has evoked appreciation from senior members of the previous government, including the erstwhile Finance Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh.

Issuing a suo motu statement in the Lok Sabha on the conduct of the war by the NDA regime — some controversial light on which was thrown by an Army report on the subject — the UPA Defence Minister, Mr Pranab Muhkerjee, said that "the previous government's delay in ordering air strikes during the Kargil conflict did not lead to more Indian casualties."

In effect, this was nothing less than a defence of the Vajpayee Government's conduct of the Kargil military operations.

Mr Jaswant Singh's comment was that Mr Mukherjee "rose above politics and restored the honour of the armed forces and the Defence Ministry, and did well in doing so."

Mr Mukherjee himself explained that he was just making a "factual statement" and that it was not his job "to give a clean chit to anyone."

Quite apart from the fact that, indeed, it is his job to give a clean chit to someone if the facts justify such action (particularly when a Ministry as important as his own is involved), his decision against remaining silent on the controversy has resulted in a much-needed reprieve for the armed forces, which have already been buffetted by controversy arising from the conduct of the war (which has already taken a toll of some officers).

The second major effort on the part of the Congress Government to keep the policy boat stable relates to the decision taken last Wednesday to persist with the previous government's policy-stand regarding WTO issues.

This will, at least to the outside world, have the effect of projecting the view of policy stability.

In the current mesh of WTO affairs, especially in the aftermath of the Cancun failure, this decision on the part of the UPA Government assumes importance.

This is particularly so in view of the critical role New Delhi has played in shaping the opposition of the G-20 economies to the unacceptable demands made by Washington and Brussels.

In fact, the continuance of New Delhi's policy on crucial Doha Round issues is bound to strengthen the stand of the developing economies in their continuing battle with the US and the EU on such subjects as reduction of farm subsidies and the lowering of tariffs on industrial products.

The third area where the UPA regime has done well to focus on a stable policy is India-Pakistan relations, specially at a time when the Pakistani President, Gen Pervez Musharraf, is frantically waving the olive branch because of his own internal and external compulsions.

It is only natural to expect that the Congress-led alliance will have differences on detail with the approach adopted by the former BJP-led coalition.

But it would certainly be foolish to focus on these issues now and rock the boat of negotiations which, at least on the face of it, is sailing towards a peaceful clime.