THERE IS NO PROBLEM OF THE COUNTRY THAT WE CANNOT SOLVE BUT...

Chandra Shekhar, who had the distinction of being the most unusual Prime Minister of India so far, was kind enough to give Editor-in-Chief Sunil Dang and Think Tank Director Yogendra Bali, an opportunity for a free-and-frank interface on the future of India. Chandra Shekhar, who never hankered for any office, had the distinction of being the leader of the young Turks and the economic radical who dared defy the mighty Indira Gandhi, went to jail during the Emergency, and became the President of the Janata Party which installed the Morarji Desai Government at the Centre. He later became the Prime Minister of India.

When asked about what he thought about the future of India, he replied in his well-known style: "I cannot make a prophecy because I am not an astrologer".

Then he addressed the question frontally. He said: "The future at this point of time seems very gloomy. Not that we cannot solve the problems of the country. Our biggest problem is that we suffer from indecision. The problem is that of lack of courage. Because if you want to solve any crisis, you will have to take a certain amount of risk. The only thing is that people want to postpone crises and make things more complicated."

Chandra Shekhar then lambasted the political leaders taking the Ayodhya issue as an example. He said: "In the very beginning, I would like to point out that since 1991, every leader has been saying...If I had a few more months in the Government the Ayodhya problem would have been solved. More than 11 years have passed. Four prime ministers have taken position after me. Not one of them asked me even once what was the solution to the Ayodhya problem. I have no grievance that nobody wanted that government to continue for even two days. They thought I would come and beg of them for continuing in office. I resigned.... I cannot understand some people saying that they are in the government because they want to change the government. Because it is the Prime Minister who takes all the decisions for the government; if you do not agree with him you have no moral right to stay in the government as a minister. I shall not give instances because most of them are no more here. The problem is that people do not understand that there are certain rules, regulations, norms and limitations in the functioning of a parliamentary democracy. Some people are in the government. Every day they have differences with the Prime Minister. They make up their differences in time and change their views. My problem is that I do not change my views... Yes, thank God."

There was a tinge of disgust in his tone when he said: "I tell you this is the way things are happening in the country. Now today, everybody is fighting for secularism. In order to fight for secularism, they are giving the slogan of casteism. I have been telling them again and again that if there is conflict between the casteist forces and the religious forces, the religious forces will always win. Because caste appeal is limited. The religious appeal is all pervading, throughout the country. This basic understanding is not there. You can ask why I have come to this conclusion? In this government, people discuss about more authority and minimum wage to the working class and at the same time they talk about the policy of hire-and-fire and bringing in the multinationals and that they can hire the people whenever they like and fire them if they are not satisfied. Here people talk of reservation and at the same time invite the multinationals. All these contradictory things are being said in this country by these makers... I was never the maker of India, these are the makers of India, about whom Sunil Dang tells me that he has been reporting. Tell me one man in the government who has not been supporting the WTA in this country and has some position in the government today. What face do they have to talk about self reliance and Mahatma Gandhi?"

Turning to terrorism, Chandra Shekhar minced no words. He said: "Every day there is talk of cross-border terrorism. It is said that cross-border terrorism is being instigated and encouraged by our neighbour across the border. But they do not do everything on the border. If there was an attack on Parliament... only yesterday we celebrated the martyrs' memorial day...they crossed somewhere near Wagah to Ferozepur and came all the way to Delhi. What were our intelligence and security forces doing? Do you want that from Wagah to New Delhi Musharraf should have protected us or should not our Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, have protected us and made sure that Parliament was not attacked? India is giving wide publicity to all these absurd acts and efforts and trying to blame all the time people who are our enemies, because we cannot do anything ourselves".