Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,in a much-noted recent remark,said that he sometimes feels like a high school student going from one test to another. That comes with being the man at the top; a problem that touches your government is a problem that,in the end,must also touch you. Nor does postponing a politically difficult action such as taking on the DMKs telecom ministers result in the problem going away. Like the board examinations,youve got to take them eventually,or drop out. The prime minister,as the leader of his cabinet,is therefore primarily accountable on cleaning up the post-Raja mess. Yet,even as the urgency of demanding a clean-up rightly increases,there is a need for caution. There is immense danger in playing to the current public mood of rage against the political class as a collective and placing the head of government centrestage as a symbol to field such rage. Those saying that all-round reform is needed of Indias infrastructure governance,and to its public-private interface,have won the intellectual argument. The broad parameters of that reform are also clear: the reduction of ministerial,bureaucratic and political discretion,the imposition of greater accountability,the beefing up of Indias regulatory capacity. It is unclear,however,if any of these aims is served by a narrow focus on the prime ministers political failings,and thus by the perceived erosion of his authority that will follow. Indeed,it is quite possible,paradoxically,that we wind up strengthening forces that will make such corruption more likely those that wish to centralise regulation,or to increase licensing requirements,thereby making them more restrictive,rather than more transparent and competitive. What is needed,therefore,is a pause for perspective and a sense of proportion. In all the noise of the recent past,a focus on the detail of what is needed to be done has perhaps been lost. The revelations of the past weeks should strengthen those that wish for broader reform,not weaken them. The prime minister cannot escape responsibility for allowing the situation to reach this point,where a minister has left his cabinet,and his government is being condemned as one of the most corrupt in Indias history. But that assignation of responsibility must be moderated by the realisation that this is also an opportunity for Dr Singh to push through the sort of re-imagining of Indian governance that makes such corruption less likely. A sustained assault on his ability to do so will not make that reform happen sooner. It might well make it impossible.
