Therefore, when Dr Singh, while speaking at the ASSOCHAM annual session last week, talked of the need to build “wider political consensus” on the issue of pricing of petroleum products, his appeal went predictably unnoticed and unheeded. The fact that, as PM, he had taken no initiatives whatsoever to build political consensus on this issue with the parties in the opposition even raised doubts about the sincerity of his appeal.

Nevertheless, here was an issue that eminently called for — indeed, it cried for — a constructive dialogue between the government and the opposition, and also between the prime minister and chief ministers. The case for it is compelling. India remains excessively dependent on imports for its oil-based energy needs. The price of imported crude oil has skyrocketed, from around $ 30 a barrel in 2003 to $ 130 per barrel in 2008. As a result, the losses incurred by India’s government-owned oil companies have jumped to Rs 2,00,000 crore compared with Rs 77,000 crore last year. In spite of being navaratna PSUs, they were in such dire straits that they faced the prospect of not being able to pay the salaries of their employees.

Something needed to be done. The question was what and how. The opposition needed to be taken into confidence. After all, if there is a change in government next year and the NDA is back in office — a prospect that is looking increasingly likely — it too would be required to face the same problem in the event of imported oil prices continuing to soar. Some experts are predicting the price to cross the $ 200-per-barrel barrier. The opposition would have given some suggestions, just as the Left parties, which support the UPA government, have already done. The CMs too could have been told to carry a part of the burden. And they too, in turn, could have given some suggestions. How different would have been the scenario if all the CMs, following consultations with and an appeal from the PM, had taken a common stand on the issue, rather than Sonia Gandhi trying to take political mileage by asking Congress CMs to reduce state taxes on petroleum products?

The entire issue of energy security and energy conservation, with a focus on the need to attain maximum self-reliance and self-sufficiency, and also on the paramount need to insulate the poor and the middle classes from the impact of a hike in prices of petroleum products, would have then become a point of national debate and national obligation. Out of this process of patient and persistent dialogue at different levels, some kind of national consensus might have arisen.

Energy security is by no means the only issue on which India needs to build broad political consensus. There are many others: food security; administrative reforms; need for a federal agency to effectively deal with threats to internal security, such as terrorism and naxal violence, that require strong Centre-state and inter-state coordination; India’s stand on the global climate change agenda; and so on.

The need for dialogue and consensus-building has increased all the more at a time when the polity is fragmented and coalition governments have become a norm at the Centre. If any party thinks that it can solve the pressing problems before the nation on its own, it is sadly mistaken. Of course, ideological differences and political competition among parties cannot be wished away. Nevertheless, today the test of democratic maturity lies in how far political parties and their leaders are willing to cooperate with one another on major national issues.

But who can initiate dialogue and promote a culture of consensus? Only a prime minister who possesses two qualities: belief in the politics of consensus and political authority to make it happen. Dr Singh possesses the first quality, but woefully lacks the second. Sonia Gandhi has power, but no faith in the politics of dialogue and consensus. In my column next week, I shall write, based on personal experience, of how Sonia Gandhi scuttled a sincere consensus-building attempt by then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had taken a novel initiative to organise a conclave of chief ministers outside New Delhi to discuss pressing issues before the nation.