THE third millennium has begun on a depressing note, thanks to the masters os mismanagement now in power at the Centre. In an almost effortless manager the BJP and its partners in power succeeded in mismanaging virtually every major issue ever since they seized power at the Centre. As the end of the last millennium approached and as the whole world was gearing upitself to celebrate the great event, decking up cities, sprucing up tourist spots and planning unique events, the Indian government under the BJP contributed to the historic climax of the last century with a resounding failure that brought shame, as admitted by none other than number two in the government , Lal Krishna Advani. Advani, who apparently was on a different wavelength with his senior Atal Bihari Vajpayee, looked and sounded rather narrow-minded when he said that in the hijack drama that came as a bolt from the blue to the nation, it was the BJP which "lost face" and "not the nation".

Whether Advani's remark reflected his Government's sentiment or not one does not know, but incidentally and significantly it established the long-believed truth that for the BJP crowd the nation comes second. This is not my comment, but the meaning of what Advani said. The hijack incident described by Ms Benazir Bhutto as the "the most successful hijack in recent times", has left behind several questions which will perhaps never be answered, apart from the acute humiliation which the nation will take years to forget and live down. That despite konwing about the hijack for nearly two hours, the Government had not done anything at all to rescue the passengers, crew and the plane and detain it within the country, will stand out as the monumental inefficiency of a party that cheated the voters promising to give government that "performs".

Once the plane reached Afghanistan, this big and great nation had been reduced to the status of a begger before a handful of thugs. None else could have produced such a feat than the BJP which mistakes rhetoric for action and foolishness for caution. The sheer humiliation that India was made to suffer for the fault to premitting greenhorns to be in power in the   name of democracy, was further compounded when no country, virtually no country, even shed a tear for the hundred million people. Infact, New Delhi's patent inability to handle even a minor incident of blackmail like hijacking had lowered the prestige of India in the eyes of the world. People legitimately asked question, some which are certainly very inconvenient, like if the hijacking was part of any deal struck during the Kargil conflict. Some said Talibanis had pulled out of Kargil only in return for a promise to release prominent militants in Indian jails. The reasons to reject this theory are just about as strong or as weak as the reasons to accept it.

As if to complete the new milennium drama in the same tenor, the Prime Minister himself, of all people, announces with his usual promp and puff that his government will have Pakistan declared a terrorist state. He could not have done better to express more forcefully the total poverty of strategic thinking of the BJP. Is India in a position to succeed in this? Has the goverment done any ground work before making the accouncement? As Advani had accidentally admitted what seemed to have mattered to the BJP and its so-called leadership was to somehow "restore" their own image through grand ideas, no matter what it meant to the nation. No wonder, the Americans lost no time in saying no categorically, lest New Delhi would get wrong ideas as it has been doing in recent times. Other G-8 members were just stunned into silence. China, which only recently signed an agreement with Russia to wage a joint fight against terrorism, too chose to keep quiet.

Are such important statements like launching a campaign to brand Pakistan or for that matter any country a terrorist state made without adequate consultations with and consent of important nations? There needs to be little doubt that Vajpayee had not at all consulted his cabinet before waxing eloquent on such an issue. The NDA simply does not figure for what appears to matter to the NDA members is power. The real and national question today is : how will India wriggle out of this ugly situation into which Vajpayee had pushed it? How will we retract? It is a pity we have entered the new millennium with a tremendous deficit in the confidence of the pepple in future and near isolation in the comity of nations.

That the BJP was not perturbeed by the humiliation suffered in the hijack drama was clear when its government in Gujarat decided to lift the ban on the participation of State Government employees in RSS shakhas. Taking the cue other state government under the control of other parties may as well follow suit. Imagine a situation in which the CPI-M governments in West Bengal and Kerala encourage their employees to participate formally in the activities of the party's frontal organisations, and the Telegu Desam and DMK also follow the example. Why, will Shiv Sena lag behind if it comes to power again? What will happen to the administrative set up-broken into islands of ideologies each fighting with the other? A nation that is already divided horizontally on caste lines will be further divided vertically on party lines. All that I can do is to recall the famous saying of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. "Freedom is in peril, defend it with all your might".

-K.V.S. Rama Sarma