Straight from the shoulder

Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has once again made some forthright remarks in China that has drawn flak from many quarters.Jairam is an intellect and and is known to air his views candidly.Most times he is unbiased and outspoken.But this time he did it on a wrong turf.His remarks could be interpreted in various ways by many and has irked his party and many of his ministerial colleagues.Nonetheless we do not know if there is any truth in Jairam's remarks.Yet Jairam could have made such observations in a party forum or a cabinet meeting.He has been very vocal on many policy issues.He has supported many policy issues squarely and also has disapproved many equally strongly.During his recent visit to China he has called the Home Ministry 'Alarmist and Paranoid' on China.Ramesh has clearly exceeded his brief and this was an unsolicited comment,escpecially on a foreign soil.He has embarassed the country,congress Party and his ministerial colleagues by making this comment.BJP lost no time in asking for the resignation of Jairam Ramesh.May be he has said this because of his obsession towards China and wants Sino-India relationship to reach new heights.But on the contrary his remarks could have a negative impact on Sino-Indian ties.The government immediatley refuted Jairam's remarks and put the record straight.He believes the economic strength of the two contries should compliment each other.He even coined the word 'Chindia'which refers to China and India together in general.He has also written a book called "Making sense of Chindia -Reflections on China and India". Jairam was an Advisor to P.Chidambaram way back in 1996 when PC was Finance Minister.Now he has called PC's Ministry 'Alarmist and Paranoid'.Obviously PC would not have liked this comment and was quick to write to PM about this remark.PM even directed Jairam to talk to PC.But if one goes through Jairam's palin speaking on earlier occasions one can come to the conclusion he is undetered by lack of popular appreciation and continues to make his views known very bluntly.Jairam should understand he is a Central Minister and should confirm with certain esthetic standard of correctness or propriety.His Beijing remarks were highly improper,to say the least. This is not the first time Jairam Ramesh makes such controversial statements through his forthright comments.During the copehagen climate summit Jairam said India would match China in emission cut.PM pulled him up for this comment and he had to retract his remark with another statement that India would not accept any legally binding targets on emission cut.During a convocation ceremony where he was the chief guest he dramatically removed his convocation gown on the podium and said it is a 'barbaric colonial practice'.In another function he said Indian cities are the dirtiest in the world and if there is a Nobel prize for filth India would bag it.He halted the work on a dam in Madhya pradesh on the ground that people displaced were not rehabilitated .But the Central government overruled Jairam and gave permission to go ahead with dam construction.Jairam's contention was environmental guidelines were not followed.As an Environment Minister Jairam might have been right.But he was acting against the policy of the government and was finally overruled by his own government.On another occassion he alleged that there is a deliberate conspiracy by the real estate and mining mafia to finish off the tiger population in the country.Narendra Modi objected to Jairam setting up an Environment committe over the Narmada Project. Jairam aired his views in open against Kamalnath the Road Transport Minister.Kamalnath said Jairam is opposing upgradation of 13 roads to National Highway on the ground of environment clearance.Sharad Pawar also joined issues with Jairam on blocking some road projects in Maharashtra on environment concerns.It is believed finally Pranab intervened to cool the tempers in a meeting.While Pawar Wanted BT Brinjal to be India's first GM crop ,Jairam Put BT Brinjal on hold.This congress government has few bright intellectual ministers who by their astuteness embarass the government.Sashi Tharoor is one among them who got himself int to a soup through his Twitter comments.Jairam Ramesh is another who believes his cognitive perceptions are always right and get in to unnecessary controversies.Unfortunatley an otherwise surefooted PC also sometimes falter and get stumbled with his comments like "The buck stops here " made at Budhadeb .To his bad luck the "buck stops here " comment of PC boomeranged on him.These intelligent ministers must understand their own ministerial colleagues are not at ease with them,leave alone the opposition.Digvijay Singh said he has suffered at the "Intellectual Arrogance" of PC on few occassions.This does not speak well of these bright Ministers.While it is good to have these intellegensia in the cabinet,they should be mindful of their ministerial proprieties and protocols.The government should appear as a cohesive unit to the outside world, no matter what the differences are with in.After the unfortunate Dandawate incident PC was under fire by his own ministerial colleagues.If this continues it would become amply clear that there is no collective responsibility among the union cabinet Ministers and they would become a laughing stock.One hopes PM reins in his cabinet colleagues and restrain his ministers from making off-the cuff remarks.