It is a dog's life

People have short memory. In the third week of November 2009, PM Manmohan Singh, in an attempt to test all his ministers, demanded his ministers submit a 'performance report' for his personal monitoring. The deadline for submission given by the PM is November 30. This is great, but for a small fact. No one knows how many ministers did indeed submit the self appraisal and more importantly, what MMS did with it. Knowing that he cannot even show his displeasure at most of his ministers, and specifically the 'best non performers' like Sharad Pawar, Raja, Mamata Banerjee and some of his own party ministers who are close to Sonia, this was a classic case of making an ass of himself.

MMS government is unique. In India, as a rule, we always have Authority without Responsibility, whether it be Sonia Gandhi, Prakash Karat, Jayalalitha, Karunanidhi, Mayawati, Laloo, or any leading politician for that matter. Manmohan Singh must be the only guy who has responsibility without authority. When Woman's Reservation Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha, it was all because of Sonia. Suddenly she was there in TV channels being interviewed by friendly journalist claiming credit ( remember, Sonia never ever gives interviews, press conferences - at least to Indian media ) and there was no mention of the PM. Being India's Prime Minister when Nehru-Gandhi family is ruling the party is stray dog's life. You get kicked, stoned and cursed by every passer by. And you need a very supple spine to survive.