But politics has its own cruel irony. Pulls and pressures of the coalitional power politics play out its own logic. And even the most honest PM can lose the battle of best governance. This is what is happening to UPA2. With just 16 months into power, it already has the reputation of being the one involved in the worst-ever scandal in volume and the most chaotic in governance. And all this happens under a PM with the cleanest personal record. In July, 2008, the PM had said he felt 'liberated' from the Left's vicious control on the government policies. Ironically, he now finds himself entrapped in a bigger humiliation. Instead of policy control by a predictable Left, his personal reputation on two counts - clean image and governance - is at stake.

Consider the G2 spectrum scam, the biggest-ever in volume under any government in India. The CAG's two latest reports to the Supreme Court (hearing is next week) put the total loss at over Rs. 1.40 lakh crores. This is almost double the figure alleged by the opposition earlier. The minister had ignored the warnings by every other authority. All this was done to give undue benefit to a few chosen private operators. Law ministry had specifically asked the Raja to leave the issue to an empowered GoM for deeper scrutiny. In 2007, the finance ministry had also questioned the sanctity of continuing with the 2001 prices. Similar warnings had come from two senior-most officers - secretary D.S. Mathur and member finance Manju Madhavan.

The PM himself had warned Raja against going ahead with the allocation. He had on November 2, 2007 directed Raja to “correct pricing of spectrum, consider (i) the introduction of a transparent methodology of auction wherever legally and technically feasible and (ii) revision of entry fee which is currently benchmarked on old spectrum auction figures.” To flout the PM's directive itself is really a serious matter.

Yet why does the UPA government go out of the way to defend the minister? What had raised suspicion was the Centre's unusual interest in preventing CAG and CVC from probing the G2 scandal. In August last, Raja's ministry had managed to obtain such a friendly opinion from the law ministry. This helped prevent further inquiries into the scam. There is no other explanation for this. The plan misfired only due to the Supreme Court's decision to monitor the investigation. Now this has put the government in an awkward position. Incidentally, the G2 scam is in addition to others in the cupboard like the Reliance gas price scandal, non-basmati rice export and sugar import scandals, to mention a few.

Another issue that has left a deep scar on the PM's image has been the appointment of an already tainted person as CVC. India has no dearth of qualified persons for the job. There were other suitable persons in the final panel that was placed before the selection committee. But why did the government insisted on P.J. Thomas, a Kerala cadre officer against whom a fraud case is still pending in the vigilance special court? PM must explain how such a person can be expected to mete out justice to others in an impartial manner. This was done despite the loud opposition by the selection committee member Sushma Swaraj.

First the government said there was no case pending against Thomas. Then it falsely claimed that the court had exonerated him in the controversial palm oil export scam. The criminal case, in which the new CVC is the eighth accused, had come up for hearing on September 25, 2010. The hearing will now come on October 23. What an irony. The CVC, whose constitutional duty to keep a vigil on corruption, will have to appear in a court involving charges of corruption against himself. Is the PM so powerless to meekly submit to such wanton irregularities? Was he acting under duress? Whatever, the reason it has badly tarnished his good image.

While mega corruption, scandals and scams flourished without even meek efforts to punish the guilty, UPA2's first 16 months in office also witnessed steep erosion in the PM's own legitimate authority. He has been helplessly watching the contravention of the cabinet rules and constitutional conventions by his senior cabinet ministers. Watch the way Mamata Banerjee has flouted each of his cherished ideals like good governance, financial prudence and basic rules of administration. Under which other PM - (including the much lampooned Deve Gowda and Gujral) - has a cabinet minister persistently refused to attend the cabinet meetings? Here is a minister who manages the world's second largest railways from Kolkata's streets.

When she proclaims she need not be in Delhi, and need not get any one's permission, head of the government remains silent. What kind of governance is this? And Rail Bhawan spends huge funds (there was a Parliament answer) to airlift officers to Bengal's districts for her signature on the files. PM was furious when the Left had blocked some of his reform measures. But now how many crucial reform-related bills - forget the land acquisition bill - remain blocked by Mamata?

Misuse of railways for her Trinamool party is legion. New trains, rail lines, stations, halts, naming of trains — all is for furthering her electoral interests in West Bengal. She can misuse funds for party's gains, yet no one, not even the reform writers, question her. She launches hospitals with railway funds in her state. Just last week, huge bonus was announced for the workers of two rail factories in Bengal. Consider a slew of sops she just announced for Jungle Mahal and Kharagpur: Rs. 45 crores for railway workshop in Kharagpur; Duranto Express from Howrah to Digha; Rs. 5 crores for Kharagpur stadium; technology Express from Kharagpur IIT to other IITs; Alchiki express from Jungle Mahal station; and Kharapur-Purulia express to stop at Jungle Mahal.

Local TMC leaders come with the demands and she makes the formal announcement. And you call it good governance. Much against the rules, she uses the Railway police for the Trinamool rallies. Her latest is to publicly oppose her own government's inter-State operations against the Maoists. From October 7, she has launched street protests seeking withdrawals of central forces from Bengal's Naxal areas. All this cannot go on and on. A joint action by the party and PM alone can salvage the UPA's image. (IPA Service)