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Mainstream, Vol. XLIX No 6 , January 29, 2011

Indian Republic in Political Imbroglio

Monday 31 January 2011, by P R Dubhashi

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This article was written sometime ago but could not be published earlier due to unavoidable reasons. It is now being carried as its contents retain their validity.

As we approach the next Republic Day on January 26, 2011, the people of India are finding their sixty-year-old Republic in a state of disarray with Parliament, our highest representative assembly, trapped in a political imbroglio and the governance of the country caught in a creeping paralysis under the impact of successive scams of huge proportions.

Non-functioning Parliament

PARLIAMENT has become non-functional over the last 20 days of the winter session with Opposition parties (BJP—and including the Leftist parties) demanding the constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to look into the 2G scam while the government remains adamant in rejecting the demand outright. It is not clear to the people why the government should be so adamant on the issue. Now even the allies of the Congress in the UPA are, for their own reasons, veering round to the view that the government should agree to the Opposition demand. The head of the biggest ally, Mamata Banerjee, fears that her opposition to the proposal will be used by the incumbent Leftist parties in power to her disadvantage in the coming elections to the West Bengal Assembly. The DMK would be looking for its pound of flesh now that it was required to agree to dislodge A. Raja from the Union Cabinet. The Congress, the biggest party in power, seems adamant on the issue because of many reasons—first, because it would be in a minority in the JPC; second, it fears that the JPC could drag on for two or three years casting a shadow on the 2014 elections as well as the Assembly elections in different States; third, they fear that the JPC would involve the Prime Minister and his office in the course of its probe. It is yet another example of purely political considerations getting the better of the paramount need to ensure smooth running of Parliament.

Corruption Scams—The Raja Case

SCAMS after scams of corruption have tarnished the image of not only the government and the political system but of the country as a whole. Already the doyen among Indian industrialists, Ratan Tata, has openly talked, in course of a television interview, of a Banana republic-type situation developing in the country.

The worst of the scams in many ways was the 2G spectrum sale scam. The sale in 2008 of the spectrum at 2002 rates led to a loss to the government of, as clearly stated in the recent CAG report, Rs 1,76,000 crores. A draft of the report before its finalisation was sent to the Telecom Department. Instead of responding to the observations in the draft report of the high constitutional authority, Union Minister A. Raja brazenly brushed it aside claiming that it was ‘a policy decision’ of the government and the CAG had no business to comment on it. The Minister apparently neither knew what ‘a policy decision’ was nor the weight that needs to be given to the observations of the CAG. When there was a parliamentary demand for sacking the Minister, the DMK chief and Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu specially found time to call upon the Prime Minister and tell him that Raja should not be victimised just because he was an SC Minister! The weight of the Chief Minister and head of the DMK, a staunch ally of the UPA Government, had obviously the needed effect and the Prime Minister chose not to sack Raja for two long years despite a nationwide demand to do so. The nation wondered how and why under a Prime Minister, known for his personal integrity, a Minister like Raja could be allowed to function. In a press interview the Prime Minister was content to say that the law would take its own course, which was hardly convincing. Now it has come out that despite the Prime Minister’s letter warning the Minister in the matter, the Minister not only arrogantly brushed aside the Law Ministry’s opinion but also used disrespectable terms in his reply to the Prime Minister; this was hardly becoming of a Minister in the Cabinet. Just because it is a coalition government depending, among others, on DMK support, such a ministerial behaviour could not be justified.

The Minister stuck to his job; finally he was sacked. Even after that he continued to open his big mouth justifying his action. Now it has come out that the Minister has been a ‘habitual offender’. He threatened a judge of the Madras High Court in a criminal case pending before him. The judge, instead of immediately giving the Minister a ‘contempt of court’ notice, chose to write to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, K.G. Balakrishnan. The latter summoned him to Delhi but even after the meeting, the Chief Justice, now retired, chose to speak in a vague manner without mentioning the name of the Minister. Nothing happened and the Minister was left scot free. The Minister set up a bad example of conduct as a Minister in the Union Cabinet but still the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister continues to stand behind Raja and people in his constituency gave him a big reception after he resigned. So much for the democratic conscience of the people in the world’s largest democracy!

In a case in the Supreme Court filed by Subramanian Swamy, the head of the Janata Party, in regard to Raja’s involvement in the 2G scam, the Supreme Court asked as the to why no action was taken against Raja for two years. It was explained on behalf of the Prime Minister that action against Raja was delayed because the Law Department’s advice was pending. Subramanian Swamy, who had filed the case, has exonerated the Prime Minister and put the blame on the ‘bureaucracy’. How much value can be attached to the certificate given by Swamy to the Prime Minister is another question. The national outrage against Raja compelled the CBI to take same concrete action against him after dilly-dallying for 400 days since the case came on the file of the CBI. They carried simultaneous raids on his residences and those of his associates and seized documents and other incriminating material.

The ramifications of the Raja case were not confined to politics. They extended to the corporate world as well. It was long known that the corporates exercise a powerful influence on the government to bend its machinery to subserve its interests. The supreme example of the working of capitalism in the USA is based on the premise of ‘’less government in business and more business in government”. The Raja case provided a striking example of this corporate influence in India which has become more and more apparent after the new economic policy was introduced in 1991 characterised by marketisation, privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation. Rajiv Chandra-shekhar, an MP of the Rajya Sabha, alleged that the Tatas were the main beneficiaries of the 2G scam. The Niira Radia tapes had clearly exposed the conversation between Ratan Tata and Niira Radia. Tata rushed to the Supreme Court to stop the publicising of ‘private conversation’ between him and Niira Radia. However, it was not really that personal but related to business. It further came out that public relations work relating to 90 units of the vast Tata empire was handed over to Niira Radia, who in a short period miraculously developed cordial relations with people in Central Government including the influencial politicians and bureaucrats. The lady had arrived only 15 years ago from London after her divorce with only one lakh rupees and has through her ‘public relations work amassed’ a fortune of Rs 400 crores. Thorstein Veblen, the maveric American economist of Norwegian origin, had a century ago drawn attention to ostentatious consumption waste and misleading advertisements as some of the evils of capitalism. To those should be added the ‘lobbying and public relations’ industry which has started exercising in a big way its evil influence on the government at the cost of public interest.

The Case of P.J. Thomas

ANOTHER case closely connected with the Raja scandal was that of P.J. Thomas who was the Telecom Secretary under Raja. Earlier in his career he was the Civil Supplies Secretary in 1991-92 when the controversial import of 15,000 tonnes of palmolein from Malaysia took place, allegedly costing the state exchequer a loss of Rs 200 crores. as found out in a later CAG report. In spite of that the Union Government appointed him to the high post of Chief Vigilance Commissioner ignoring the written objections received from the Leader of the Opposition, Sushma Swaraj, who was a member of the three-member committee constituted as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court. Sushma Swaraj in her objections pointed to the palmolein scam and 2G scam in which Thomas was involved. A panel of three officers was before the committee for its consideration. Swaraj asked the two other members, the Prime Minister and Home Minister, to consider two other names in the panel, but the Prime Minister was adamant and insisted on the selection of Thomas for the post. It was difficult to understand why the Prime Minister was so insistent on Thomas. His appointment as the CVC caused a national outrage. On TV channels the appointment was severaly condemned. But Thomas chose not to be embarrassed and stuck to his post! Nor did the government ask for his resignation! All that he did was to say that he would recuse from the CBI enquiry into the 2G scandal! The CVC recusing himself from the most important enquiry, namely, of the 2G spectrum scam, in which an ex-Union Minister has been involved, was strange. He forgot to tell that the person who would be responsible to investigate into the scam was appointed only recently by him creating a doubt whether he would be able to be objective regarding the role of Thomas as the Telecommunication Secretary!

Now the case has taken a new turn. Two separate petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court—one by an NGO, CPL, and the other by a group of civil servants led by former Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdo challenging the appointment of Thomas as the CVC and asking for his removal from the post, citing his role in the palmoleen import and 2G spectrum cases. The Supreme Court Bench, headed by the Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia, has issued a notice to Thomas to appear in person. The Supreme Court has raised two basic issues. One, how will Thomas perform his duties with a charge-sheet pending against him? And two and more importantly, whether he fulfilled the criterion of ‘unimpeachable integrity’ required for appointment as the CVC. Thomas will have to answer some tough posers in the Supreme Court. The Court has noted that in the conditions in which he finds himself, he will feel embarrassed and will not be able to function effectively. Apparantly Thomas does not feel so! The government in turn will have to explain why they chose Thomas despite the dissent of the Leader of the Opposition. Since the Prime Minister himself was adamant in appointing Thomas, he will be directly involved.

The credibility of the CBI was already at a low ebb due to its non-performance in a number of cases including the Commonwealth Games Organisation Committee case when it omitted the name of Suresh Kalmadi, the Chairman of the Committee, from the FIR. Now the Thomas case has called into question the credibility of the CVC itself which is supposed to supervise the CBI.

Vulnerabilities of the Prime Minister and Congress

THESE two case have certainly added to the vulnerability of Dr Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister. He is the head of the government but not the leader of the Congress party in power nor of the UPA. The political ascendancy of Sonia Gandhi over him has been acknowledged by him. The Prime Minister is normally expected to be not only the head of government but also the supreme leader of the party and of the nation—as Jawaharlal Nehru was. And yet Dr Singh claimed that his government was more cohesive than that of Jawaharlal Nehru which hardly seemed plausible!

In fact, the situation seems to be quite the opposite despite the resounding success of the Congress party in the 2009 general elections and the severe defeat suffered by the BJP, which expected to come back to power but was reduced to 116, and also of the Leftist parties whose strength declined from 60 to 30. The Congress did much better than expected crossing 200 and reaching 206. The Leftist parties were apparently punished by the electorate for withdrawing ‘outside support’ to the UPA Government. They had withdrawn support when the Prime Minister insisted on the nuclear deal with the USA to which the Leftists were opposed tooth and nail. Even after the Left withdrew support to the UPA, it survived the vote of confidence with the unexpected support of the Samajwadi Party and the Congress party’s manipulation that successfully ensured several Opposition MPs deserting their parties and crossing over to the UPA. They included the BJP and Shiv Sena MPs as well. The UPA-I survived. The Prime Minister described the withdrawal of the support of the Leftist parties as good riddance since they opposed several of his so-called ‘reforms measures’. It was a great relief, the Prime Minister said, adding that “he would no longer be a slave of the Leftists”.

The UPA Government was again formed under the leadership of Dr Manmohan Singh after the general elections and it was expected to be much stronger. Though the Congress won 206 seats it was short of the 272-mark and had to get the support of other smaller parties to have a majority in Parliament. That it easily got with the support of the Trinamul Congress of Mamata Banerjee dominant in West Bengal, DMK in power in Tamil Nadu, and NCP with which the Congress had formed a government in Maharashtra. Soon the Congress realised that while the Leftist support to the UPA was based on principles, the coalition parties of UPA-II were opportunists. Mamata all the time had her eye on the West Bengal Assembly elections where she wanted to demolish the Marxist-led government. She went on pressing for the premature dismissal of the Leftist Government which the Congress refused to agree to. She went to the extent of supporting the Maoists while Chidambaram, the Union Home Minister, supported the State Government in the fight against the Maoists. Mamata was more in Calcutta than in Delhi. The DMK was all the time interested in the loaves and fishes of office. Pawer of the NCP always sought to get more political mileage than his numbers warranted and succeeded in that. He personally held several portfolios including those of Agriculture, Food and Civil Supplies but had more interest in cricket politics then in his several ministerial assignments which he mishandled. His import of rotten wheat from Australia created a national outrage. And now there is a big food scandal in UP in which large quantities of foodgrains meant for distribution amongst the poor were directed to export and the blame was laid not just at the doors of the State administration but also at the Union Minister. The scandal has yet to come out in all its proportions. With a much smaller number of MLAs in Maharashtra Pawar’s party has all the significant portfolios including Finance and Home.

The Congress has a dubious coalition at the Centre with unreliable partners. Additionally, it is conspicuously weak in the States. It snatched Rajasthan from the BJP but is without power in several States, while the BJP is in power in States like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. The Leftists are in power in West Bengal and Kerala and the Shiromani Akali Dal with the BJP in Punjab. The Congress suffered a severe defeat in the Bihar Assembly elections with Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) in alliance with the BJP capturing 85 per cent of the Assembly seats. The Congress went down from nine to four and the Laloo-Paswan alliance was reduced to 25. It was Rahul Gandhi who had decided that the Congress would fight it alone. Now everybody blames him for the miserable performance of the Congress. Actually it was the weakness of the Congress party at the field level which was the cause of the miserable performance. The grassroot organisation can be built only over a period of time.

The Congress got into trouble in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh (where it had a resounding victory under Y.S.R. Reddy’s leadership). The party faced a crisis in Maharashtra when the Adarsh Housing Society scam reached such proportions that it caused a national outcry. The multi-storied apartment building in Mumbai was originally meant for the families of the Kargil victims. But the flats were grabbed by senior Army officers, bureaucrats and, above all, powerful politicians. Among the beneficiaries were the mother-in-law of the then Chief Minister, Ashok Chavan, and several of his relatives through his wife. Chavan pleaded innocence, and still does so but had to be removed and replaced by Prithviraj Chavan, a Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office in charge of several departments, who has a comparatively cleaner record.

In Andhra Pradesh the situation is very difficult for the Congress party. After the sudden demise of YSR in a helicopter accident, the Congress put his Finance Minister and a senior member of Cabinet, Rosaiah, in the seat of the Chief Minister. But YSRs’ son Jagan Mohan Reddy had the ambition to succeed his father. He was supported by his mother, but Congress President Sonia Gandhi cold-shouldered him and ultimately he left the Congress and has decided to form his own party. The Congress removed the ineffective Rosaiah and replaced him by Kiran Kumar Reddy. Once what happened under Rajiv Gandhi is being repeated within the Congress leadership showing that the local politicians do not count and the privilege of appointing the Chief Minister is that of the High Command. This led once to the downfall of the Congress. The story may be repeated in Andhra Pradesh. Already the situation has become grim with the Telangana agitation taking a serious turn. With the appointment of the Shri Krishna Committee the situation in Telangana has no doubt calmed down but may explode again.

Grim Security Scenario

THE Congress is accused of being soft on terrorists. Major security challenges are faced by several States and the terrorist challenge is a constant threat. The 26/11 criminals have not yet been brought to book and the judicial process is working at a ponderously slow speed. Chidambaram boasts this as the vindication of Indian democracy but people have lost patience. The recent attack on Varanasi has come as a severe blow. The terrorist threat is ever alive in several big cities and sensitive places like temples. The situation in Kashmir has gone out of control. That the Chief Minister is ineffective in dealing with the situation is apparent. The Maoist challenge is now faced by several States.

Depredations of the Free Market Economy

THE economic policy of the free market economy has created apoplexy at the Centre (and certain parts of the metropolitan cities) and anaemia at the periphery (rural areas and poor people). The luxury sector has prospered while the poor in slums suffer. The infrastructure is woefully inadequate. The Prime Minister’s talk of turning Mumbai into Shanghai looks like an empty boast. Despite Jagdish Bhagwati’s claims in the Hiren Mukerjee Lecture that the poor have benefited from the policy of liberalisation, the ground reality is that a few have prospered while the poor have suffered. There is an unholy alliance between builders, businessmen, politicians and a few bureaucrats and this at present has led to the ugly urban scenario. The inequalities are glaring and cannot be accepted by the people all the time. They are bound to revolt. The social situation is also precarious. Instead of national unity, there are fissures on caste and communal lines.

Inflation in prices of essential commodities like foodgrains, pulses, milk and vegetables have put them beyond the reach of the common people. But the Minister directly concerned, Sharad Pawar, looks the other way and expects the Finance Minister to take the blame. The Finance Minister accepts that inflation is rampant but attributes it to nine per cent growth! This argument is fallacious. If there is growth in the productive sectors, the supply of essential commodities will grow and absorb the inflationary pressure caused by developmental expenditure. The Prime Minister and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, both economic experts, go on saying and predicting that inflation would get moderated by December (or even earlier) but it does not seem to respect their economic expertise.

Glimmer of Hope

BUT the recent Bihar elections have shown that there a glimmer of hope. Bihar has shown that people even in rural Bihar are alive and awake. They want security and good government. The Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, gave those to them after the 15-year jungle raj of Laloo Prasad. It is wrong to attribute the victory to his ‘social engineering’. The sophisticated analysts who do so are more casteiest and communal than the common people. The people of India, despite the existence of caste, creed and community, have a basic sense of unity and all that they want is an honest, good government.

This lessons of the Bihar elections offer a glimmer of hope for the Indian Republic which can yet overcome the multi-dimensional crisis in which it is entangled at present. People can and should throw out the power-drunk politicians who misuse political power, and the political parties who have no principles, no ideology, no coherent programme to benefit the people and who do not put national interest above partisan interest whether of caste or family. That is the lesson of the recent Bihar elections and this has a national significance.

Formerly Secretary to the Government of India and Vice-Chancellor, Goa University, Dr Dubhashi, who was recently awarded the Padmabhushan, is currently the Chairman, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Pune.

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