Top ten unwritten laws of
Indian politics
Pran Kurup
Monday October 22, 2012,
03:26 PM Published in Economic Times
1. Law of “big” money: Most
politicians in power and their kith and kin make “big” money by exercising
their power and influence to the fullest. Common areas of involvement include
land deals, educational institutions, power projects, coal mining, cricket associations,
etc. Where there is “big” money to be made, expect the involvement of one or
more politicians. If you find none, you can rest assured that there is an
invisible hand. Recently, Beni Prasad of the UPA rightly pointed this out when
he said, "I believe that Salman Khurshid would never get involved in a
scam of Rs 71 lakhs because it is a very small amount. Had it been Rs 71 crore,
it would have been more plausible.”
2. Law of families and
personal lives: Families of politicians are off limits when it comes to
exposing scams. In other words, the ruling party will not go after the
immediate family members of opposition leaders and vice-versa -- a well
understood and accepted quid pro quo. Digvijay Singh sincerely refers to this
as “political ethics.” Gadkari captures it brilliantly when he says, “Char kaam
hum unke karte hain, char kaam woh hamara karte hain.” Personal lives of
politicians are also off limits. Multiple wives, extra marital affairs, sexual
favors are all ignored. If exposed for some reason, rehabilitation is often
just around the corner.
3. Law of legal process: Investigations and
court cases almost never produce anything of significance because they simply
take so long that they become irrelevant. e.g., the Sukh Ram telecom scandal
which took over a decade, Lalu Yadav’s fodder scam, Mulayam’s DA scam, the all
important Bofors deal, to name a few. Most importantly, people involved in the
process of investigations and cases can be bribed, eliminated, or if nothing
else, transferred (a la Ashok Khemka). Also, politicians almost never go to
jail. The more visible they are, the less likely they are to go to jail, no
matter what the case against them might be. “I am open to any investigation. If
found guilty I will quit politics.” Not surprisingly, starting with our
erstwhile PM, this is the mantra of Indian politics.
4. Law of enforced silence:
People in power, especially politicians, prefer that you take them to court
rather than spew allegations at them in the media. When there are allegations,
the standard counter is to say, “If you have enough evidence, why not go to
court? Why indulge in a trial by media?” The reality is that if you go to
court, then the matter becomes “subjudice.” A convenient shield that virtually
buries the issue for eternity.
5. Law of counter
allegations: If you have allegations against the ruling party, you are branded
as an agent of the Opposition. If you have allegations against the Opposition,
you become an agent of the ruling party. If you have allegations against both
and you hit the streets because you are frustrated by law 3 and 4 above, you
are undermining democracy and promoting mobocracy.
6. Law of independent
investigation: The concept of an independent investigative agency does not
exist. The CBI is a weapon of the ruling party to harass its opponents (a la
Jagan Reddy, one of the present-day enemies of the UPA). If your party is in
power, enjoy it while it lasts because once you are out of power, the same
agency could be after you.
7. Law of time limit: Most
people get into politics to rake in the moolah rather than to serve the nation.
You “loot and scoot” because you never know when you are going to be out of
power. Arun Jaitley sympathetically pointed out, “Politicians aren’t very well
paid. They have to earn a living.”
8. Law of scam control: This
law involves multiple steps. When caught in a scam, the first step is to deny
all the charges. Step 2 is to question the credibility of the accusers. Step 3
is to get your colleagues and well-wishers to defend you. Step 4 is to try and
split the accusers by finding someone on their team who will counter-accuse the
accusers (a la Y.P Singh, Annie Kohli). In Step 5, you agree to a TV interview
and chant the mantra outlined in law 3. If the matter does not die down, Step 6
is to start calling your accusers names, “Megalomaniac, Hitler etc.”
9. Law of the middle-class:
The middle-class is a fickle, harmless nuisance. They make a lot of noise from
time to time and soon they forget about it. Most importantly, they don’t bother
to vote or organize themselves into a voting block of significance. As an
example, they raised a hue and cry over reservations but eventually, it ran out
of steam.
10 Law of “aam aadmi”: Don’t
worry about the “aam admi” as long as you coin a nice pro-people slogan once
every five years. In the interim, be sure to come up with creative schemes from
time to time to dole out some tax payer money to them in order to secure their
votes. The NREGS is a fine example.
http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/outsideedge/entry/top-ten-unwritten-laws-of-indian-politics
Nation needs “honest” PM to break free
The Coal-gate saga, the “scam du jour,” is fast being lost like every other scam, as the media revels in motives, allegations and counter allegations. In the midst of this, the most revealing piece of news on the Coal-gate saga was the pronouncements made by Mr. P.C Parikh, former Coal Secretary, who was at the center of all the action when these decisions regarding the coal allocations were made.
“I had written to the PMO way back in 2004 that coal blocks should be given through an auction. But the policy has been implemented now in 2012 and till date, not even a single coal block has been allocated through auction. The government lost a lot of money by giving coal mines using the existing system.” Mr. Parikh said that the committee was always under tremendous pressure from MPs, state governments, ministries and other players to allot coal blocks. “Any system which is based on a subjective decision is open to pulls and pressures, and this is precisely what happened,” he remarked.
These statements reveal several serious flaws in our current system. Firstly, there is way too much left to the discretion of those in power. The bulk of our scams can be traced down to ministers using their discretion to make decisions that are often arbitrary. The reality of coalition politics is that the PM could feign helplessness if the likes of Raja chose to do as they please. It’s hard to argue that a tough, no-nonsense PM would make a huge difference as opposed to an affable, yet purportedly clean PM.
Next, Parikh’s statements highlight the sheer helplessness of our babus. “As the chairman of screening committee, and as a secretary, you can't put your foot down. You can just suggest. In fact, I had put the screening committee meeting on hold hoping this system will fall in place. But then, the PM himself advised that instead of waiting indefinitely, it is better we go ahead (with the allocations)," he said. This automatically raises a number of questions. Are such decisions made because they benefit ministers personally or their political party? Why would people in positions of power not prefer an auction in the case of the coal-gate saga?
Most Indians believe that the PM is not corrupt. But if Parikh is to be believed, the PM was in a position to set the right course in the case of coal-gate but chose not to. The question then arises as to what was the justification for the actions of our “honest” PM? Was he forced by others into this decision? Did he proceed because he thought some decision was better than no decision at all? The fact is that even if “Harischandra” found himself at a crime scene, he would have to be treated as a suspect, especially if he could have done something to prevent the crime.
“When I joined in 2004 as the Coal Secretary, I had proposed the process of bidding. My minister at the time, Shibhu Soren, was not keen enough.” (Given Soren’s track record, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.) “But after the PM took over as Coal Minister, I had a meeting with him and he was very keen," Parikh said. The icing on the cake when it comes to the limitations of babudom lies in his next statement. "I got a Cabinet note prepared after getting his clearance. Some ministries, however, were not in favour of the auction process. I had wanted a meeting of all Cabinet secretaries but the meeting didn't happen ... I retired.."
After all this, you have ridiculous pronouncements by those in the ruling party that everything is hunky-dory with the UPA government and that Team Anna is comprised of “anti-national” elements. While it’s ok to defend your point of view, there is no excuse for coming up with ridiculous, laughable, counter allegations. If anything, Team Anna is obsessed with saving the nation from corruption, and their charges involve the UPA government doling out the country’s natural resources to their friends in the industry. It begs the question as to who is really anti-national!
Clearly, we have plenty of flaws in our current system and our “honest” PM should be aware of every bit of this. Our activists can only express their views through protests and allegations. It’s up to those in power to accept these deficiencies in our system and take steps to address them. Stone-walling, casting aspersions on the activists, waiting to see how much momentum their protests gain, and taking advantage of weak opposition is a betrayal by those entrusted with power by the people. Besides, this has simply gone on for too long. Even if Team Anna were wiped off the surface of this earth, these corruption charges are here to stay, and the onus is on the government to get to the bottom of every one of these corruption scams.
Our “honest” PM has to wake up to this reality sooner or later. Hopefully, given that this is most certainly his last innings as PM, he’ll break free one of these days, have an epiphany of sorts, extricate himself from the vice-like grip of the corrupt, take matters into his own octogenarian hands, and expose the country’s ills before a shell-shocked, yet rapturous nation, a la Bollywood style! At present, this seems like the only hope.
Too big to investigate?
It has been over a week since the irrigation scam in Maharashtra. A week has gone by and no scams unearthed yet? Come on. This can’t be true. But one thing is for sure, the country can trust Kejriwal & co. not to disappoint when it comes to fulfilling their thirst for scams. Sensing this desire for frequent scam news, they have now slowly started to announce dates in advance when they intend to go public about scams. This is perfect. We certainly need a schedule so we can mark them on our calendars so as not to be left out of the excitement. While a schedule is welcome, just two announcements is a little underwhelming. It’s like a two-match T20 series. In any case, we’ll take what we can get. With Dhoni and his boys on a downward trend, we need this fresh injection of speculation and expectancy from time to time.
By now, you are probably thinking, “Oh well...cut out this cynicism, please!” It’s hard not to be cynical when you have an assembly line of scams but no sign of any action from the government. Instead of addressing the scams you have ministers of the UPA vowing to teach those who attempt to expose corruption a lesson.
The irrigation scam and the allegations against Mr. Vadra strike at the heart of a widely accepted practice in India -- many in positions of power routinely exercise influence in return for unaccounted benefits. They often operate through their nearest kith and kin and the benefits can be to individuals or to political outfits or corporations, are all of the above. Most politicians groom their extended families to eventually enter politics. Very often, the early stages of grooming involve acting as “fixers.” These individuals remain below the radar for the most part until they get embroiled in a publicized scam of some sort. This role of “fixing” is a broad term encompassing a pretty diverse portfolio of services. Commonly offered services can range from routine school and college admissions, job appointments and transfers, new bank loans, write-off of old loans, film financing and distribution, etc. to more high stakes services like “encounter killings,” coerced land deals, and general “goondagiri”. All of these services are provided in return for some benefit or the other. This is the unwritten underlying system that has been in place for years and is widely practiced, no matter which party is in power.
Naysayers might immediately brush aside all this as hearsay. Clearly, these are hard to prove without a proper independent investigation. Unfortunately, it is precisely for this reason that these practices continue to this day. You just have to observe the family members of most politicians. You’ll find that many don’t have any qualifications to write home about, no job per se, yet you’ll find them enjoying a rather lavish lifestyle.
While the backdrop in most of these cases is misuse of power, the actual circumstances and the individuals and their backgrounds differ. In the case of Mr. Vadra, it was numerous real-estate deals facilitated by “soft loans” from interested parties. In the case of Mr. Gadkari, it appears that his influence and deals cut across party lines. These individuals are not exceptions. They just happen to be higher up in the value chain. At the state level, the state ministers and their families call the shots (as widely witnessed in the case of the Karunanidhi family when in power in TN), while the big wigs with connections at the center operate in other lucrative markets. It is a rampant, ubiquitous system of influence peddling that is firmly in place and universally accepted.
Over time, many such people across the country have grown immune to investigations because they belong to India’s “too big to investigate” class. Pursuing such individuals is considered “off limits” for practically everyone. This explains why the media did not pursue the Vadra story, despite it appearing in this newspaper more than a year back. Sadly, even the opposition chose to give this story a pass because in all likelihood, it had similar skeletons in its closet. The truth is that no one in the media or in the political circles had the “guts” to take this up and raise the public awareness until now because it strikes at the highest echelons of power in the country.
With each passing day, our trust and confidence in our democratic institutions continue to dwindle. The frustrations of the people are slowly but surely increasing by the day. Before things start of get out of hand, the ruling party will, at some point, have to accede to these repeated requests for an independent probe. This will help partly restore the public confidence in our democratic institutions and perhaps help the UPA return to the business of governing for the rest of its term. In fact, it might just help the UPA regain some credibility because the opposition parties continue to falter badly.
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