“I spoke to Mulayam-ji at 10.30
PM. Then I spoke to CM (chief minister) Akhilesh Yadav. And at 11.11 PM the
Collector received the SDM’s suspension order – within 41 minutes the order came. This is the strength of
democracy” thundered Narendra Bhati, a Samajwadi Party member, in a rally he
organised at Gautam Budh Nagar in NOIDA in the state of Uttar Pradesh on July 28,
2013.
Narendra Bhati is also a Member
of the UP Legislative Assembly and an aspiring parliamentarian. He was bragging
about the way he got the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of New Okhla
Industrial Development Area (NOIDA), Durga Sakti Nagpal a young Indian Administrative
Service (IAS) officer, placed under suspension for allegedly having a wall
demolished of a mosque coming up on a government plot of land in a village in
her jurisdiction. Mercifully, he claimed that his actions symbolised triumph,
presumably over the uppity IAS bureaucracy, of democracy, not his own. What he
did not mention, however, was that he had enormous controlling interests in the
allegedly illegal sand mining in rivers of the district which she (the SDM)
cracked down upon incurring his wrath and that of his cohorts in the
sand-mining mafia.
The story is indicative of two
facts one of which is the way the young, honest and idealistic officers working
with missionary zeal for the nation’s wellbeing in accordance with law are
broken in to fall in line with the “system” so that the crooked political class
could ride them on their back. All their angularities and idealisms are blunted
and, finding themselves insecure, most become part of the “system”. The
“system”, corrupt and anti-people, is designed and put in place by unscrupulous
netas (leaders) like Bhati and
bureaucrats who happened to have succumbed to their pressures forgetting about
all their ideals or whatever they had joined the government with. Numerous
instances have been reported of bureaucrats giving up their initial fervour
under the threat of frequent capricious and penal transfers, suspensions or
even more severe actions against them for not toeing the line of netas. Choosing softer options they act
as handmaidens of self-serving netas and
assist them in their nefarious activities.
The second fact that emerges in
high relief is the way crooked politicians operate for personal gain and gains
for their cronies interfering with unbiased administration, playing around with
innocent bureaucrats’ careers. Over the years the netas have emerged ever stronger so much so that they can twist and
bend the laws and established procedures to their personal advantage. Threats
and intimidation are often taken recourse to against bureaucratic objections to
get their way that is mostly irregular or even illegal. In government
establishments in India nothing moves without their approval, more so in the
states and their acts are mostly oriented to milking the system. Even netas outside the governing machinery
have acquired a say in regard to practically every aspect of administration
effectively neutralising the bureaucratic process and the Rule of Law.
They have become so
power-obsessed that they do not want any check on them and their unethical and
irregular activities. The Lokpal (Ombudsman) bill is a glaring example; they
have stalled it for around forty five years – an enactment that would have
objectively looked into their shenanigans. Even the independence of the Central
Bureau of Investigation has been a bone of contention as the government of the
day would not want to let go of its control over it as it is often let loose on
people considered inconvenient. Besides, it is used to settle scores with its
opponents and, in the current coalition era, to keep a sword hanging over
corrupt netas whose support is vital
for sustenance of a precariously perched government. Anna Hazare’s movement in
2011 movement was all about this vital agency but he was fobbed off by
parliamentarians with a clever subterfuge. Now even the Apex Court is
attempting to free it from government control. Quite obviously, in the event of
it being unchained, numerous politicians – big and petty – and many legislators
in the states and at the Centre would go where they legally belong – behind the
bars, criminals as they all are.
No wonder, members of parliament across
the entire political spectrum, who generally keep snapping at each other, have
exhibited rare unity in agreeing to enact a law that negates the Supreme
Court’s decision to strike down the iniquitous provision in the Representation
of People’s Act that protects a convicted member from disqualification on
ground of pendency of appeal. The ruling alliance headed by the Congress is
very clearly out to prevent criminals from going to jail! It is such a pity
that the party that spearheaded the Freedom Struggle epitomising observance of
strict morality in politics has come to plumb such depths of un-ethicality and pursue
politics devoid of any values.
Again, MPs displayed the same
rare unity in asking the government to amend the Right to Information Act to
keep political parties out of its purview. The Central Information Commissioner
(CIC) had brought six major political parties under the Act being recipients of
government largesse. It hit them where it hurts most as most of them have shady
dealings and none has ever declared the sources of their funds. Besides, they
also harbour criminals on the basis of their utility in fund-raising and
winnability. As the CIC decision shattered
their opacity bringing all their fishy activities in public domain all of them
were up in arms against him.
The netas always gang up whenever their interests are at stake. The
former Lok Sabha speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, had been pleading for constitution
of an independent body to determine the pay and allowances of the legislators.
Stonewalling the reasonable suggestion they made extravagant demands for their
pay-hike. Eventually, in 2010 they voted hefty hikes in their pay, allowances
and perquisites so much so that the government now is estimated to be spending
Rs. 61 crore (6 billion) per annum on each MP. No wonder, more than half of the
MPs and many legislators in the states are crorepaties (multimillionaires). And,
yet apart from their high salaries, earnings from personal businesses and
yields from illegal and corrupt activities, they have no shame in partaking food
and beverages from the Parliament canteen at heavily subsidised and
ridiculously low rates.
In view of their despicable
conduct politicians have come to be
viewed with contempt and as proverbial “scoundrels”. Most of them are corrupt
to the core and not only crooked, they are also criminals having criminal
charges filed against them or have even been convicted. They effectively
interfere in the process of balanced administration and have successfully
subverted the Rule of Law. Their main occupation seems to be to exploit the
system, expropriate undue perks and privileges, plunder the state’s resources,
make illegal money any which way using their status to enrich themselves and
buy votes in order to return to power again and again. Their immorality has
prevented economic progress of the country and in many ways it has percolated
down to the society at large bringing down the once-shining image of the
country. It is mainly because of their corrupt ways that the country figures
near the bottom in the international corruption index.
Democracy, ironically, has been
largely vitiated by the very people who are supposed to work it. Unfortunately,
the country seemingly has slipped unwittingly into a highly iniquitous and
corrupt oligarchy of the political class which has appropriated power,
privileges and riches at the expense of the state to the exclusion of all
others, destroying everything their predecessors, the nation builders, stood
for. Their overwhelming presence doesn’t seem to allow alleviation from the
current predicament of the country in the near future.
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