Issue 68 Vol III, July 31, 2008

E D I T O R I A L

Democracy of Freebooters

THE UPA government has won a reprieve, by a significant margin; 275-256. It has generated euphoria in the ranks of the ruling party and its new found allies, particularly the Samajwadi Party. It has also set in motion the expulsion of those 24 MPs from the opposition who voted for the government or abstained themselves to help the UPA. The CPM has expelled speaker Somnath Chatterjee, ten time member of the Lok Sabha and it is the first expulsion of the party from the Lok Sabha till today. BJP, SP and other parties have expelled 17 members including Akali Dal which has expelled Sukhdev Singh Libra, a supporter of late Gurcharan Singh Tohra for abstaining.

This victory means that the government can move fast to strike the nuclear deal with America, bring what it calls reforms in pension, insurance sectors and offer concessions to industries to check slow down. The industry is happy as it can have more of its pound of flesh in terms of concessions. Stock market is looking upbeat. At the same time, the aam admi; the farmers, workers and ordinary folks should be ready to face more hardships as prices shoot upward, starvation, unemployment and suicides. The government has nothing to offer.

This trust vote on July 22 turned out to be a double-edged sword. There are dramatic allegations of bribes-for-votes and live television images of wads of cash on the floor of the Lok Sabha. It almost ambushed the debate on the nuclear deal. These images would stay as a blot on the face of Indian democracy for long time to come. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Congress, and its new-found allies can gloat at the victory. Parliamentary democracy is in complete disarray.

Bags of money have become more than a shadowy presence in our politics. We shall know the truth of the charges that were levelled by three BJP MPs. But what has already been established, beyond doubt, is that the bags of money have become are not a mere metaphor for the nature of our politics, they are its essence. The run up to the trust vote and till the voting which was necessitated by parting of ways by the Left reflects abominable depths in our politics. The wads of currency notes which the people saw on the television screen on July 22 have left them dumb. If the charges which are serious enough are true, it would lead to the demise of the present day parliamentary system and if false and stage-managed, then we have reached to a heinous level that would subvert democracy.

We all know the Indian politics has no scruples, no principles and any common prudence. Yet this ugly spectacle that started with the Congress Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and union home minister Buta Singh bribing Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MPs in 1993 to ward off a no confidence motion has come to visit us with a vengeance. In September 2000 a Court had convicted Narasimha Rao and Buta Singh but acquitted nine others including Bhajan Lal, Ajit Singh and Rajeshwar Rao. Is our present day honest prime minister in that bad company now? Given his character, Dr Manmohan Singh personally may never be involved, yet he would taken full advantage of bring his way to win confidence motion.  But for these defections, the government by now would have been part of history.

The UPA government won the confidence vote. But it is bound to lose the trust of the nation and its people. The use of unethical means — getting jailed MPs bail to vote, barters, tradeoffs, defections, horse-trading and what not — touched an all-time low. Dr. Singh proved to be a good modern-day politician. As an individual, he is a man of uprightness but as a politician he is no different from others of his tribe. He may be very happy with his growth rate of nine per cent [now down to seven] yet the gap between the rich and the poor has widened and as an economist he has done nothing to control the galloping inflation.

Over 40 crore people get just one meal a day and no drinking water. Over one lakh farmers have committed suicides during the past one decade. 80 per cent Indians have no toilets. What achievements are these? Out literacy rate is below even Bangladesh and yet we are up on the scale of corruption. As a politician, has he not brought a bad name by striking unholy alliances to win the trust vote? What a precipitous fall!

The tug of war between the political parties to win/defeat the confidence vote brought only scorn for the Indian politics. Throwing values to the winds, parties reduced the political process into an auction where votes could be sold to the top bidder. Common peoppe feel cheated and those among the journalists who support the UPA government’s nuclear deal and other policies, there is a feeling of deep discomfort with what they have been observing.

Level of debate at times degenerated and if we had not those ten odd  good speakers who supported or opposed the confidence motion, Indian parliament would have been worst than a fish market. Watching the Lok Sabha proceedings, it was clear that the focus of many politicians was not the nuclear deal at all. Their allegations, tone and tenor, gesticulations, animated faces, and loud clapping … all these made for amusement.  The Speaker was all the time pleading with the members to observe decorum. Many politicians said during the debate in the Lok Sabha that they had not read the text of the deal. How, then, did they decide to have a say on this vital issue? Same is true about other commentators who support or oppose the nuclear deal.

It is being argued that only not more than five percent members are bad and at least we should be happy with the rest. Behind this valid numerical point is a deeper malaise. The Congress Party had a trump card all these four long years that it had a prime minister whose integrity was without doubts. But in order to retain political control rather than face elections, the party has lost this moral distinctiveness. In dealing with these wheelers and dealers something of their unsavoury side was bound to rub off on the government. The Congress has legitimised the idea that the end justifies the means. One can do business with anyone on any terms. Once legitimised, this principle corrodes everything that we call moral. Tragically what the BJP has done recently in Karnataka to keep control of the government there should  worry every supporter of democracy in India to shame. Our politicians have become tradable commodities and they are reducing electoral system and parliamentary institutions to the level of farce. To whom should we look forward for solace?

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