Category: India

The word “High Command” is so out of place and sticks out like a sore thumb in this day and age. It is the first thing that needs to be curtailed from its overarching control of Indian politics before India can embark on a path of genuine reform. Firstly, the term “High Command” has strange connotations almost of a higher, supernatural power which commands and controls our destinies. This is is ludicrous, to say the least, in a democratic country.

 

Secondly, the concept of a high command that simply issues orders that the other elected representatives are forced to follow goes against the basic premise that elected representatives are first and foremost accountable to the voters of their constituency. While it is true that people elect their representatives once every five years, it is also true that in our democracy, these representatives can virtually ignore their voters till the next election.

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“Anna demands Bharat Ratna for Sachin,” screamed the headlines. According to the same news report, Anna’s exact words were as follows: “Sachin Tendulkar is an icon for Indian youth. He has made India proud with his exploits in cricket. I feel he deserves the Bharat Ratna,” This is a sentiment expressed by many, especially Sachin fans. There is nothing wrong with what Anna has said in this case, and surely there is nothing controversial either. But is that what the headline implies?

The use of the word “demands” in the title fits well with the uncompromising image of Anna that has been portrayed in the media. So although it might be believable, it is clearly false if you read the rest of the report! Sometime down the road, vested interests would easily use this against Anna and his team by saying, “How can Anna demand Bharat Ratna for Sachin?” Once the genie is out, good luck putting it back.

 

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As the year draws to a close, one can’t help but wonder what a phenomenal year this has been for democracy. Starting with Tunisia, the clarion call for the right to self-determination and democracy has spread across the Middle East and north Africa and continues to transform the region for good. Syria is fast headed to the brink, while Saudi Arabia and the rest are probably terrified as to when these mass movements are going confront them as well.

While these fledgling new democracies overcome their initial euphoria and settle down to take on the hard challenges of self-rule, India has had the good fortune of having had a stable parliamentary democracy for the last 60+ years. While we could easily give these newbies oodles of lessons on democracy, there is plenty that we are faced with ourselves at the moment.

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The last couple of weeks have witnessed a pitched battle between seasoned, time-tested, political operatives in the ruling party and the relative novices of Team Anna. It was like Dhoni’s boys belting the English on slow turning Indian wickets. The harder Team Anna tried to defend itself, the stronger the Congress party came at them.

The attack has been relentless, Kiran Bedi’s travel-gate, Kejriwal’s employer dues, a cameo by a previously embarrassed Swami who switched sides (or did he need to?) and spewed venom on his former colleagues, among other divide and conquer strategies that all played out perfectly to plan. The melodrama of August that captured the imagination of the country seemed like a distant dream. Team Anna appeared like Englishmen longing for the seaming conditions back home. The media has all but forgotten the specifics of the Lokpal bill and is in a “tizzy” over breakups in Team Anna.

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There has been some discussion lately about excluding the lower bureaucracy from the Lokpal. One of the main reasons being bandied about is that the Lokpal will be overloaded should it include the lower bureaucracy, and it will fail as a result of this overload. There are two sides to this issue — the politics and the feasibility.

Let us first look at the politics behind this move. The government, or for that matter, most political parties, are keen on excluding the lower bureaucracy because corruption at this level feeds the rank and file of the political parties. For example, more than 80% of Rs 40,000 crore of the PDS subsidy is siphoned off, all of it through ration shops and food officers. The Rs 35,000 crore food grain scam in UP over many years, which is currently being probed by the CBI, took place at the lowest rung of the bureaucracy involving several hundred employees. This is a phenomenon that cuts across party lines and sadly comes at the expense of the poorest of our poor people. Including the lower bureaucracy under the Lokpal could potentially cut off the life-supply of our country’s political establishment. Not surprisingly, a consensus around excluding the lower bureaucracy is bound to emerge among our political parties.

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A number of people have expressed their discomfort with Team Anna’s involvement in the Hisar by-election. Some have suggested that the team should continue to remain apolitical. It is widely believed that being apolitical and non-partisan is what earned Team Anna its lion share of support and goodwill among the people. So it is natural to infer that should Team Anna get involved in elections, it might lose some of the mass appeal that it has garnered over the last year. But once again, despite the reservations of many well-wishers, Anna Hazare demonstrated his keen political sensibilities by deciding to campaign against the Congress party in Hisar.

The Congress party today has a sufficient enough majority in Parliament to pass any law. Unlike in its earlier UPA-I avatar where the stability of the government was always in question and the party was at the mercy of its allies, the UPA-II is relatively safe. For example, should the DMK drop out of the coalition, the AIADMK is waiting in the wings. There is no shortage of other such regional “plug and play” options, should the need arise. In other words, the Congress party has a comfortable mandate to take tough, decisive action, should it have the resolve and the political will to do so. It simply has no excuses to shy away from taking the lead on such important legislation.

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The ruling UPA has more than received its share of brickbats for the complete lack of leadership over the last several months. The dismal handling of the various scams culminating in the inept response to the anti-corruption struggle, championed by Team Anna, has been etched permanently in the UPA-II’s history. Unable to effectively handle its own dreadful corruption woes, the UPA has unleashed the CBI on its enemies, the Reddy brothers of Karnataka and Jagan Reddy of Andhra being the latest targets. This is certainly not to imply that the Reddys are innocent but the timing of these investigations, particularly against Jagan Reddy, is highly questionable. Jagan Reddy appears to have been deliberately targeted after he fell out with the Congress party.

Meanwhile, recent weeks have proven that India’s alternative to the Congress, the BJP, is no pure “Lotus” either. Team Anna approached the BJP, as early as December of last year, with the Jan Lokpal bill at the same time that it approached the ruling UPA. The BJP did absolutely nothing at that time. In fact, it was only on the penultimate day before Anna called off his fast did the BJP formally endorse the three demands in the parliamentary resolution. Many speculate that this move by the BJP was at the behest of the RSS. If the Congress party’s remote control is firmly in Sonia Gandhi’s hands, it appears that the BJP’s remote control is clearly stationed in Nagpur with the RSS.

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Shehla Masood, the RTI activist from Madhya Pradesh who was shot and killed recently, joined the unfortunate list of seventeen other known cases of RTI activists who have suffered the same fate over the last couple of years. According to a close associate of Shehla, she filed more than one thousand RTI applications in diverse areas ranging from the judiciary, the tendering process, the enforcement of Wildlife and Forest laws, heritage conservation, the lavish spending of public money, and human rights abuses. Quite understandably, she had accumulated a host of enemies across a broad range of departments until some vested interests decided it was time to snuff out this passionate and committed voice forever. Shehla Masood is not an isolated case. Such executions have been taking place every few months with almost predictable precision: Firebrand activist files several RTI applications, becomes a threat to those in power, gets killed by unknown assailants who are never traced.

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The anti-corruption drama has now moved to the next stage. At the moment, all sides seem to be claiming victory. As one observes the developments over the last few days a few fundamental questions repeatedly come to mind. Who exactly is running this country today? How are decisions taken? What exactly is the Congress’ real stand on Lokpal?

Let us take a quick look at the sequence of events.  First, the UPA sent its messengers to meet with Team Anna. One would assume that these messengers had clear instructions from the powers that be. They appeared all conciliatory to Team Anna and then invited them for talks. The next day at the meeting, the Government took a hardline stance and did not agree to any of their demands. While Salmam Khurshid played the role of first messenger, the next day the hardliners, Chidambaram and Sibal called the shots. It was back to “my way or the highway” all over again. It begs the question as to who chalked out the strategy for these two meetings?

Click here to read the rest of the article in The Economic Times