Breaking Babaji's Fast

The government, as represented by its ministers, has found an unusual method of creating a popular opposition--by not doing its job. The civil society agitations that have been in the news would have never occured had the government done its job--by controlling A. Raja and Suresh Kalmadi, making them accountable for their actions in office even as they worked on the rollout of the 2G spectrum and Commonwealth Games respectively. By not controlling these men, and then by refusing to react positively to the suggestion to bring black money stashed abroad back into India, the government gives the impression that, if not hand in glove with the corrupt, it is not exactly an administration that believes in punishing the guilty.

And then of course, there is the Lokpal Bill, which is necessary, to ensure that our legislators and bureaucrats remember they are accountable to the people. It appears that when in office, they tend to forget--they then act in the interests of their party, their castes, their family, their community, perhaps their constituents and states, but certainly not for "we, the people". And yes, the PM and the Chief Justice of India should be under its jurisdiction. The police force in each state, and the CBI in particular, should no longer be under the purview of the state or central governments--we have seen how everything to do with the police, from their recruitment to the cases they investigate, tends to get politicized or used to make populist points. It's now a given that, if a regional party makes a pact with the party at the centre to support its government in parliament, the various corruption and criminal cases registered against it by the CBI will be dropped. Our cops, from the constable to those working for the CBI, need to be armed and trained to deal with a wide variety of law and order problems--Maoist and fundamentalist terror; the activities of criminal networks in India and the various criminal acts committed by individuals, whether for personal gain or for the satisfaction of sociopathic desires. However, they are poorly paid and barely looked after by their political masters, who use them as goon squads to crush their opponents.

Baba Ramdev is only one man, as is Anna Hazare--as were Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. However, they are not alone--they voice the rage of the people against an elected government that has not been doing its job, either of managing its ministers (the compulsions of coalition government be damned!) or of preventing the siphoning off of public money whilst undertaking public works to glorify the nation. I am sure Dr. Manmohan Singh is an honest man (and so are they all, all honest men) but can they now stop behaving like a bunch of ostriches with their heads in the sand? It took many months and a loud outry against his non-performance to get Kalmadi and his corhorts into CBI custody, and again, it took a media storm to get Raja and Kanimozhi where they are today. So can this government not understand that the people are heartily sick of their excuses? We want a government that is honest, neither casteist nor communal and prepared to act swiftly to defend the people of this country, whether against terrorist threats, crime networks, corrupt netas or babus and piracy. Government spokespersons keep talking about how fast the economy is growing--but it is of no use to the aam aadmi, whom this government claims to represent, if the fruits of this growth are devoured by a corrupt elite. So get moving on the Lokpal Bill; get ready to stand up and be counted.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...

So now Mulayam Singh Yadav and his party want to drag us back by God knows how many years by abolishing English and the use of computers. Then you have the BJP, which has been carrying out a religious progrom in Orissa along with other members of the RSS family, trying to get all the votes possible by being a party for all seasons. And of course, the Congress tops the list by fielding Tytler and Sajjan Kumar YET AGAIN, based on a "clean chit" from the CBI. Based on what evidence, I wonder? Or is it based on the fact that these two worthies belong to the ruling party? Is that the sole criterion? And then there is Mayawati, who could probably teach Robert Mugabe a thing or two about kleptocracy.

There are times when I think that the only difference between India and Zimbabwe is the fact that we have elections more frequently and there are occasional changes in the ruling party at the centre. However, we too are ruled by a bunch of thugs and kleptocrats, who, because of their lack of respect for the rule of law, have subverted every government institution to such an extent that we are vulnerable to terrorist threats from all sides. THIS IS TRUE OF EVERY PARTY, INCLUDING THE BJP. The latter used to pride itself on its discipline and its so-called cleanliness--but it has proved to be just as corrupt and equally uncaring. There's nothing to choose between Delhi 1984, Gujarat 2002 and Orissa 2008. Hence,
Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Who is the least evil of them all?

Begin with a Respect for the Rule of Law

As this article makes clear, what happened in Mumbai was a tragedy of errors--an ill-prepared state security apparatus uncer the control of hidebound bureaucrats and politicians better known for breaking the laws than abiding by them, up against a group that was professionally trained and motivated to create the maximum amount of havoc. Playing the blame game with Pakistan is a waste of energy--we have to begin with ourselves.

Why are we such a soft target for terrorists? Is it because our criminal justice system barely functions, and is held ransom to the whims and fancies of whichever party is in power? Evidently, Afzal Guru's mercy petition, submitted to the President of India, is still with the Delhi government, which has yet to express its opinion on it after four long years. Why the delay?

As we have seen with the Aarushi and Rizwan cases, our police force is not known for its investigative skills. And now the various terrorist attacks we have faced prove that is is incapable of protecting the lives of citizens. A news item in Headlines Today described the bolt-action .303 rifles issued to Mumbai policemen--they do not know how to fire these and were hopelessly outgunned by the terrorists.

So why not begin by freeing police forces of political control? Why don't our politicians and bureaucrats let the cops conduct their investigations without fear or favour? Why not give them world-class training, equipment and living standards, to attract India's best and brightest, instead of her most corrupt? If we begin by cracking down on ALL crime, we might not require a special terror law.

When will We Ever Learn?

There's been yet another terrorist attack in Mumbai, led by yet another outfit calling itself the Deccan Mujahedeen. This is very different from the standard bombs in rubbish bins modus operandi and its target are British and American passport holders.

My question is: Why hasn't the Indian government woken up, even after the wake-up calls of the Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Delhi blasts earlier this year, not to speak of the Hyderabad blast of last year? Why don't we have a suitable intelligence apparatus in place? We need good, credible intelligence, which is based on facts and reasoning, not just the opinions of yes-men and time servers. We have had enough of people who will do and say anything to keep their political bosses happy.

As for our politicians, when will these worthies wake up? When the entire nation is up in smoke? They don't care about the number of people killed, not just in terrorist attacks, but in traffic accidents that could have been avoided. Can they at least work at bringing our police and fire services up to a level so that the army does not have to be called in at every instance? This way, the army is used most often to quell civil emergencies that the police and fire services should be able to handle. Our policemen and firemen need world-class equipment and training, and they should enjoy a standard of life that would attract well-educated and intelligent people to the service, not just the dregs of society, who treat a government job as an excuse for collecting bribes.

I feel the inaction of our political class--or their tendency to stand up for one Indian community against another--will lead to a situation very similar to that in the Balkans. We may not have broken up in 1948, but it could yet happen, if our political class does not wake up to its responsibilities and work in the national interest, not just in permanent election mode.

Needed: A New Politics in India

We have just seen the Tatas ousted from Singur by Mamata Bannerjee and her party, the Trinamool Congress. This, despite the fact that the Tata Nano project might have employed some of the farmers displaced by the creation of an SEZ in Singur.

There are two rights that clash here—the farmers’ right to retain ownership of cultivable land and the industrialists’ right to set up industries as and where they see fit. It is a difficult compromise to negotiate. The farmers feel that cultivable land is being taken over by industrialists, with the help of the state. And industrialists feel that politicians are using farmers’ real or perceived grievances to make it difficult for them to set up industries.

Of course, the ideal setup would be to let industrialists buy the land directly from farmers, and draw their labour from the locality itself. The state should only intercede to the extent that it indicates suitable uncultivable land that can be used for setting up factories. However, it is unlikely that politicians and bureaucrats will give up their power to this extent.

Indian politicians appear to live in a bubble—many of them begin their political careers while still in college. Very few have actual experience of holding down salaried jobs or trying to make two ends meet. There is no tradition of combining political work with regular employment—the lack of public transport and other civic amenities mean that most Indians, even professionals, concentrate on their work and home life to the exclusion of almost everything else. It is only in the last fifteen years or so that an alternative to the five-star culture of the preceding decades has emerged for a class of people who now earn a lot better than their parents. And the middle class has begun to acquire a certain amount of political clout, because of its involvement in demanding justice in landmark criminal cases, such as the Jessica Lall case or the Nitish Katara murder. It is likely that this might herald a return of the middle class to Indian politics, which was a field that it gradually abandoned after independence. This was because political work acquired a bad reputation in the seventies, because of its association with hooliganism and criminality. Several Indian politicians, including the CM of a state, have not only been accused of crimes but were actually let out of jail to vote in the recent confidence vote in Parliament. And the attitude that most politicians have towards criminal activity of any kind ranges from tolerance to outright encouragement—no less than a central government labour minister sympathized with a group of workers in Noida who had lynched their MD.

Industrialisation and the emergence of a powerful middle class, with its own values and world views, are essential for the survival and further development of democracy in India, since the middle class emphasizes a reliance on equality before the law. Most politicians, however, tend to see themselves above and beyond the law, rather like modern-day equivalents of the maharajas they deposed a few decades ago. They also tend to see themselves, not as Indians but as representatives of their caste or their region. In part, this is to gain votes in elections—and most Indian politicians are in permanent election mode. So it is not surprising that it is Mamata Bannerjee, and not the left parties (who are in power in West Bengal) who opposes an SEZ in Singur, ostensibly because she supports the cause of landless farmers, but actually because it gets her the media and popular attention she needs to remain in politics.

Indian politicians need to develop a national perspective and they need to look long-term at various policies. We need industries to take surplus labour off the land. We have surplus labour on the land because the handicrafts were practically destroyed during the colonial era and the unemployed craftsmen had no other recourse but to become farmers or farm labourers. Hence, a viable policy needs to be worked out where the needs of industrialists and farmers are met fairly.

Guilt by Association?

Why is it that those who are related to the accused or are unfortunate enough to be dragged into a police investigation in a capital crime feel the heat? Why should they be blamed for assisting the police with their enquiries? And what about cops who bungle cases--should they be promoted or asked to leave the force? After all, the Portuguese cop who headed the enquiry into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann lost his job when his investigation failed. Shouldn't the same rules apply to Indian cops also?

The Countdown Begins

So, Dr. Singh has finally moved the confidence motion in the Lok Sabha. He's finally rid of an enemy posing as an ally and the Left parties have lost their chance to show what they could have done as part of a Central government. They've shown themselves to be petty-minded and unable to break out of a Cold War mindset, despite the fall of the Berlin wall over 17 years ago. Well, it's their loss, not ours--but what surprises me is the double-faced nature of the BJP response. They have worked hard to improve Indo-US and Indo-Israel ties while in power and have done their bit to end India's nuclear isolation, which began in 1998, immediately after the nuclear tests. But--and this is important, considering the fact that the party is ostensibly led by mature men like Vajpayee and Advani--they have chosen to come out against the deal. Are they now getting into election mode? Do they honestly think they will be able to make a dent in double-digit inflation, which has been caused due to a world-wide rise in petroleum prices? Don't they realise that India needs nuclear power for its energy security and needs to be recognised by the other nuclear states? Or do they want the honour of signing the deal for themselves?

Another interesting fact--none of the MPs who are supporting the UPA are doing so because they are animated by national interest--they all have their legal cases or petty little problems to be sorted out by the Central Government. So the law (and development) takes a backseat, while petty criminals exercise their power. Now that Mayawati is no longer persona grata in Delhi, plans for a Lucknow airport or the refurbishment thereof are on hold and ALL the cases against her have been handed over to the CBI. And since Mulayam is helping the UPA, cases against him have been dropped. If a professional dentist like Dr. Talwar or a factory worker like Mohan, the brother of his compounder, can lose their jobs because of the stigma of being involved in a criminal investigation, why can't our politicians be deprived of power unless they can prove themselves innocent in a court of law? If we abide by the rule of law, then that law should apply to all citizens, including Mayawati, Mulayam, Shahabuddin, Pappu Yadav et. al. And had the BJP been in this quandary, they would have also allied with the same people, despite ideological or electoral differences.