By Amulya Ganguli
India has been at the receiving end of adverse comments from the world community on several counts. These include the prolonged incarceration of social activists and the civil unrest on the citizenship measures while inside the country, there is disquiet about the emasculation of autonomous institutions.
But no less disturbing than these politically directed assaults on some of the basic features of a democracy is the creeping erosion of the legislative system, the very lifeblood of an open society. This attrition of the value of the legislatures – the state assemblies and parliament – is the result of a virtual reduction of their members to purchasable commodities.
Because of such essentially commercial transactions in political loyalties, there is a serious danger of the entire legislative system being brought into disrepute, forcing people to lose faith in the democratic process of periodic elections to choose MLAs and MPs.
If it becomes commonplace for a legislator to be induced by a resourceful party with “a kind word and a gun”, as the American mafia don, Al Capone said, to dump his or her outfit and cross over to a new one, then the popular faith in the choice of people’s representatives will gradually lose all meaning, especially if Al Capone’s “gun” is replaced by filthy lucre.
If the trend of such switching of political allegiance continues, the world’s faith in the vaunted Indian democracy will be severely undermined. Within the country, the dilution of ideologies will erode the party system with the legislators following the idea of “everyone for himself and devil take the hindmost”.
With doctrinal principle being merrily abandoned, there cannot but be a calamitous decline in the calibre of people who will join politics. As it is, the profession is generally not credited with attracting the best and the brightest, which is why it is looked down upon as a cesspool, as Amitabh Bachchan said at the end of brief stint in the Congress.
It is the deterioration in the quality of men and women in politics which has facilitated the entry of MLAs and M.P.s with a criminal background in the profession and led to the so-called criminalization of politics with the bureaucrats also becoming a part of the unholy cabal.
As a result of these dubious groups working in tandem to feather their own nests, the moral scaffolding of the system is being severely strained with the rule of law, the epitome of democracies, being replaced by the whims of the rulers whose motivating factor is mostly political vendetta.
One fallout of this amoral brand of politics is to make a mockery of the world’s largest democracy, which has long been India’s proud claim to fame. The spectacle of the MLAs being herded together like sheep by their party leaders and ferried to five-star resorts for safe keeping in order to forestall any attempt of poaching by the rival camp would have been amusing if it wasn’t seen as a systemic failure.
Mercifully, the numbers of those who escape the dragnet of the party leaders are not too high. It is usually around 20. But they underline the adage of how one rotten apple can spoil the rest. The attitude of these itinerant MLAs travelling from one party to another is one of the crudest form of skullduggery imaginable.
It is up to the voters, of course, to weed them out in the next round of elections. If this does not always happen, it is because various local factors – caste, community, the Robin Hood image of some of the babubalis or strong men – help them to evade even the threat of “none of the above” button being pressed on the voting machines.
These are also the very same factors which persuade the political parties to choose these tainted candidates. It is a vicious cycle where the “winnability” of the local dons helps them to strike roots in their constituencies and keep the voters and the parties in their grip. Former Prime Minister V.P. Singh was the only one who told an election rally not to vote for candidates with an unsavoury past even if they belonged to his party. No other Indian politician has been so forthright.
But, is this the reason why the Janata Dal has faded out? Given its fate, will any other leader summon the courage to offer the same advice to voters? So, as the MLAs long for greener pastures and the voters helplessly accept the inevitability of supporting them, the intelligentsia can only wring their hands in despair.
Since the self-serving parties have turned down a proposal to bar anyone who has been charge-sheeted from contesting on the grounds that the person may be the victim of false accusations, the Election Commission and the legal system will have to find ways of ensuring that the bahubalis are kept out of the election arena. Otherwise, the future of democracy in India will become increasingly dark. (IPA Service)