The true colours of Indian polity

Lok Pal bill logjam has rocked entire India excepting the polity who are only playing  a game of chess or just doing shadow boxing. Every politician who counts in this country has been talking  that Anna's fast should end. Wise men, if you had even an iota of sincerity of purpose and honesty streak in you, you could have done something substantial during ten days of  his fast in parliament with all the good intentions you guys have been claiming to have to get his fast ended. Instead we had a stunningly weak bill introduced in the parliament, raised the normal political bogey of simultaneous murders of democracy, constitution of India, institute of parliament, social fibre of the country, even the integrity of the country etc. etc.. and finally that Lok Pal is not the panacea for eradication of corruption and it needs many more laws and enactments. In fact it appears that all these bogeys and wise talk is resorted to so that their right of colluding to and perpetuating the corrupt practices in this country is not taken away.

Gentlemen, nobody is against parliament, no disrespect to the institution but the leaders have collectively made a joke of themselves by safeguarding  personal and party interests by dillydallying even on the first small step towards having a corruption free India. You have to find ways and means of " How to do something and not how not to do it. " Even now nothing is lost , use all your discretion for once for something that is for the good of the country and its poor masses and save Anna for guidance on many other crucial matters of concern to poor and downtrodden of the country. You will be doing  great service to this country.

The lure of being a politician in India

When India got independence, politicians were a very respected lot for they had entered this arena with a strong urge to do something for the country and its masses. But today it is a different story all together. It is not for nothing that every individual in the country who is not barred from entering politics by being in government service is lured into politics. You only need to monitor the wealth accumulation in the hands of those in politics, starting from a street level, panchayat level or municipal level politician to state level , all India  level  etc., you will know the reason. The deeds of bigger politicians are there in the newspaper or electronic media for everyone to see but it does not mean that others are saints. All the smaller fish in this profession get paid through allocation of property, purchase orders, contracts. export licences, transport licences, managing selections, transfers, postings and promotions of government officials as touts to those in power. So much so even helping in getting a ration card or a voting card is also business for some.

The centre and state level politicians have access to a bigger pie for they can enact laws and bend rules to further the interests of their stooges and cronies. They keep on hiking their perks, salaries and pensions without obligation to any code of conduct. They have a special right to interfere in matters pertaining to executive decisions under the garb of looking after the interests of their constituency and its voters. They have huge funds to give as doles to a selected few in their constituency. They can float various corporations and psu's to favour their friends with big fat salaries and perks. All this is not for free as the famous axiom ' You scratch my back I will scratch yours ' is the rule of the game.

Enough to highlight the furthering of self interests in the name of shaping the destiny of this nation and improving the lot of masses. Little is done and more hype is created to fool their vote banks. It could very easily be said that politics is the first love of corrupt, corruptible and tainted citizens of this country.

Indian War against Corruption - Whose War

Surprisingly we have many voices from polity of the country and intelligentsia of the country who tell us that corruption will not end by having a strong Lok Pal but still nobody seems to have the inclination or honesty of purpose to spell out what measures are required. The aim seems to scuttle the movement against corruption by not letting materialise even the first important step towards the ultimate goal.
These politicians through their cronies and stooges along with certain persons with distorted thought process and vision are making the last ditch losing battle to ensure that Anna's ( India's ) fight for corruption does not culminate into a success story. Ever since Jan Lok Pal Bill draft has come into public domain and war against corruption has gained momentum, we are hearing all kind of bizarre, crooked and distorted arguments against Anna as well as the bill. It all started with the rhetoric of the movement being anti Parliament, anti constitution, anti people and what not. Then it was called the tyranny of the unelected and unelectable. Next attack was on the honesty of the the whole team Anna and because they were falsely labelled as corrupt they had no business or right to talk about mitigation of corruption. Perhaps that is the reason all our politicians have never tried any meaningful approach to fight this menace. Suddenly some people came up with the idea that since foreign countries are not happy with the  rapid progress being made by India, they are trying to destabilise the government of the country. What rotten argument ! These foreigners are wise enough to understand that if India can destroy the demon of corruption and black money, it can progress at may be double the present pace. Or may be they are wise enough to understand the pulse of Indian Polity, in that, these people  will hang on to any straw to maintain status quo. After all we all know that there is no business that gives returns higher than the business of politics. One earns tons of money without any investment, without any professional earning ability, only through unabashed use of associated power and authority, discretion and manipulations of rules and regulation, nepotism and favouritism etc. etc.. Lastly it is being made out by a few   that this is a movement of middle class urbanites as if the benefits of ending corruption will accrue only to this class and as if the downtrodden have nots will be more miserable  if this fight succeeds. What dirty politics to divide the masses! Sisters and brothers of India, whether from villages or cities, from  any religion, caste or creed,rich or poor, don't be taken in by any of these tricks of politicians, for end of corrupt people  and corruption will be the end of your poverty and miseries.Your poverty is a direct result of  corruption  by  those in authority and power.

Corruption in India:Apathy or Compulsion of politicians

Corruption is the biggest menace and enemy of our country. You hear this day in and day out from politicians of all shades and colours. BJP the main opposition party says that they have been raising this issue all along and have been fighting tooth and nail in parliament on various scams that have rocked the country in recent times. BJP, Samajwadi Party, Communist Party of India (M) and Bahujan Samaj Party are only maintaining an anti government stance on the issues of Lok Pal and fight against corruption. They do not want to take any initiative in these issues of utmost national importance.Because both, those in power and those out of power cannot win elections unless they give corruption empowerment to their cronies and followers down to the level of village and mohalla leaders. The government on its part claims to be equally concerned about corruption and quotes the prime minister message on this independence day wherein he declared war on graft. Surprising still no word on black money. Is it a slip or a calculated omission? 

Some excerpts from PM's speech :

"In the last few months many instances of corruption have come to light. In some cases, functionaries of the Central government face allegations of corruption. In other cases, it is the functionaries of various State governments".

The Extent of Corruption Menace is being undermined in this statement. There may not be even 5% cases where  corruption is not there.

"Any government awards contracts worth thousands of crores every year. There are frequent complaints of corruption in these decisions. We had constituted a committee to suggest measures to reduce corruption in government purchases. The committee has recommended that, like many other countries, we should also have a public procurement legislation which lays down the principles and practice with regard to government purchases. We will introduce a Bill in Parliament by the end of this year to enact such a law".

 As if the country did not have procedures and principles all these years.This just appears to be an effort to show some thing to the simple masses of the country so that they remain silent for another six decades. Incidentally, all government contracts are awarded through various committees and after getting a certificate from the chairman that the prices are reasonable.

Sometimes the government talks about compulsions of coalition governments when dealing with corrupt people. The same is said when some path breaking economic or administrative action is to be taken. Are we not being made to pay too high a price for coalition governments.Why can't the government or any other party  put up bills in the parliament with an honest approach to kill corruption from this country and show it to the country once and for all who wants to kill this demon and who wants it to grow.This has not been done in the last six decades and is perhaps not likely to be done in future also for they know that someone out of them only has to be the winner in elections irrespective of whether ninety percent vote or abstain during elections.  

Chance of a lifetime - A piece of wisdom to the unwise polity of India

You guys have looted this country for six decades at a stretch. You have played with the policies, rules and regulations, power of discretion, absolute misuse of authority to further your monetary interests, to further the monetary interests of your city, town, village and street level political goons who ensure victory for you in elections.You people get remuneration and unlimited perks from the government funds. What benefit these associates get legally? You give them the access to fill their pockets through graft, corruption and black money generation making use of your powers unabashedly.

Gentlemen , it is a wake up call for all of you. It is God sent opportunity to get your names in the history of this nation. It is an opportunity to ensure government for yourselves for maybe next fifty years.And above all an opportunity to eradicate poverty and giving an enviable life style and conveniences to the billions of common citizens of India in just five years. The choice is entirely yours for you are the ones who are responsible for the neglect and miseries of these billions through a combination of your corrupt governance and bad governance over the last sixty years.

The 5-8% growth in GDP that too for the last few years only, that is being boasted of by the government could be catapulted to 15% and beyond if only corruption and black money could just be halved. This is beyond my imagination as to what level of growth we could hit upon if corruption and black money could be eradicated and black money stashed abroad could be brought back. Gentlemen, this is the opportunity that is beckoning you.

Find out just one man who is INCORRUPTIBLE  in the true sense of the word ie. who could not be bought for  because of his lust for money, lust for wine and woman, lust for power or lust for having a great name. I understand there is danger of being deserted by more than 50 % of these fair weather friends if the right kind of administrative and judicial reforms with an absolute sincerity and honesty of purpose are put before the parliament. Let the bills be defeated . Let the government fall. But in the ensuing elections if you put up a stone as a candidate, people will see to it that it emerges as a winner and the people who oppose these measures will find it difficult even to walk on the streets of this country.

Indian Governance - A Corrupt governance

We have heard of good governance and bad governance. A good governance is desirable to achieve best possible results, a bad governance can be forgiven and tolerated to some extent for in this case the decisions of the government do not originate out of ulterior motives but are the result of wrong judgement. The agony of Indian Governance is that all decisions are a result of corrupt motivation in one form are the other.

The scams like 2 G, CWG, Adarsh or the mining scam in Karnatka and other states are just a few samples of thousands of such scams going on in this country where the country's resources like minerals, land, spectrum etc. and tax payers money is being wasted at whims and fancies of political bigwigs using all discretionary powers to favour themselves directly or indirectly. The present day government takes credit for the action taken by it in these cases. But imagine the  amount of effort that was needed to convince the government for action by media, opposition, civil society, CAG, CVC and even the Supreme Court. The extent of involvement of judiciary, CBI, and other government organs only suggests that they cannot handle five more such cases in a reasonable period of time particularly looking into the attitude and sensitivity of the government in all these cases.

The discretionary powers of the authority are meant to safeguard the interests of the nation, whereas in all these cases discretion was used to favour one party or the other. The nation is given to believe that in 2G spectrum allocation, the decisions were taken in the light of of prevailing government policies on the matter, the policies which were framed some fifteen years back looking into the requirements of that time. These powerful politicians and bureaucrats bend the rules under the garb of discretionary powers to help themselves, their near and dear ones or their favoured ones when looting this nation but when it comes to do the same for the good of the nation they behave worse than clerks even and go verbatim by the rule book. The motivation for doing so is not very hard to understand.
The CAG report on CWG mess is said to be pointing out to procedural irregularities only and there is no mention of the word scam. Even a clerk in the government won't succumb to procedural irregularities unless and until he has his axe to grind. The motivation on the part of of all bigwigs involved to commit such irregularities is not hard to understand. Incidentally even if no procedural irregularities are resorted to, there is still a corruption margin of 30 % of the project cost because of use of less quantity, substandard materials and not adhering to construction specifications which cannot be checked once the civil work is finished.
To control such occurrences we require some sincerity of purpose on the part of those who rule this country. This cannot happen till such time we advocate the motto ' Loyalty to the chair and not to the nation ', and the political parties do  rely on persons wedded to moral ethics and who have some substance, sincerity and honesty of purpose in their thought process and not on persons who have been bestowed only with extraordinary gift of the gab to defend even their wrongful actions. Incidentally majority of spokespersons of all political parties are advocates who adhere only to professional ethics where their utmost priority is to defend their client irrespective of the fact whether the client is right or wrong. The moral ethics take a back seat in their profession and they carry the same during their governance stints also.
As a first major step towards fighting corruption let us do away with all discretionary powers so that we graduate into the realm of bad governance from the present state of corrupt governance. By doing so we will only be causing damage to government kitty that too in some cases and will not be filling the coffins of corruption money which has spiraling damaging effect on the economy.

Indian Governance - A Sham

Some views of Indian Polity on corruption

The asking for a meaningful Lok Pal Bill by Team Anna has been termed as a danger to democracy, tyranny of the non elected and non electable. If this is so we are all proud to escape the slur of being  Electable.
Anna has no right or business to talk of corruption in this country because there are charges of corruption against him.The basis for this charge is the observation of a commission some 7 years back. Why no action by this honest government? What was the motivation of no follow up action ? Honesty I believe !

Those tainted with corruption have no right to take up the cause of fight against corruption. That is perhaps the reason our politicians are so insensitive to this cause and are not taking action against it. True to their convictions at least ! 

Fundamental rights are not absolute rights in the context of fast and Satyagrah by Anna Hazare on fight against corruption by the party who claims to inherit values from Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy.