There should be no second thoughts to this observation
that, we, the Indians, are living (or forced to live) in a pseudo-democratic
set-up in the world’s largest democracy.
It is true democracy doesn’t mean unrestricted freedom.
The restricted freedom that it provides with some fundamental rights is
intended to maintain a healthy socioeconomic growth in the country and its
tenets are uniformly applied (in theory), for the high and mighty as well as for
the low and feeble.
But that is not so in India, the world’s largest
democracy. The clear divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’, between the
politicians and the voters and between the bureaucrats and the ordinary men is getting
wider.
And that is why some recent developments to restore the
true spirit of democracy by pushing and promoting probity and transparency in
Indian politics give stimulus to the grey-matter to think positively though there
exist the pertinent questions that such developments are not free from the
tentacles of the political manipulation. Politicians are already on the job to
undo the good for the country (but bad for their convoluted reasons) that these
decisions can bring.
On June 3, the Central Information Commission (CIC) ruled that six
major political parties were public authorities and thus were under the purview
of the Right To Information Act (RTI Act).
A major setback for the ‘corrupt type’ of politicians but the
decision was a relief to a democracy forced to function in a suspended
animation. With funding, earnings and expenditure running into billions of Rs
and with enjoying multiple facilities from the government agencies, the
indiscriminate run of the finances of the political parties must come under the
public scrutiny to ensure transparency. Answerability to the public - it
becomes all the more important with an Indian politics that is deeply soaked in
corruption.
On July 5, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission of
India to frame guidelines as early as possible to regulate the poll manifestos
of political parties. The court observed that freebies and promises like
laptops or TV sets or gold ornaments ‘shake
the roots of free and fair elections to a great degree’.
It was indeed a step overdue and must have been taken a
long ago. It is silly to make promises like giving free laptops or TV sets when
there is no electricity to use them. It is inhuman to promise gold ornaments
when millions of the families cannot afford the basic minimum education and
health expenditure. The fund that should be diverted to build resources to
bring long term prosperity and so self-reliance is wasted by the politicians in
these silly and senseless acts.
On July 10, the Supreme Court upheld a 2004 Patna high court ruling that had invalidated a
provision made in the Representation of Peoples' Act (RPA) to give undue
benefit to the politicians. Part of the ruling by the apex court also debars
politicians from contesting elections while in jail.
The provision (Section 8(4) of the RPA) by the lawmakers
was a farce aimed at enabling the convicted politicians to contest elections until
they had exhausted all the legal avenues like their sentencing being upheld by
the Supreme Court. And given the pace of the judicial process, the political
career of a politician gets over before he is sentenced ‘finally’ by a court.
There would be parleys among the politicians and sure, we
are going to see the review appeals but even if we don’t analyse the long-term
opportunity window that this decision would provide, even in the short-term, it
is going to pay handsomely as the country is going to have important assembly
and parliamentary elections in the coming months. The SC decision is going to
be a milestone in checking the rapid criminalization of Indian politics.
On July 11, the Allahabad
high court, in yet another landmark ruling, came down heavily on political
parties holding caste-based political rallies.
The Lucknow bench of the high
court banned the caste-based rallies in Uttar
Pradesh, India’s
most populous state where the development politics has not been on play for
quite some time to act as the call to fight the electoral battles.
Politics of India’s electorally most important
state is riddled with the divisive elements of caste, religion and sectarianism.
Though the court has banned such rallies in Uttar Pradesh in its decision, it
is only natural that, being a high court decision, it is going to be a
precedent for whole of the country.
Politicians, as they are, will try to scuttle these moves,
especially the first three, in every possible way. We are already hearing the reports
about an ordinance to amend the RTI Act to keep the political parties out of
the ambit of the RTI Act. Then there are reports saying the government is to
consult political parties on SC’s decision on ‘disqualification of lawmakers’ before
approaching the top court with a review appeal.
But there indeed is hope where the courts are involved,
especially the top courts like the high courts or the Supreme Court. No doubt
politicians can go to any extent to manipulate the system for their selfish
goals, but encroaching over the rights and decisions of the top courts, at a
time when the top courts are seen as the only recourse for justice and hope available
to the common man in the tidal wave of the political corruption, would be electorally
unpleasant and so a tough call that no political outfit would like to take
openly in the election season.
But it doesn’t mean they would take it as it comes.
Obviously, the Brethren council of politicians would keep
on meeting clandestinely to see how they can still kill the spirit of these
important landmark decisions.