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POLITICAL DIARY
New Delhi, 14 February 2009
Nautanki Of Democracy
DESTROYING
INSTITUTIONS & OFFICES
By Poonam I Kaushish
Politics in the country today is like an ongoing nautanki in pink chaddis. Once you start
peeling it off one comes face to face with the naked truth. Wherein every party
and its leaders have perfected the art of beguiling its hum zulfs and dushmans
with aplomb. By artfully using high Constitutional posts to further their cause.
Only to discard them later and performing the dance of death of democratic
institutions. Reducing each one to being a party pooper!
Anyone looking for proof would not have to look farther than
the political shenanigans which unfolded last week. The ‘political Jack of all
trades”, the shrewd General Secretary of the Samajwadi Party Amar Singh exposed
how his foe-turned friend Congress’s prima donna Sonia Gandhi used the high
Constitutional office of the UP Governor into her messenger boy. Two, converted
the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the “Congress Bureau of
Investigation”.
Three, ideological wavelength has ceased to be an issue when
it comes to forging alliances. The
icing on the cake was the shocking adjournment on Day 2 of the last Budget
session of the 14th Lok Sabha due to lack of quorum. What to speak of the rowdyism that is
fast becoming the rule rather than the exception in State legislatures. Be it
UP, Andhra or Orissa. All in full view of TV cameras.
Take the Amargate 1. In an explosive tell-all the SP leader
detailed how the UP Governor TV Rajeswar
had brokered the alliance between the Congress and his Party following the UPA
Government being reduced to a minority after the Left withdrew support. Wherein
Governor Rajeshwar had personally brought Sonia’s “invite” to the SP leaders
before the trust vote in the Lok Sabha last July on the Indo-US nuclear deal. “The
UP Governor came to me as Sonia Gandhi’s emissary. The invitation for a meeting
with Sonia came through the Governor,” Amar Singh added.
Yet again exposing how the Union Government uses Governor’s
as shameless stooges. Sadly, Rajeshwar, a former Intelligence Bureau Chief, is
no exception to the growing tribe of handpicked Governors who overreach his
powers to favour his mai-baaps
sitting on India’s
Raj gaddi. Instances abound of former
ministers, partymen, bureaucrats and policemen being rewarded with
gubernatorial assignments for
serving their lord and master in Delhi.
Remember, Bihar, Goa and Jharkhand.
In fact, Rajeshwar, was handpicked by the Congress to watch
out for the Party’s “interests” and keep an eye on the erstwhile Mulayam Singh
Government in UP, a State crucial for the Party and its return to power at the
Centre. Consequently, his relations with the SP leaders since day one were far
from cordial. When BSP’s Mayawati replaced the SP the initial Governor-Chief
Minister coochie-cooing later led to souring of ties. All at the Congress
behest.
Expectedly, this new nadir has once again raised questions
about Governor’s role, his qualifications and his Constitutional obligations
and duties. Raising a moot point: Are they the Centre’s chaprasis? Or, are they the keepers of the people’s faith as the Constitutional
head of their respective States. Clearly, Amar’s tu-tu-mein-mein is a lesson
on the dangers of appointing political hatchet men to high offices that call
for fairness, uprightness and adherence to constitutional values and
conventions.
As for the CBI, the less said the better. In a shocking
revelation Amar Singh disclosed that his Party would not have supported the
Congress had it known that Mulayam Singh would be chargesheeted by the CBI in
the disproportionate assets case. Not only that. He lashed out at the Congress
for “using the CBI to intimidate inconvenient political leaders and keeping political
rivals under the Congress thumb.”
Substantiating his point by asserting that the “status
report filed in the Court has been taking divergent positions. It takes one
position when the SP is friendly to the Congress, but a completely different
position when the SP is perceived to be hostile to the Congress.”
Underscoring how our netagan
used the CBI for “quid pro quo” politics, the SP neta recalled how the cases against Mayawati vanished when her
Party supported the Congress in the Presidential election. But once the
election was over, they resurfaced. Adding, “When the relationship with Left
sours, the CBI is after CPM’s Pinarayi Vijayan, NCP’s Praful Patel et al.
Over the years, the CBI has functioned like the Central
Bureau of convenience, connivance and corruption wherein the political elite get
their way and have their say. Worse, the CBI seems to have adopted a brazenly
opportunistic policy of playing safe with Governments of the day and its
willingness and commitment to serve the national cause by putting self before
the country. Who can forget La Affaire
Quottrocchhi of the Bofors gun scam.
Witness the sweet irony.
When Vajpayee was the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha in the late
1990’s he had demanded an independent CBI and even promised one if he came to
power. But Vajpayee the PM conveniently forgot his promise and retained the CBI
under his charge, just as his predecessors had done. Manmohan Singh too is
happily following the tradition. He talks of weeding out corruption, but is mum
on making the CBI an autonomous and independent agency.
That apart, our leaders have perfected the art of making
alliances into the most luscious mistress to be measured through the prism of
powerglass politics. Amar Singh plainly asserts that politics is all about
ruthlessly grabbing power sans ideology. He defends his alliance with Kalyan
Singh by arguing: “There are two co-accused in the Babri demolition, Congress
and Kalyan Singh. If we are ready to shake hands with Congress, that too as an
active partner ready to save the nuclear deal and Government, why not shake
hands with Kalyan Singh's ideology of opposing BJP."
The NCP too is busy “rearranging” its friends and
negotiating with the Shiv Sena for seat adjustments in Maharashtra,
thanks to the growing differences between the SS and BJP. Also, it has opened communications with the
SP. Down South, the DMK supremo Karunanidhi periodically threatens to withdraw
support to the UPA Government. In Andhra, the TRS plays coy. While Mayawati
continues to hold the cards close to her chest.
The tragedy of it all is that in this winner take-all-fight,
the polity has usurped the legislatures and virtually turned them into a free-for-all. The UP Assembly
stood testimony to the contempt our netagan
hold for these temples of democracy when MLAs’ threw paper missiles, hurled
mikes, shouted slogans and threw files while the Governor Rajeshwar helplessly
looked as the Marshalls
tried to fend the blows. The SP MLAs were protesting the murder of a PWD
engineer last month. Resulting in the budget session being adjourned.
In Bhubaneshwar, ‘democracy’ was at work in the Assembly
when Congress MLAs’ clashed with their BJP rivals, throwing pen stands and sprawled
over the tables in full view of TV cameras over allegations
against CM Naveen Patnaik. A Congress MLA even climbed on the Speaker's desk and
wrenched the microphone off its base. Making a mockery of the code of conduct.
In the Andhra Assembly too rowdyism and pandemonium is fast
becoming the rule rather than the exception. In a major row between the
Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy and the Opposition Leader TDP's Chandrababu
Naidu over the CM’s son companies, the Marshals had to pull the warring members
out of House. In the ensuing scuffle, some MLAs were injured.
What next? Where do we go from here? No longer can we merely
shrug our shoulders and dismiss it as political kalyug. Nor can we allow small men to continue to cast big
shadows. Amar Singh has held the political
aaina with all its pock-marks and
scars. Our netagan must desist from
employing their individual meanness in the name of public good. They need to
re-think their priorities and desist from destructive mindlessness. And
remember the adage: Nothing costs a nation more than cheap politicians. Pink chaddis included! ---- INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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