POLITICAL DIARY

New Delhi, 5 February 2011

National Hall Of Shame

HOW LONG WILL WE REMAIN SILENT?

By Poonam I Kaushish

Too little to late. This in a nutshell encapsulates the Raja saga of the infamous 2G spectrum scam ending in his arrest. The former telecom Minister joins the ‘illustrious’ national hall of shame like Madhu Koda, Shibhu Soren, Sukh Ram et al. Yet nobody is either applauding or buying Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh diatribe of belling the big fat cat of corruption. Indeed, Mahan is our corrupt democracy!

All know that Raja and his cohorts’ arrest was inevitable, not because the Congress-led UPA Government wanted to erase its credibility-governance deficit and taint in the wake of the scams but the CBI had to meet the 10 February Supreme Court deadline to submit its progress report.  Failure to nab anyone would not only have invited adverse comments but also fresh trouble.

Undoubtedly, Raja’s arrest instead of stemming Congress-UPA II’s slide in the popularity sweepstakes, taking the sting out of the Opposition's campaign for a JPC probe and short-circuiting the aam aadmi’s anger has only added to its woes. It underscores the inherent weakness of the personal arrangement between Manmohan Singh as head of Government and Sonia as Party Chief which has contributed heavily in the making of this scam. Exposing the Prime Minister as weaker than the Party.

True, none doubt Manmohan Singh’s decency, honesty and intellect. But as Prime Minister why was he silent on the "loot" that engulfed his Administration? Why did he first deny the scam, only to defend Raja in Parliament when facts were to the contrary? Why did the Government debunk the CAG report of an Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss? What's the reason behind the delayed action? If Raja had done nothing wrong then why did the CBI arrest him?

It is all very well to lackadaisically assert that corruption is systemic. But can a Prime Minister afford to hide behind his natural reticence of an economist-turned accidental-politician? Or does the Office dictate that he take the bull by the horns and throw out the corrupt. After all, it is not a question of personal honesty, the Prime Minister has to uphold the sanctity of the institution of the Office of the Prime Minister.

Remember, the Ministers in the Union Cabinet function at the pleasure of the Prime Minister. He is the boss. The custodian of the Indian people's interest. Under the Transaction of Business Rules, 1961 the Prime Minister has unrestricted right to get any file, any record from any Ministry. He has absolute power in running the country. He could have undone the decisions in no time even if Raja had flouted the rules and code of ethics. No IAS officer would defy a call from the PMO.  Therefore, if the PM was serious about removing corruption, then he should have removed Raja long back.

Neither can the Congress preen that 'we are not like BJP’. It tried every trick to de-link Raja-DMK from the UPA. When that didn’t work, it changed tack and began differentiating between the Party and the Party-led Government. Notwithstanding, Singh is the most ‘loyal’ Congressman. But left with no option, it took action to maintain Sonia’s leadership clout. Will she save her Party first or the reputation of the PMO?

As the sleaze tale unfolds the climax is still far away. Needless to say, Raja who is fighting for survival will have high nuisance value. Already, he has clubbed all his acts of misdemeanour to the PMO. The DMK continues to back him. He has been arrested but not pronounced guilty,” asserted Karunanidhi.

Clearly, Manmohan Singh unblemished credibility has taken a big hit. It is all very well for him to assert that it was compulsions of coalition politics that forced him and Sonia to go slow on either shifting Raja from telecom or sacking him.  But this will not cut ice and could prove very costly for him and his Party.

As for the Gandhi mother-son duo the less said the better. Both are selective about the issues they espouse on. Hear their deafening silence on bribery. Be it CWG, Adarsh, Raja, CVC Thomas or the black billions stashed in foreign banks. Rahul’s assertion that the money in off-shore banks belongs to India’s poor makes one laugh.

What initiative has he taken as an elected MP to demand that the Government take up the issue with the Swiss authorities? What about questioning Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on his procrastinations that the Government is bound by secrecy and cannot reveal the list given by Germany in 2008. Really? How did the media disclose the list? Think. If both US and Germany could arm-twist the Swiss what stops India? They don’t want to do so. There is no will. Guys, get real. How can they expose their ilk?

Arguably, even as Congressmen view Raja’s arrest as a game-changer, they fail to grasp that it is not Raja detention, but the aam aadmi’s thinking that has undergone a sea-change. He is so sick of the endemic corruption that one arrest is not going to take make any difference in the gargantuan ocean of sleaze. As prosecution leading up to conviction and punishment is rare. Glibly, described as ‘law taking its own course’.

What next?  Raja and his cohorts need to be punished and brought to book. But one swallow does not make a summer. It is unlikely to deter other offenders, given that corruption is in the blood of our politicians and civil servants who amass hundreds of crores of unaccounted income. They loot the exchequer, sell State patronage and use State power to extort money. Until they too are taken to task nothing will change.

Also true, the brouhaha  over Raja will soon die down, but if the Government thinks that it can heave a sigh of relief that public memory is short it would be fooling itself. For nobody will believe that the Government is getting strong just because one scamster has been brought to book. The issue of corruption is already assuming such proportions that it may endanger the stability of the Government.

It’s all very well for our netagan to tom-tom that we are the world’s largest democracy. But are we really? Besides getting to exercise our vote every five years to elect those who govern us, what else have our netas done for us? Provided good governance? No.  Honest Administration? Never.

There is daily haranguing by our leaders on anything or everything. Right from segregating the khaas log from the aam janata by having different entry gates to the House of the People, down to clearing roads to make way for our netas to ride trouble-free. Reminiscent of the times we bowed before the feudal Maharajas. 

India’s tragedy is that the oligarchy of yester year has been replaced by a feudal set-up with democratic trappings. Hail the new Rajas!  Clearly the time has come to put an end to this perversion of democracy. The people have to rip away the façade of being “citizens”. In fact, our citizenship has been usurped by our netagan who have  reduced us to mere “subjects” like yester years. Bowing to the Jo Hukum Mere Aka.  How long will we suffer in silence? Think about it!  --- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)