Political Diary

New Delhi, 6 October 2012

What Taint?

PROPREITY GOES TO DOGS

By Poonam I Kaushish

Finally it’s official! Whoever said that spending time in jail for alleged corruption is a death knell for a career in politics, was wrong. Politics in India has nothing to do with morality and healthy conventions. Taint continues to be the flavour of the new political season wherein power stain and jail go saath-saath!

This was underscored when the infamous scam-tainted trio, Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi and DMK’s former Telecom Minister A. Raja and MP Kanimozhi after spending prison time, out on bail and awaiting trial were for the first time in over a year since there detention nominated by their respective  Parties to Parliamentary committees.

While Kalmadi who was suspended by the Congress last year after being arrested in connection with alleged corruption and financial malpractice regarding the Commonwealth Games in 2010 has been appointed to the External Affairs Standing Committee, Raja imprisoned last February in connection with the alleged rigging of spectrum licensing in 2008 finds a place on the Energy Committee. Ditto the case of DMK supremo Karunanidhi’s daughter  Kanimozhi, who was detained last May for accepting bribes to manipulate awarding of lucrative 2G licenses has been nominated to the Home Affairs Committee.

Undoubtedly, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts. Asserted the Congress spokesman, “It is the right and privilege of a MP to be on a committee, whatever may be the allegations.” Added Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bansal, “We have to nominate Kalmadi and we have done so...when we issue a whip for him to vote, we also have to nominate him...He is suspended but not expelled from the party.”

Kanimozhi sought to suggest that her nomination to a Parliamentary Standing Committee was a regular affair, maintaining that nothing had been proven against her in the 2G spectrum allocation case. “Every MP is nominated to a committee,” she cryptically averred.

Add many others. “There is no express law of bar under the Constitution which requires that tainted MPs charged with commission of serious offences should not attend Parliament or be barred from being nominated to Standing Committees. Probity cannot be raised as a question of law as they have to emanate from the institution to which MPs relate to, read Parliament and cannot be framed by courts. Thus, he is innocent till proven guilty.”

Wring your hands, cynically yell that law is an ass but that does not take away from the fact that morality and probity are words non-existence in the political vocabulary. Needless to say ethics and politics are two ends of the spectrum for our Right Honourables. Whereby, Parliament in its collective wisdom has not only brushed under the carpet the unpleasant truth of corruption in high places but also tacitly thrown all morality, propriety to the dogs. Thereby, eroding the credibility and sanctity of Parliamentary institutions.

Alas! Times have changed. So also the Honourable standards upheld by Nehru and Shastri. Gone are the days when Ministers were truly honourable, honest and gallantly accepted responsibility for the slightest of misdemeanor or corruption and resigned. Today, matters have degenerated that when a scam is exposed, the leader and his Party raises a political stink and dubs it a political vendetta. Sic.  

See how brazenly Kalmadi attended the Olympics earlier this year and Raja struts around like a proud peacock in the corridors of power. Raising a moot point: If the Congress-led UPA Government ensured that Kalmadi would not represent India even as an ICC member for the Olympics, how can the same appoint him to a Parliamentary Committee? Can a charge-sheeted MP be part of the law making process in our democracy?

More. How can our leaders justify corrupt politicians as the “conscious of the nation” who should be addressed respectfully as Right Honourables?  Will immorality be allowed to become the bedrock of Parliamentary democracy? Basically is it good for democracy to have tainted MPs serving on Parliamentary committees?  

Indeed, in a chor-chor mausere bhai political milieu where gold speaks all tongues are silent. Add to this the intoxicating nasha of power and one has a lethal mix which 21st century India is reeling under. Politics, after all, is the most enterprising and lucrative dhanda of making money the quickest and surest way. Probably the only industry, where politicians have put money and criminality on equal terms.  Every time a scam breaks, the accused  MP cocks a snook and asserts: Have I been elected by the CBI? Big deal, if I go to jail. It will be only for some time. Then it will be back to business as usual.” There is no gainsaying corruption has no political colour. “Propriety does not mean taking of one’s kurta”, said a seasoned corrupt neta. Thus, conveniently, our netagan in their inimitable style have passed the buck to the Courts. 

But true-blue Parliamentarians are appalled by the Government’s brazenness. Statede former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash Kashyap, “These nominations were easily avoidable especially when both the Congress and DMK are mired in so much controversy and losing popularity. It is the Party that takes a final call on who sits in Parliamentary committees and it is ultimately in the ruling coalition’s interest to “placate” the three politicians, since a possible uproar by the Opposition could potentially damage the Government even more.”

In sharp contrast was Britain’s response to the deterioration in probity and morality among its MPs. Whereby it set up Nolan Committee on Standards in Public Life in 1995 following a public outcry against the misdemeanor of some MPs and former Ministers. The committee, among other recommendations, felt that the House of Commons should appoint a person of independent standing as Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards who would maintain the register of interest, advise on the code of conduct, provide guidance and report on complaints about members conduct.

Alas, over the years with political compulsions dominating political discourse, our Parliamentarians have been gripped by the chalta hai attitude. Wherein, discussions and debates have largely lost their meaning and the numbers game has become the criteria of success. The main concern has less to do with the welfare of the people and more to do with their own single minded quest of power and wealth.

What next? Clearly for India’s temple of democracy to survive we need leaders who are men of conscious, integrity and credibility along-with a Code of Conduct and a Propriety Committee. Remember, if our Right Honourables are corrupt and behave irresponsibly it is impossible for them to establish a responsible society. And without a responsible society there cannot be a responsible state. 

As Dr. Rajendra Prasad said in his concluding address to the Constituent Assembly: “The welfare of the country will depend upon the men who administer it… Today India needs nothing more than a set of honest men who will have the interest of the country before them”. Propriety and probity is indivisible. Is that asking for too much? ----INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)