Political Diary

New Delhi, 15 February 2014

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A Tale Of Two Bills

SHAMING DEMOCRACY & CONSTITUTION

By Poonam I Kaushish

A nautanki was played out last week in the political theatre last week. At two levels, Parliament and the Delhi Assembly over two Bills, Telengana Statehood Bill and the Jan Lokpal Bill. While the former shamed democracy, the latter brazened it out turning Constitutional procedures on its head to score political points. Accentuating that rajniti is all about conducting public affairs for private advantage. With the devil taking the hindmost!

With elections round the corner and stakes sky high both played to the gallery. Call it déjà vu or travesty either which way, the shenanigans witnessed in both Houses of Parliament make one hand our head in shame. A sad day.

Wherein the Lok Sabha turned into an akhara when the Telengana bill was tabled on Thursday. MPs from the Seemandhra region physically attacked each other exchanging blows with the pro-Telegana faction, uprooting microphones, smashing the glass on the Secretary General’s table, snatching the Speaker’s papers culminating in the Vijayawada MP L Rajagopal whipping out a can of pepper spray and squirting it at his compatriots alongside another reportedly brandished a knife. Ditto the case in the Rajya Sabha.

But what is disgusting and perturbing is not that politics of dadagiri and obstructionism is becoming more the rule rather than exception, but that our polity largely continues to drift along smugly without any shame, desire to turn a new page and prevent its crumble. While the BJP preened over its bête niore discomfiture of not managing its flock and bringing Parliament into disrepute. Forgetting, that it too has used these tactics to play its politics.

For the Congress, the bifurcation of Andhra is a crucial issue prior to polls. The Party feels it has dealt a masterstroke to check-mate opponents camouflaged as imperative for “political stability” in the country. Sic. No matter it has everything to do with crass opportunism, massaging vote-banks and improving its winability quotient.

The Party is hopeful that whatever losses it incurs in Andhra where it has withered and become a pariah, it would reap big dividends in Telengana provided TRS Chief K Chandrasekara Rao doesn’t backtrack on his word of merging his outfit with the Congress.

Of the 42 Lok Sabha and 294 Assembly seats in Andhra, Telengana gets 17 MPs and 119 legislature seats. Also, by carving Rayalseema it would reduce YSR Congress Jaganmohan Reddy’s clout and weightage in the region and nip in the bud BJP’s chances of opening its account in the State. .

If this fall in standards mirrors our deteriorating political culture and ethos wherein Parliamentary proceedings have little material bearing on the course of politics which today is all about the game of numbers. What should one say of Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal who replaced legislative supremacy with ‘to the streets’ bugle?

Having raised expectations sky high with his pledges of a corruption-free honest, transparent Government and a new style of governance without the arrogance of power, it was a given that the country's newest star on the political horizon incestuous liaison with the Congress would come crashing down given that both hated each other. And it did Friday last ending a 49-day rule.

But not they way it happened. Political expediency dictated that it would be the Congress which would pull the plug just before the Lok Sabha elections. But Kejriwal had other ideas in mind. He had pre-decided to use his pet Jan Lokpal Bill as a calculated political gambit to bid for the Parliament’s sweepstakes via his ongoing campaign against corruption. Thus, when the Bill was voted out by a majority of 42 to 27 in the Delhi Assembly it came as no surprise.

The 45-year old IITian is no fool. He knew that the Bill he was trying to push through could not be introduced as the Delhi government's rules state that any money Bill has to be cleared by the Lieutenant Governor before it can be tabled. By giving up office in dramatic manner, over a clear breach of procedure, Kejriwal is now free from his Chief Ministerial shackles to start campaigning all over the country for the Lok Sabha elections, where the AAP hopes to put up candidates.

Undoubtedly, this will disappoint many of his voters who were banking on a few months of new, responsible and clean governance. But Kejriwal the maverick not only seized power offering sops to his constituency, filed FIRs against Mukesh Ambani and Petroleum Minister Moily and his predecessor Murli Deora.

Call it brilliant tactical positioning, but he had to be brought down. Both the Congress-BJP ganged up. One can understand why, AAP allegedly has opened a can of worms which is a problem for the both national Parties. You don’t mess with Mukesh Ambani who is a strict no-no.

Moreover, AAP has done most of what it could in Government. More time would only take away from its rebellious outsider image and would add to its governance baggage. Today he has to articulate to a larger worldview and position itself in the matrix of prevalent political ideas, be back on the streets protesting to reclaim its brand positioning of being the Party which endeavours to bring 'Insan Ka Insan Se Ho Bhaichara', offering an alternative to the “power hungry political mob funded by robber barons”.

Consequently, Kejriwaj wants to be the Don Quixote applauded by the aam aadmi and intellectuals for wanting to broom corruption out of the system. A nouvelle system of n experiment Towards that end he dresses like a commoner, chappals-muffler et al, uses street language, and avers only the well-being of his vote-banks which gives him glamour and cast a halo of honesty.

The sad part is Kejriwal’s 49-day dance of governance of ushering in participatory democracy by unshackling the old order of sab chalta hai and we-are-VIPs syndrome by empowering people ended by playing to the gallery. A wasted opportunity of reforming a sleazy decrepit system and ushering in concrete policies based on principles of equality and justice. For the AAP, the battle to empower people demands new engagements

Clearly, both incidents have exposed how Constitutional procedures and rules cannot be subverted. Else our legislative bodies would be come dens of mob of disparate individuals lacking any means to reconcile their differences.

In the ultimate, governance is not about play-acting. Time has come for our polity to redeem itself.  Even as Kejriwal and his AAP bumble along taking their first steps to bringing transparency, his promise of cleaning politics might help reinvent democracy beyond the tired slogans of conventional Parties like the Congress and the BJP. By doing this, it becomes a harbinger of the future. As the countdown to elections gathers steam, all one can say is: Abhi toh khel backee hai doston! ----- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)