Monday, August 8, 2011

A resurgent Republic can't eschew reform


Vinay Sahasrabuddhe

EVENTS in the recent past clearly manifest what can be described as the delivery deficit of democracy in India. Judiciary has raised the pitch of its activism. Civil society suddenly has become very articulate and assertive. A pro-active media — even in the days of its diminishing credibility — has suddenly started pointing fingers and conducting trial by itself. All these are the symptoms of a situation where most of the principal players continue to be clueless and yet pretend that they have some answers — answers to the all pervading in-efficacy of our model of democratic governance!

Forget mega challenges like corruption-free good governance, poverty, unemployment and national security. Has this republic been able to give potable water to everybody? What to speak about cities free from slums? Or, say footpaths without squatters? When we, all the taxpayers hope a safe and secure civic life, are we asking for moon?

Political scientists and observers believe that India has chosen stability of a sort over growth. India-born British economist Lord Meghnad Desai had once cryptically observed that to stay a peaceful and stable society India has to be a muddle and mess. While many will certainly differ with this observation, the fact remains that a country like India with a billion plus population, 28 states enjoying considerable autonomy, 33 major languages and 1650 dialects and six major religions, one of which is Islam followed by 13 per cent of people, understandably; has to put staying together above everything. As what the Economist had once observed we appear to be satisfied with remaining “a slow moving but flexible democracy” as if that “is the only way of holding all this together”. But still, questions remain unanswered. Was it really necessary to tolerate the lack of jeepable roads and schools sans teachers or live with power cuts and load shedding even 65 years after Independence?

However, with changing times, people have become restive, not happy with just “holding together” and are craving for change. Many believe that India requires both political and economic reforms together. There also appears a very strong opinion that unless either of the two major political parties has at least 200 plus seats and coalition government has a majority in the Lok Sabha, serious efforts for major reforms of any kind will continue to be neglected. One cannot find fault with Rahul Bajaj’s observation that what absorbs most of the energies of the Government are mainly “short-term political expediency and crisis management.”

Several others also have stressed the need for political reforms. After more than half a century of the attainment of Independence and having given the present Constitution a chance, it is worthwhile to ponder over as to where are we exactly heading. Let us accept the ground reality that ‘we the people’, have failed in achieving the goals set before by the makers of the Constitution and we all need to have a re-look at the present system. To say that the Constitution has not failed people in India but the latter have failed their own Constitution takes the discussion only little ahead. And even if people have failed the Constitution, what is essential is to study all those factors that have led to this situation. Many concur with this conclusion. Founder chairman of software giant, Infosys, NR Narayan Murthy, had once gone on record without mincing words. He had insisted that we require reforms since “our institutions—from parliament and legislatures to courts and distribution systems—have become pervaded with corruption.”

As a consequence, popular faith in democracy is fast on the wane. People, mainly those who have experienced the Emergency of 1975 do not say it in so many words. They understand what lack of democracy means. But what about others? Many who are socially conscious and ideologically committed rightly believe that to be cynic is a luxury. No wonder then the younger generation may want to ask “can you give us a single reason why one should not get frustrated with the non-functioning of the systems here?”

This depleting popular faith in democracy and the consequent tightening of the grip of all pervading cynicism on the minds of the people has resulted in an absolute lack of popular initiative. A sense of utter contempt, almost bordering on a deep-seated hatred, about the political class is visible when people voice their opinions. A glance at the excerpts of a letter written to the editor by some of the readers of a newspaper in Ahmedabad soon after the 1999 elections have been quoted by Jagdeep S Chhokar, a senior activist of Association of Democratic Reforms. Excerpts quoted by him read as follows—“Thank God! The verbal cacophony, throwing of abuses and trading of charges by political parties with each other is over…what democratic values this bunch of self-appointed leaders will propagate with such narrow-minded approaches. Our democracy ends the day we cast our vote No wonder people showed fatigue and displayed lack of enthusiasm in the type of democratic exercise now repeatedly held to elect the begging candidates so that on being elected they can sit in power and loot us, and amass wealth and power for their dynasties.”

A popular ballad-type folk song in Maharashtra originally sung by Shahir Sable in 1956 in a Marathi folk-theatre programme named Bapacha Bap ridicules the entire political class by narrating a story. The narrative suggests that god had once wrongfully sent a brain-less creature on the earth and how the same has become a political leader. These examples are a true reflection of public disdain and all pervading cynicism about the entire electoral process that has singularly occupied the centre-stage of our democracy.

Several Indian-observers abroad also believe that introducing reforms is the only way to retrieve the situation. Few years before when as a researcher, I interacted with some prominent political scientists in some foundations in UK and USA, they insisted that we in India essentially have to do away the populist character of parliamentary democracy by cleansing the entire body politic. Many of them further advocated that political parties in India must tighten the formal control and revitalise their organisations. Power brokers must not be given any patronage at all. If this is not done, the next generation will get more disillusioned.

Unfortunately, widespread disdain about politicians has acquired centrality in public discourse. In the April 2011 agitation led by Anna Hazare, ridiculing politicians had become a favourite pastime. While politicians have to seriously look into the reasons behind this widespread disdain, others must understand that mere disdain can take us nowhere. This situation has added to cynicism, the virus of which has generated a crisis of motivation as also a crisis of leadership practically at all levels. According to experiences narrated by a group of newly elected members of Municipal Corporations in Mumbai, Pune and Solapur, a noteworthy aspect of the 2007 elections for Municipal Corporations and District Councils (Zilla Parishads) in Maharashtra, political parties had to organise stage performances of beer bar-girls prior to the public meetings in several parts of districts like Ahmednagar in order to ensure people attending public meetings. Whereas in the 2007 elections to the municipal corporations in Maharashtra, in cities like Mumbai, Pune and Solapur, members of some housing societies collectively bargained with a brazen demand for sops in the form of taking care of the construction of compound wall, or payment of electricity charges against assured en-bloc voting of the society members. According to a sitting member of a Municipal Corporation of Mumbai, he had to outsmart his rival by actually completing the work of paver blocks in the courtyard of a housing society, which was his traditional stronghold; and where the voters were preparing to auction their votes en-bloc. These are all symptoms of the erosion of popular faith in democratic values and by implication, in the democratic system.

Discussion about political reforms in India is not new. Need for such reforms, has been felt by many for several years. Some of them also have articulated the same. Once, our former Vice President Shri Krishan Kant had correctly diagnosed what ails our electoral system. According to him, there was an urgent need “to break nexus between the individual and the constituency”, because of the fact that the present “election process has established and consolidated such individuals and interest groups all over the country.”

If a particular factor is to be held responsible for this, it is the gradual weakening of party organisations. In the case of several smaller political parties in India, the party organisation today is a loose alliance of such interest groups. Neither do they have any ideology nor a national programme. Any individual desirous of getting in elected has to succumb to some pressures. This has created an invisible divided in our polity. Dominant corrupt social and political elite on one side and the people on the other. There is now a complete alienation between the two. This has led to a decline in popular deterrence, giving fillip to unscrupulous politics. Uncontrolled corruption and growing social tension are the net results of all this.

Systemic Change?

Many political analysts, thinkers and several Constitution experts have squarely blamed First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) system for the present day ills. To many, this system results in the election of candidates and of parties on a minority of votes cast making both unrepresentative. A Handbook for Electoral System Design, prepared by the Stockholm based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IIDEA) has clearly brought several disadvantages of the FPTP and one can easily conclude that India provides an example of how FPTP proves to be perilous. Some of the key disadvantages are:

1. Exclusion of minorities as well as women from fair representation.

2. Encouragement to the development of political parties based on clan, ethnicity or region, and

3. Exaggeration of “regional fiefdoms” where one party wins all the seats in a province.

Commenting upon the Indian experience of the FPTP, IIDEA handbook says: “The nature of the system meant that small changes in vote share often had a dramatic impact upon the shape of the resulting parliament.” Obviously then political parties often tend to influence small but guaranteed chunk of voters and lure the same by hook or by crook. To make this happen, mobilising monetary resources becomes essential and for that illicit money gathered through corrupt practices comes handy. This is how; electoral system or the voting system becomes central to the discussion as it is rightly deemed as the fountainhead of corruption.

Several of the problems associated with democracy in India are in fact, products of the FPTP system. Domination of electability factor, pressure of electoral compulsions and the resultant competitive indulgence in electoral mal-practices, greater chances of victory of candidates despite being opposed by majority of the electorate thanks to an inbuilt mechanism facilitating strategic division of votes, ability to give over-representation to en-bloc voters’ community at the cost of numerically stronger but scattered communities, are widely recognised as systemic flaws of the FPTP.

Another serious factor that calls for a systemic change is the fact that the FPTP system also promotes fragmented politics. Consequently, caste and community loyalties become the foundations of parties. This also influences the politics of larger parties with a national appeal and they too give in to the pressures of caste considerations. All this has had a great impact upon voting behaviour of the people. Candidates are generally selected on caste lines and citizens vote on caste appeal. States like UP, Bihar and Tamil Nadu are already in the grip of caste politics and other states like Karnataka, Maharashtra or Rajasthan are not far behind. In a situation like this, the electoral system has been almost totally subverted by money power, muscle power and vote-bank considerations of caste and communities. As a result, caste considerations and communalism apparently weakening in social life, in fact are provided vitamins and nutrients through electoral process.

Although reforms are hard to come about, they are integral to any living society and polity. There are scores of examples of nations who have opted for a particular form of democracy and subsequently switched over to the other. In neighbouring Sri Lanka, several experiments were tried during the last three decades. Starting from majoritarian democracy at the time of Independence (1947) to executive presidency and proportional representation (1978) to the present combination of run-off and preferential voting for the election of a president, Sri Lanka has come a long way. In far off Australia too, parties and politicians have experimented with a variety of voting systems that they believed would advance popular democracy and pragmatic politics. Between 1911 and 1962, Australia introduced major reforms to the electoral systems. Compulsion in the enrolment of electors was introduced in 1911, while FPTP was replaced with preferential voting for the House in 1918 and for the senate in 1919. Again, in 1948, PR was introduced for the Senate. Similarly, New Zealand and South Africa too have experimented with changes in either forms of governments or the electoral systems, or even both.

One of the most crucial aspects of representative democracy—where elected officials make decisions on behalf of the people—is how these officials are being elected. This translation of the citizen’s votes into representative seats is performed through elections and by way of using an electoral system. When it comes to election, the strength of numbers comes into the play. Ideally, it is expected that an electoral system should reflect the strength of numbers without leaving any scope for distortions. Hence, electoral system is the most fundamental element of representative democracy.

As growing numbers of people are becoming alienated from the political process, the debate needs to focus on which electoral system can best empower voters by extending the range of political voices, by treating all voters equal, by offering an effective choice between parties and candidates, and by providing an incentive to vote. With just one act of voting, a voter elects a parliament and also chooses a government. Electoral systems have to be judged in terms of how democratically voters are able to perform each of these functions through equalising the value of the votes polled.

All this calls for a deeper thinking about and dispassionate review of the electoral system with which we are trying to make our democracy work. While debate must happen one cannot forget the fact that massive political reforms alone will make our republic a resurgent one!


This post has been published by Weekly Organiser, August 14th, 2011



Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Why Politicians Amass Wealth?

Vinay Sahasrabuddhe

Can this be a question? One would ask. But beyond greed, one of the fundamental human weaknesses there are other reasons too that make corruption indulged in by the political leaders a phenomenon worth analysing.

Corruption is not new to India. Right after the independence Mahatma Gandhi had advocated dissolution of the Indian National Congress as he believed that Congress has outlived its purpose and if it has to continue to function, it should convert itself into a voluntary social service organisation of sorts. Mahatma Gandhi firmly believed in ethical and disciplined functioning of all Congressmen, especially party legislators[1]. He had also approvingly welcomed a draft declaration to be signed by all those holding public offices, mooted by one Brijlal Nehru.[2] However, no institutional set up to ensure disciplined, ethical and value-oriented functioning of party organization was mooted during his times. In the last over sixty years, the nation has paid a heavy price for this absence of any institutional set up ensuring cleaner electoral politics. This has also facilitated percolation of corruption further. Little wonder then that sometime in sixties, Shri Prakash, then Governor of Maharashtra openly admitted the deterioration of the moral fiber of our society when he said that ‘I can resolve that I will not take bribe, but I cannot resolve that I will not offer bribe’.

What could not happen in the lifetime of Mahatma missed the functional agenda of the party almost forever thereafter. Mrs. India Gandhi, in fact; tried to rationalize corruption when she had openly stated that it has become a Universal Phenomenon. It was during her time that the nation witnessed Tul Mohan Ram and the Nagarwala episodes. Thereafter, we had seen affairs after affair. Until Bofors, digging out cases of corruption involving crores of rupees used to cause some turbulence in the society. There were times, when people used to discuss these issues on their dining tables, family gatherings and at work places like college staff rooms. But later, looks like our society internalized corruption. People started pretending and hypocrisy quietly entered our personal lives. Understandably, we started shying away from discussing issues about morality and ethics. To each other, we kept on convincing that morality, like character; is simply a personal matter. With concepts of individuality and privacy gaining firm and disproportionate ground in our collective societal values, we almost stopped raising morality issues. Consequently, we pushed the element of answerability or accountability even from within the four walls of our homes and within our once famous close-knit families. What was externed from our personal lives soon got suspended from our public life as well. What more fertile ground was required for a bumping crop of corruption?

Besides it is a fact that our governance systems and our judiciary are devoid of effective and timely grievance redressal mechanisms. In a situation like this, our street-smart politicians could easily make money dispensing a La Robin Hood justice, acquiring immense nuisance value as well. Add to this the near total absence of moral leadership and the picture becomes complete.

Three other factors added to the worsening of the conditions. They were diminishing importance of austerity, growing sense of alienation and insecurity in our political leadership and most importantly; our overall inertia in respect of bringing in massive political reforms to cleans our body politick.

When it comes to austerity, today hardly anyone even refers to this value let alone practice it. Carried away by mindless consumption, GenNext India probably finds it to be a worthless and irrational concept. Since “Be Seen” is the mantra of modern management, then “Be seen as Smart as possible” is its logical extension. Popular approach to the concepts of luxury, comfort and necessity also has undergone a drastic change. Yesterday’s luxury is today’s comfort. Besides, life in the fast lane today has become far more competitive and hence ‘life style one-upmanship’ also has become the order of the day. More importantly, since austerity as a principle or high human value has apparently lost recognition, many apprehend that simple living is likely to be misconstrued as a sign of weakness. Obviously then, nobody likes to be seen as lacking in anything. Add to this the difficulties in defining as to what is austere and what is not.

When it comes to discussing the importance of taking due care of their family relations, some of my younger friends, who are MLAs, Municipal Councilors and political activists, often realise how they have always taken their close family members for granted. Emotionally detached from their loved ones, suspicious of their colleagues and unsure about their own political future, many politicians end up as loners at the top. When this feeling of being alone gets acute, political leaders give needless free hand to their progeny who often land in deep trouble. When they realise their mistakes, they cannot help but feel trapped. The fact that they just cannot share their agonies and apprehensions with anyone adds to the severity of the crisis. Many psychiatrists say that this deep sense of insecurity motivates several of our politicians turn unscrupulous and amass illicit wealth.

The third and the most important factor is off course our inertia for -- forget introducing but even discussing -- political reforms. Lack of internal democracy in most of our political parties has made organisational decision making arbitrary. With no mechanism like primaries as in the US, factors such as personal likes and dislikes and artificial proximity in interpersonal relations often dominate political decisions. Lack of objectivity also impacts candidacy decisions in several ‘unorganised’ political parties.

In fact, majority of our political parties are unstructured and un-institutionalised. Many have stressed urgent need for a comprehensive law for political parties. Election Commission has repeatedly recommended bringing a new law for regulating the functioning of political parties but the government refuses to pay heeds. True, that politicians and more particularly parties can do a number of things to check factors that promote corrupt practices; but certainly it is not the making of political class alone. It is because of this that parties need to be considered, what two American researchers Andrew M Appleton and David S Ward have described as "unwilling victims, attempting to adjust their organisational patterns to the vagaries of an undisciplined electorate.” Although most of the factors that have contributed to this degeneration of political parties are embedded in the system itself, the fact remains that the very system creates an inertia leading to a passive approach towards even simpler reforms, on the part of the political parties.

An important point for everybody’s consideration here is the fact that in flawed systems contributing to the process of perversion of democracy; parties get an escape route. While looking into the systemic solutions, the objective is to explore ways and means of plugging this escape route. Once this is done, parties could be held squarely responsible and that may pave way for reforming the party system and thereby prevent the degeneration of political culture in India. If we are able to make this happen, chances are that the systemic checks and balances will deter politicians. If not total eradication, this may lead at least to a substantial reduction in political corruption. Eventually, this also may reinstate the credibility of the political class. With more credible political parties, popular confidence in India's democratic system could also be reinstated.



[1] M.K. Gandhi, ‘Indian National Congress’, in ‘India of My Dreams’, p.288

[2] M.K. Gandhi, Chapters 7 and 8 in Section 3,”Members of Legislatures”, Gandhiji Expects. P.15, 16, 17


vinays57@gmail.com



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Blog writing is the expression of personal thought process. Views expressed in the blog are the writer's personal views. Organisations with which a writer is associated may not necessarily subscribe to these views.

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Sunday, July 17, 2011

Individuals fail, institutions collapse...


Vinay Sahasrabuddhe

Three serial blasts, and the entire public discourse seem to have shifted from Team Anna to what can be called as Team Thanana. (In colloquial Marathi, Thanana is a term often used to describe sheer emptiness or hollowness.) People seem to be becoming used to to the usual making of noises particularly from the side of those who are in power about incident like that of the last Wednesday. Popular response, as always had started from initial scare mongering to sensationalizing to a mature and the much talked about Mumbai Spirit, which; one wonders as to how has not evaporated so far.

In so far as blasts in Mumbai are concerned, since 1993, when the metropolis first witnessed a dastardly attack on its citizens, things have changed to such an extent that people have become familiarized. A newspaper, reporting on the highly satisfactory response to the newly released movie Zindagi Na Mile Dobara (ZNDB), in terms of Box Office has quoted a reaction of a movie buff. “Mumbaikar’s are now accustomed to blasts and in fact immediate post-blasts period is the most safe and secure as the police is on high alert!” says he. Also, it is said that the restraint on the part of both, the people and the government of India, acclaimed worldwide, has been construed as cowardice, not by outsiders but Mumbaikar netizans themselves. Somewhere down the line, does it look like that the City that never sleeps, is slipping in a kind of coma?

There is a quintessential state of numbness all around. One wonders whether, this very de-sensatisation masquerades as the spirit of Mumbai. If political compulsions are making particularly those in power respond in a typical manner, economic compulsions are making Mumbaikars react in a particular way. Their spirit is being applauded but that certainly cannot be a solace. By praising Mumbaikars for the so called Mumbai spirit, the establishment cannot wash of its hands and continue to test the tolerance of its people till another series of blasts takes place.

Nothing brings this all-encompassing hollowness to the fore in a more vivid manner than the stereotype handling of these blasts by the government. When it comes to governance, one wonders when exactly are we going to learn the art of handling such crises in a more mature manner. People no more believe that the government is serious enough when it talks about not allowing any such blasts taking place in the future. No body believes that those in government can and will do anything substantial and serious for preventing such blasts. From Rahul Gandhi to the Zaveri Bazar traders, all are talking about helplessness. As if, just like the issue of preventing infiltration from Bangladesh, preventing bomb blasts too is beyond our capacity. No question of “Catching the bull by horn”, spirit; not even a semblance of “We shall overcome!” attitude. A sense of having given up is all around. Tired of reassuring the people, the guilt-conscious rulers seem to have thrown both their hands in the air. Far from Ram rajya, what UPA is giving is a Ram Bharose rajya, for sure.

The statements made by the Chief Minister barely within forty-eight hours after the blasts have brought his sheer ineptitude to the fore. When people were expecting some strong action and few reassuring words, in an interview to a TV channel the CM went on record nursing his coalition woes saying that “giving Home ministry to the coalition partner NCP was a mistake”, as if a Congress minister would have had greater efficiency and prevented the blasts. Granted that what CM was saying was perhaps factual. But was this the appropriate time to discuss these issues? May be inadvertently, but has not the CM, through his statements poured salt on the wounded psyche of the Mumbaikars?

The decease of Oral Diarrhea seems to be catching up with all and sundry in the Congress establishment. Where was the need for Home Minister PChidambaram to point out that every city in India is vulnerable to terrorist attack? Everybody knows this. But when a Home Minister says the same, it smacks of a war; lost even before being fought. As if this was not enough we have Prince Rahul telling us that 1% of the terrorist attacks cannot be prevented. How does he know about the exact percentage? Does the internal security establishment concur with him? Is it not adding to further demoralization of the police? Why should heroes like Late Tukaram Ombale sacrifice their lives if 1% of such attacks are kind of permissible? Is it not an insult to the entire internal security establishment? Adding insult to the injury is our usual Diggi Raja. How can he sleep quietly without referring to the RSS and the Hindu forces? After all, a character has to say all that a playwright wants him to say. All these happenings and the utterances about them point to twin factors. They are, failed individuals and collapsing institutions.

While Mumbai continues to cry for justice, in the corridors of the apex court, the Central Government is trying to put a brave front and argue that the courts cannot take the role of the executive. The government reminded the judiciary that the courts “do not substitute their views and judgment in matters which squarely fall within the executive's domain,” alleging that the black money order completely erased the executive's role. The government has also reminded the apex court that the “function of the court is to see that lawful authority is duly exercised by the executive, but not to take over itself the tasks entrusted to the executive”.

Legally, perhaps; the argument may win the battle. But if politics is majorly about public perception, then what matters is the fundamental question as to why; other pillars of democracy are able to occupy the space that belongs to the executive? Whether it is the media, the judiciary or the civil society; if any of these are overstepping; let us not forget; it is the passive and ineffective executive that had asked for it. Like nature, democracy also never allows any vacuum. Never have people in democratic countries allowed a deficit to be carried forward too long. Some one or the other has to occupy the space.

With the issue of LOK PAL having still not satisfactorily resolved, and with people in the country witnessing a sense of having given up through the articulations of several Sate Actors, one wonders whether the civil society will be constrained to ask for LOK Police? Obviously, that is not the answer. But when established institutions continue to fail, those in power continue to be clue less, interventions of judiciary continue to be opposed, the only way people may feel left for them is asking for a parallel mechanism. People have supported the idea of LOK PAL primarily not because they have understood the thinking behind, but because they see a ray of hope even in an unclear and amorphous concept of its kind. If Mumbai continues to bleed, those in government continue to defend their lapses by way of expressing sheer helplessness, the days when sections in the newly enthused civil society coming out with a demand for LOK POLICE may not really be far away. If those in power do not want this to happen, they will have to show that they are serious in tackling the terror menace and come out with credible and effective deterrence infrastructure. What the situation demands is a POTA like act, and certainly not a highly ill conceived Communal Violence Bill. Is someone in the UPA listening?

Author's Note:- Blog writing is an expression of personal thought process. To believe that the organisations, a blogger is associated with, will also subscribe to this thinking every time is oversimplification.