Author: A Surya Prakash
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: June 14, 2011
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/345653/Back-to-dark-days-of-1970s.html
The Congress's fascist reaction to the anti-corruption
movement shows the party still remains unchanged. Its misdeeds remind us of
the 1975-77 Emergency.
The Congress-led UPA Government is sadly mistaken
if it thinks that its ruthless Gaddafi-style midnight operation to evict Baba
Ramdev and his supporters from Ramlila Maidan in the early hours of June 5
will crush the movement against corruption in the country. The Government's
action, which is reminiscent of the response of Mrs Indira Gandhi to charges
of corruption in the mid-1970s, only goes to show that nothing much has changed
within the Congress. It continues to function like a family-owned private
limited company whose promoters have fascist tendencies and remain extremely
vulnerable to charges of corruption.
Apart from ending the mass satyagraha at the
venue in Delhi, the Congress has launched a vituperative attack on Baba Ramdev,
calling him a "thug" and a "fraud" and raising questions
about the funding of his organisation. There is nothing new in this. These
very tactics were deployed against Anna Hazare and his team members in April.
An identical operation is now on to paint Baba Ramdev in ugly colours.
The Government is rattled by Baba Ramdev's
movement because it strikes at the root of the problem - money stashed away
in Swiss banks by politicians and businessmen. The Anna Hazare movement got
confined to the limited issue of establishing a national ombudsman (Lok Pal)
to deal with corruption at the highest level. But, the creation of such an
institution is just one of the many initiatives that need to be taken. Since
corruption is a hydra-headed monster that has affected all aspects of politics,
governance and life, what is needed is a comprehensive anti-corruption agenda
that seeks to tackle the problem at the root and throw up permanent remedies.
For example, money power has vitiated the
entire electoral process since the beginning and the humongous amounts spent
by candidates in State Assembly and Lok Sabha elections has made a mockery
of the spending limits imposed by the Election Commission. Over the last two
decades, the permissible spending in a Lok Sabha constituency in a large State
has more than trebled.
Just three monmths ago, the Conduct of Election
Rules were amended yet again to enhance the maximum election expenditure in
Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies to Rs 40 lakh and Rs 16 lakh respectively.
However, those who track election-spending are aware that even this revised
limit will be observed more in the breach than than in the observance because
in recent years the average spending by serious candidates in Lok Sabha constituencies
is between Rs 3 crore and Rs 5 crore.
All of this is black money - some generated
within the country and the rest brought back from Switzerland and tax havens
like Liechtenstein. Therefore, any anti-corruption initiative must first deal
with the issue of black money vitiating the electoral process and making a
mockery of the democratic system. We need to accord high priority to this
problem.
The second most important source of corruption
is Government contracts. It is long established that those who run the Government
and the ruling party get kickbacks on every deal. In the early decades after
independence when the licence-permit-quota raj held sway, bribes and commissions
were paid in India in Indian rupees. Later, after Mrs Indira Gandhi returned
to power in 1980, the Congress chose a new route for political funding - kickbacks
from international deals which are paid into secret accounts in Switzerland
and other tax havens.
Those who have worked in Government at senior
levels - for instance, Mr BG Deshmukh who was Cabinet Secretary during Rajiv
Gandhi's tenure as Prime Minister - have noted that since the 1980s, the Congress
has found it more convenient to take commissions from foreign companies in
international deals rather than pass the hat around among Indian businessmen
and industrialists to collect party funds. This way, huge sums can be collected
to fund the party without any obligation to industrial houses within the country.
It was presumed that there would be no whiff of corruption if discreet payments
were made to Swiss bank accounts.
This grand plan, however, went for a toss
when the Swedish Audit Bureau reported that arms manufacturer AB Bofors had
paid 'commission' to certain individuals in connection with the sale of field
guns to India in 1986. Despite that embarrassment, there is no indication
of any change in the attitude of the Congress towards collecting funds. This
is also the reason why the party is dragging its feet on the black money issue.
When the pressure from the Supreme Court became
unbearable, the Government cleverly announced the setting up of a "high-powered
committee" to keep the court at bay. This committee is supposed to examine
the problem and outline a plan of action to bring back the loot. The Government
offered a similar bait to Baba Ramdev the other day, offering to set up "a
committee" to draft a law to bring back black money.
After making this offer, the Government claimed
that it had met "all the demands" of Baba Ramdev and wanted him
to end his satyagraha. When he failed to oblige, the Government responded
with police brutality. The use of brute force to end a peaceful agitation
is reminiscent of the Emergency days. This was exactly how Mrs Indira Gandhi
responded to Jayaprakash Narayan's campaign against corruption 36 years ago.
In fact, the parallels between 1974-75 and
2010-11 are striking. Jayaprakash Narayan's movement began with the campaign
against corruption in Gujarat and with the demand that then Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi probe the allegations against LN Mishra, a senior Minister in
her Cabinet. Mrs Indira Gandhi did none of this. Instead, she used brute force
to crush the movement.
Mr Manmohan Singh, too, has resorted to an
Emergency-style operation to crush the satyagraha at Ramlila Maidan. Also,
in typical Mrs Indira Gandhi fashion, he has defended the midnight police
raid and said the Government had no option but to resort to such action. There
are other eerie coincidences. It should be remembered that Mrs Indira Gandhi
imposed her dreaded Emergency in 1975 after a massive Opposition rally which,
incidentally, was held at Ramlila Maidan and in June.
This only shows that more things change, the
more the Congress remains the same. The party continues to be extremely vulnerable
when corruption is discussed and the party's fascist tendencies come to the
fore whenever its Government is cornered on this issue. That is why all those
who believe in democracy need to be on high alert after Mr Singh's Ramlila
Maidan operation. Needless to say, eternal vigilance is the price of democracy.
