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Democracy and Corruption

M C Raj

Indian democracy is going through turmoil at the moment. There isa hype created about corruption in the country. Young people havecome on to the streets in an apparent bid to save India fromcorruption. The government of India has shown visible signs of panicand makes apparent mistakes in its strategy to contain the hypearound corruptions. There is a need to understand a few dimensionssurrounding the fight against corruption in India.

It may look that there was no such corruption earlier in India. Suchuniqueness to the present struggle against corruption has beencreated mainly because of the personalities who are spearheading

the present battle in the streets. The General is known to be aGandhian and that lends a lot of credibility to the struggle.Ultimately one may witness in many corners of India a strenuouseffort to project Hazare as the new messiah who will save India fromcorruption. There is a danger in this personalization that the issue ofcorruption may easily be pushed to periphery and Hazare will bepushed to the centre-stage. Around Hazare there are someinevitable others who are always present at any publicity-galvanizing event in India. Why did Hazare arise in the horizoncapitalizing on the issue of corruption? We shall not go back into hispersonal history, as we have no intention to personalize any

struggle.

Indian leaders in general are very wary of highlighting any issuesthat will capture negative international attention. For exampleIndian rulers of all parties have tried their best to prevent anyinternational media attention to the issues of untouchability andcaste inequality. Yet the issue of corruption has been allowed to beblown up at a time when India is gaining an image of Asianeconomic giant and even being a donor country. There must be apurpose behind this attempt to put India on bad spot. The timing is

a strong indication. Already in the period of India Gandhi corruptionbecame a serious issue and she sealed the issue by proclaiming thatcorruption was a universal phenomenon. From then on India hasnever run short of corrupt practices.

The recent proceedings in the parliament of India have repeatedlyshown that there is a strong effort to put governance by Congress ina bad spot. The BJP has been stalling the parliament proceedingsthrough undue pressure tactics and has taken recourse to alsopersonal vilification of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. Withoutgoing into the merits and de-merits of BJP effort to disrupt

parliament functioning, one may conclude that the present effort ispart of a continuum and not a suddenly spruced up issue. This time

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around the effort has been to make the government make as manymistakes as possible and withdraw from governance so that the oldBJP regime may re-capture power. Politics is about capturing power.

Sushma Swaraj speaking in the parliament in defence of RSS

support to Hazare is a strong indicator of background players in thepresent orchestration. ABVP, the student wing of RSS/BJP hasvandalized Christian educational institutions in seeking support forHazare. In many places of India Muslims and Christians have beentargeted in public speeches as if they do not belong to India. It isalso very difficult to accept that Hazare praised Narendra Modi ofGujarat accidentally focusing only on the development model. Thehurry and the spontaneity in such adulation of a highly questionableChief Minister of Gujarat is a very strong indicator to a certainloyalty and behind the scene motivation for the crusade againstcorruption. That putting the UPA government on a spot is aninternational agenda of the BJP/RSS brigade does not need muchexplanation.

The dialectics of anti-corruption has received a severe body blow bythe proposition of a Jan Lokpal Bill. Even many opposition parties inIndia have decried the weakness of the UPA government in yieldingto such pressure tactics by Hazare to outsmart the parliament ofIndia by going on a fast unto death in order to push his personalagenda of an ombudsman outside of parliament. This effort has tobe placed in the larger context of the country where Hindutva forces

have resentment about the present constitution. They would rathergovern the country outside of the constitution through HinduScriptures, if possible, or through revision of the constitution. Thecaste governance of villages where legally elected Dalit Presidentsand members of Panchayats are attacked and brutally killed bearsample evidence to the existing violent resentment against theinclusive nature of Indian constitution. The way provisions forreserved seats have been subverted by all political parties in Indiafrom the time of Independence is an additional evidence of theendeavour to subvert the spirit of the constitution. Jan Lokpal will fitperfectly into such a trajectory. The opposition parties in India could

have easily taken up the issue in the parliament and fought toothand nail within the parliament for including the office of the PrimeMinister and judges in the government approved Lokpal Bill. It isprudish on the part of Hazare to burn the Bill prepared by theGovernment even before it was taken up for discussion in theParliament. A supposedly immature India seems to have blindlyfollowed someone who either cares a damn for the parliament ofIndia or is guided by a highly moralistic arrogance. It leavesconscientious citizens of India with a bitter question as to how muchof pro-India content is visible in the present street battle led by

Hazare & Co.

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Many intellectuals and writers who initially supported Hazare in thefirst phase of his struggle wrote a strong letter disapproving hisstatements and methods of protest. There is substance in thissymbolic protest of the intelligentsia in India. It clearly indicates thatwhile they are against corruption they do not approve of an

engineered struggle against corruption, especially if the engineeringis done by proven communal elements in the country.

Any pro-India agenda focusing on non-corrupt governance has manyother concerns to address instead of trying to catch it by the tailand turn it around to change its direction. The issue of corruption isone of the many issues that concern governance of the country withthe value premises enshrined in the constitution of India.Communalism has been a terrible form of onslaught againstconstitutional governance in India from the time of Ram JanmaBhoomi Movement violently led by Advani and his cronies. Treatment of Dalits as untouchables all over the country andatrocities perpetrated on them when they take recourse toconstitutional and legal provisions must put to shame any party thatimagines to govern this country through its constitution. The wayCongress party has blindly taken recourse to Globalization,deprivation of the poor of their natural resources in the name ofdevelopment is much more serious than the issue of corruption. Theway India is bulldozing her small neighbours in Asia and is implicitlycolonizing many African countries needs a serious analysis andpositioning by Indian intelligentsia. The way subsequent

governments in India have browbeaten UN mechanisms is a matterof grave concern in Indian governance. Electoral malpractices andviolence are serious issues of governance that deserve immediateattention. Our electoral system itself is a legacy that India hasborrowed from the British. While most countries in the world areshifting their electoral systems to one or other form of proportionalrepresentation system, India is still blindly holding on to the FirstPast The Post system. This is highly indicative of a callousness thatexists in those who are responsible for governance. Many countriesin the world have tackled the issue of corruption by changing theirelectoral system and by refurbishing their instruments and

mechanisms of governance.

That such a serious issues in governance in India have beenrelegated to peripheries and that just one issue of corruption hasbeen taken up as the most damaging issue in Indian democracy is astrong indicator of the existence of a hidden agenda behind thishype. Whose agenda are the citizens and young people of India arefulfilling is a serious question. Are they taking the bull by the horn orby the tail? Only time will tell. But by then there may be anothergeneration of India that could be trampled upon. Let us hope that

this will not happen and that good sense will prevail.

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(M C Raj is an author of more than 15 published books and a humanrights activist. He is the initiator of the Campaign for ElectoralReforms in India (CERI).