Politicians....Organized Criminals ??? (part 3)

Preface 

This is the third and last post of the trilogy, where I have tried to explore the similarity between politics and organized crime in the country. This post goes into the depth of political rot in contemporary times and also explores the few silver linings in these dark clouds.

        With the end of Congress Hegemony in Indian Politics in 1989, it was now the era of coalition and vote bank politics. By this time, there was widespread public disinterest in politics. The middle and upper class were completely alienated from the electoral process. The elections were wide open, with extremely low winning margins and several close candidates for each seat. It essentially meant that to be 'first past the post' in any elections, you don't require support cutting across all communities, like in earlier times. Hence, instead of a 'unity in diversity' campaigns for the entire constituency, the complete electoral emphasis was now on specific targeted audiences, based on caste, religion, ethnicity, region etc. The old imperialist technique of 'Divide and Rule' was perfected by the modern Indian Politicians. These politics led the Indian society in the vicious cycle of mutual hate and self-destruction which continues unabated even today.

Protest Against Mandal Commission

        Ticket distribution on the basis of caste has been going on since the late 1950s.  However regressive caste politics reached new heights with the development of competitive reservation system, for vote bank purposes. Every caste/community started proving themselves backward and demanding reservations, added and abetted by opportunist political leaders. Instead of expanding the overall pie, all efforts went in securing a smaller separate slice for ever increasing sub-divisions. As expected it led to a development of creamy layer in every historically oppressed section of Indian society. The creamy layer kept reaping almost the entire benefit of reservations while the remainder remained untouched as they couldn't even cross the minimum qualifying threshold.

Ram Rath Yatra by L.K Adavani

        The Hindu fundamentalist groups had long been sidelined by secular charismatic leaders such as Gandhi and Nehru. But the continuous vote-bank minority appeasement policies led to dissatisfaction in the majority. On the highly emotional and religious demand of creation of 'Ram Janyabhoomi Temple', the Hindu fundamental groups revived themselves. It finally resulted in BJP forming the first stable non-Congress government in the country. As expected, acquisition of power in the center led to a more moderate and secular approach being adopted. India finally found the long required and very essential (right-winged) political alternative to Congress. However it came at a huge cost on the society. The demolition of Babri Masjid led to several religious riots. The Gujrat riots of 2002, was the second major government-supported riot in the country after the Anti-Sikh riots of 1984.  

Laloo Yadav

        Party sponsored criminals, during elections, had been a very common thing, right from the late 1960's. Later booth capturing, intimidation and sporadic violence during elections, became the norm of the day. But now hard-core criminals started coming into politics. With their muscle and money power, they were able to gather enough critical votes to be the 'first past the post' and hence they were welcomed with open hands in all parties. The thin line between organized crime and politics was blurring very fast. One of the worst sufferers was the state of Bihar. For more than two decades, the state was very similar to a mafia-ruled place. There were even parallel caste armies and proxy civil wars in the state. Things were not much better in the rest of the country either. In eastern India and especially in tribal areas, organized exploitation by the state and police machinery increasingly drove people to violence and Naxalism.

Political Choice

        All the mainstream parties more or less lost their separate identities. Party ideology became a poor joke. People frequently swapped sides with perfect ease between rival parties. Horse trading and power struggle became far too blatant and unapologetic. In a supposedly spiritual country of ours, public morality and even basic ethics were thrown out of the window. Another interesting pattern is the change in the personal relationships between ardent political rivals. It had progressed from once ideological differences to personal differences, to now pure shadow-boxing. On a personal level, everyone in politics helped each other. They even bailed out their opponents at critical times, ensuring that rarely anyone ever got convicted in courts. For all effective purposes, the complete political class was above the law. Although outwardly, the politics appeared to be more dynamic, with no party ever being sure of returning back to power; actually, the system became very stagnant, with no real change being brought about, through any elections.

P V Narsimha Rao

        By the early 90's, Indian economic was in tatters. There was a minority government at the center headed by Narasimha Rao, who had mastered the act of staying in power, by hook or by crook. There was not even a single party then, that had economic liberalization in its agenda. Yet the circumstances forced India to liberalize its economy. Great path-breaking reforms that would have never passed had there been proper discussion or debate on it, in the parliament, were readily passed as  everyone was just busy trying to avoid a second election and get the maximum out of the costly election that they had somehow won.

People's Committee Against Police Atrocities

        Apart from having a very positive impact on the economy, the economic reforms completely changed the scale and scope of corruption, black money and politics in India. The pace of economic reforms and liberalization slackened as soon as the Indian economy stabilized. Certain key sectors were never reformed, and the bottleneck in those critical areas now yielded much higher returns for the bureaucracy and politicians, from the increasingly rich business class. The country moved from 'ineffective socialism' to 'effective crony capitalism'. This crony capitalism led to very harmful effects on the environment and much greater exploitation of the extremely poor (especially tribal) class. As a reaction to it, counter-productive communism and Naxalism spread explosively, to cover approximately one-third the total districts of the country.

        As the scale of corruption scandals grew, so did the task of covering it. Rajiv Gandhi made a mess of covering up the Bofors scam and hence paid dearly. Learning from that, the politicians soon realized the need to bring every investigative agency, especially CBI, under their water-tight control. Very soon they were masters of the game and even the creation of CVC by Supreme Court through the famous 'Vineet Narain case' helped little. CBI soon became one of the most effective tool, in the hands of the government to blackmail its coalition partners and others in the opposition.

Election Commissioner, T N Seshan

        After the demise of Indira Gandhi, the non-political, independent institutions of the country slowly strengthened themselves. In 70's and 80's a number of elections were rigged. Money and muscle power had become predominant in Indian elections, slowly turning India into a banana republic.  One man, Election Commissioner, T.N. Seshan changed it all. He utilized the power and autonomy of the Election Commission, under the constitution, to free the office from all political pressures. His legacy ensured that elections became freer and fairer over the years.

Vinod Rai, The Controler and Auditor
General (CAG) of Ind

        After the Emergency, no government could ever dare to put binding restrictions on the media. With the emergence of TV and the subsequent popularity of the media, it became a very powerful fourth pillar of democracy. The media has never been completely free from political pressures. However the fact that its competitive popularity in most cases, rests on taking an anti-political and anti-establishment stance, has led it towards constant scrutiny and criticism of the politics. Similarly, as the executive kept losing popular support and people power, the judiciary filled in the gap through increasing judicial activism. A lot of important decision were taken and monitored in courts rather than in executive bodies. Historically, the CAG's audit reports were routinely thrown into the dustbins by the politicians. Lately, under Mr. Vinod Rai, the CAG has successfully managed to name and shame politicians. Thus India has, over time, developed and nurtured all the necessary elements of a fully working democracy.

        The advent of modern technology, the internet, social media, the spread of education, the growth of urban middle class and increase in prosperity due to economic reforms has strengthened the civil society of India. IT revolution, growing demand for e-governance and greater public scrutiny through acts like RTI has dented the political power slightly. Even though disturbing similarities do exist between current politicians and organized criminals, the experience of other countries, who have gone through a similar path, suggest a far rosier future for India. India is too diverse a country to make any sweeping statement and hence it remains a matter of speculation whether Indian politics has reached its nadir or not.

JanLokPal Bill: The missing “magic wand” to end corruption

Anna Haza

Our Prime Minister has said that there is no magic wand to end corruption in this country. Corruption is systemic, all-pervasive and deep-rooted in the mindset of Indians. It’s a cultural problem and no single bill or law can curb corruption significantly. The above statement finds resonance with a lot of intellectual persons, thinkers, columnists and common people too. However I beg to differ, from the majority, on this. After a deep study of the Jan Lokpal bill, and the manner in which corruption works in this country, I have come to the conclusion that, not only is there a magic wand to end corruption, but that this wand is none other than the Jan LokPal bill. In the rest of this post, I would only try to justify my above statement.

The first thing that we have to understand is the way in which corruption happens in this country, how the black money is channelized, and who all fall in its path. Lets us first understand the basic infrastructure of corruption in India. In India, the one of the major root cause of corruption is the nexus between the politicians and the bureaucracy. Leaving aside the corruption of MP/MLA fund and other such petty corruptions, politicians rarely ever commit corruption directly. However they are the biggest beneficiary of corruption, and in certain cases that money constitutes a significant portion of their party funds.

All major corruptions, small and big, are actually done by the bureaucracy. Whether it is the corruption in making passport/ration card, or the CWG scam, it’s the bureaucracy which actually does the corruption. Without the cooperation of the bureaucracy, corruption is impossible. But bureaucracy alone has its limitations. It itself cannot spread corruption as far, wide and deep as it is today. Bureaucracy works under the government (political system) which has direct control over the transfer, promotion etc. of the bureaucrats. More importantly, the government has control over the various investigating agencies currently functional. If these agencies like CBI are allowed to work independently, it would be very difficult for the bureaucrats to hide the paper trail of their blatant corruptions. Hence we can safely say that bureaucrats badly need the help of the ruling politicians, to give them the one thing that they need the most – protection against prosecution for their wrong doings, and they are ready to pay for it. Only the politicians can give the bureaucrats the zero risk environment needed for the unabated corruption. And only bureaucracy can give the much required money to the ruling politicians. Hence we see that that as far as corruption is concerned, the legislative and the bureaucracy, which are meant to be separate, are more like conjoint twins. This nexus between them is mutually beneficial to both at the cost of the common people. The system works so beautifully that it quickly corrupts the honest people in the system or else marginalizes them. Since votes in this country as mostly on castes, religion etc. the politicians also don’t suffer an electoral backlash because of it. This system works so well that now we have almost accepted corruption as the way of life. Indians freely give bribes to get their work done and in most cases, there are fixed corruption rates and no haggling as well.

The second major reason for the rising corruption is the lack of accountability of bureaucrats at any level for their decisions in a court of law, and the hence the great difficulty in proving corruption of the bureaucrat. Corruption complaints are almost like one man’s word against another’s, with no authentic proof. Hence it is almost impossible to proof corruption in a court of law. Also with the multiplicity of laws in our current system, it is very easy for a bureaucrat, to harass an honest citizen, who refuses to pay bribes. And even if such a person goes to the court, all that is accomplished by the multiple years spent in court is that the genuine grievance of that citizen is resolved. But still there is still no punishment for the bureaucrat who subjected him to all this trouble, as we have no such fixed accountability. The entire work is spread over many other bureaucrats with no one having any accountability for the entire work or part of the work. Hence there is no effective deterrent for the bureaucrat, as he will most certainly get away from the court of law without any punishment. This has given rise to what we can call the “culture of corruption” in our country where no work gets done without giving bribes.

Now the question arises, how can there be a magical solution to this problem, if corruption is so deep-rooted in our system and in our mindsets. But even before answering that question, let’s first shatter another common myth regarding the normal human behavior. Although most Indians start taking bribe as soon as they get the first chance and have no moral hesitation in giving one, to suit their selfish needs; this is not uncommon or strange or different from anyone else. Indians are not genetically/culturally more inclined towards corruption as compared to citizens of countries having the less corruption. There is nothing drastically wrong with us as a race. There is something wrong with the system and not within every individual. Let me explain this statement further.

In every society there are three types of people. First are those who are always on the right path, no matter what cost, what all sacrifices are required for it. These are people with a very strong moral fiber, who are very rare to find. It is impossible to convert the entire society into these types of people. Second are those who are born crooks. They will keep on trying, to find ways, of making easy money. They would be frequently successful, even in the countries having the best laws. No law can ever keep their behavior in check. But they again constitute a very small minority of the entire population. The third type is the most important type as approx 90% people belong to this category. These people have an inherent urge to be good and honest but have no real moral fiber in them. But their most significant quality is that, they do exactly the same as what everyone else, around them, does. They are pure copycats. For example - if no one in the office takes bribes, they won’t even try to start the bribing process. Also if everyone else in their vicinity is taking bribes, they too will become an integral part of the system sooner or later. More importantly, their behavior is not permanent and can change very quickly and drastically. It is this third type of people which determines the collective behavior of the society.

Now let us focus on how the Jan LokPal bill will be effective in curbing corruption and will be the “missing magic wand”, as was the bold claim made earlier by me. JanLokPal tries to curb both types of corruption. The first type of corruption is where both bribe takers and givers are equally guilty, and are involved in a mutually beneficial relationship, Eg. the 2G scam, CWG scam and all other major scams and the corruption that takes place in government contracts etc. The second type of corruption can be called “forced corruption” or an “extra tax” on the people, where the bribe giver is forced to give a bribe just to get his genuine requirements met. He is not asking for any favor but still has to pay money, otherwise he would be harassed and his important work will not get done. It is this form of corruption that a common man mostly faces, and the beauty of JanLokPal is that it would be most successful in curbing this second type of corruption.

The Jan LokPal strikes at very critical links in the chain of corruption. It basically takes the anti-corruption wing of the CBI or any other investigating agency out of the preview of the government into the direct hands of an independent agency. Hence now the politicians can no longer give foolproof guarantee to the bureaucrats, from prosecution against corruption. They can still control the transfer and promotion of the bureaucrats and the bureaucracy is still under them, but a now a crucial power is missing. With the Damocles sword of LokPal hanging over their heads, the bureaucracy would not be able to indulge in rampant and blatant corruption. Majority of the bureaucrats will never have the confidence that, they would be able to hide all evidences of their corruption. They cannot be sure that nothing would ever come out against them, even by an independent and comprehensive investigation. The fear of losing their jobs would give them the courage to defy the politicians, as they know that in any investigation it would only be their neck that would be on the line. Hence the LokPal can actually break the nexus between the politicians and the bureaucrats. Also even a single conviction would have a big ripple effect on the bureaucracy, further breaking the existing nexus between the two. Actually it is very risky in this system, to do corruption, until the bureaucracy, politicians and LokPal all come together. However by making the working of LokPal so much transparent, the chances of LokPal becoming corrupt are less. There are many provisions in the bill to ensure that this is a very rare case.

The Jan Lokpal bill also addresses the other major reason for corruption – Lack of accountability of bureaucrats for their actions. The Jan LokPal bill mandates all the government offices to declare a “Citizens Charter”, where they would have to declare that they will do the X work of the X person in X days by an X bureaucrat. JanLokPal further states that if that work is not done in that much time, without any genuine reason, it would be deemed that it was not done in anticipation of a bribe. No one has to proof anything. Also the blame lies squarely on the bureaucrat mentioned in the Citizens Charter and he would personally face punishment in the court of law. There is also a provision of an immediate fine on that officer based on the delay he caused that would be given to the aggrieved person. This will act as the strongest deterrent possible for any corrupt bureaucrat.

Shehla Masood
(RTI Activist)

With the multiplicity of complex laws in our current system, the bureaucrat still has the power to harass an honest citizen who refuses to pay bribes, and cause a limited delay in his work, giving fictitious reasons. However the society always has people of type 1, who are willing to fight for what they think is correct and moral, though they are a very small minority of the population. After the JanLokPal bill gets passed they would become the drivers of change in the society. They would not only be able to get their work done, without paying bribe, but would also get punishment for the corrupt officials. This would strike fear among the rest of them and they would be hesitant in asking for bribes to the rest of them. This fear factor, coupled with the fact, that if any person can get his work done without giving bribe he will not pay a bribe, will go a long way in curbing the “culture of corruption” in the country.

Coupled with the other features of the JanLokPal bill, it is quite clear that it is incompatible with the current corrupt system. It would create huge imbalance in the system. An honest LokPal has the potential to change the entire system. The speed of this change would also be absolutely amazing. As soon as few people start getting punished, a systemic change would take place. The 90% type three people will change their behavior overnight. That would result in the system being fundamentally changed. This in turn, will lead to a lot of changes such as the laws would be made simpler as complex laws would now be against the bureaucracy itself. Also a lot of restructuring would happen in bureaucracy to ensure accountability in the system. The greatest change would be in the politics in the country. They would have to create more genuine and legitimate sources to fund the elections expenses, like in other countries. Sure there would be a lot of anarchy and witch hunting initially, but eventually things would settle down for the better.

Anna Hazarre had said that he is confident that JanLokPal bill would be able to reduce corruption to the extent of 50-60 percent. I believe that this is a very modest claim and the actual reduction would be much higher, though it is true that corruption can never be completely removed from the society. JanLokPal can actually change the system where corruption is not the norm but something which is controlled and checked.
 

To say that corruption can only go away whenever one stops giving bribe is stupid and impractical. Campaigns like “No to bribe” etc never achieve much because the majority of the people do not have a strong moral fiber and this fundamental fact cannot be changed. The other idea to curb corruption is through more reforms, i.e. making government controls less and less, reducing the number of check posts of corruption. This no doubt is a great and practical idea and can indeed reduce corruption. The country most certainly requires such reforms. However the government’s role cannot be completely done away with. We cannot have everything deregulated and hence places where corruption can exist will still continue to be substantial. Hence we can say that other than a strong anti-corruption law, there is no other way of curbing corruption in this country. JanLokPal is the magic wand that will curb corruption in this country. It is the need of the hour and now a popular demand.