7. from Democracy to Kleptocracy
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Outlook Saurabh Singh/ From Democracy to Kleptocracy Extracts from the Affidavit Submitted to the Venkatswamy Commission by Prem Shankar Jha ...The Tehelka tapes provided State Trading Corporation of India being spent on each election even the first incontrovertible, visual for refund of kickbacks amounting as elections themselves became proof of what was common to $6 million, on three contracts to more and more frequent, as the knowledge among journalists and purchase sugar from it, for a total stability of governments diminished, others involved in public affairs that sum of $45 million, that the STC had and especially after the separation agents continued to operate as dishonoured. In 1987 we received of Central from State elections in intermediaries in defence contracts, the first incontrovertible evidence 1971. But there was no legally and that kickbacks on Defence and, of kickbacks in the Bofors gun and permissible method for raising more by inference other foreign contracts HDW submarine deals. These were than a tiny fraction of the sums that had become one of the principal the high points that, seen against were being spent. Where was the methods of meeting the need of the backdrop of periodic reports of rest of the money coming from?... political parties for funds to fight the Comptroller and Auditor- The root of the all-pervasive elections and to meet their running General’s (CAG’s) office, made me corruption exposed by Tehelka lies expenses. conclude that the cloud of in a lacuna in the Indian Constitution. Till March 13 this year the assertions, rumours and gossip This is the lack of any provision evidence available had been indirect about kickbacks on virtually every for meeting the cost of running a and inferential. There was a transaction that involved the democracy. This lacuna stems disclosure in The Statesman in the government, contained more than a directly from our adoption of mid-eighties of the out of court grain of truth. Westminster democracy as our settlement of a demand by a Swiss What made all of these entirely model for the Indian Constitution. company, Compagnie Noga d’ believable was the fact that all of us The British constitution is unwritten Exportation Importation, against the could see more and more money but very well understood. It makes 34 MANUSHI no mention of the need to meet the expenses of candidates, and political parties. In fact, it does not recognise the existence of political parties at all. The Indian Constitution follows this model and has both these lacunae. In Britain this did not matter too much as the average size of a parliamentary constituency is around 80,000 people and contains 50 to 60,000 voters. A candidate can stay at home, get into his car every morning, and visit virtually every village and small town in his constituency in as little as two In 1970, the Government banned (iii) This practice has filtered down weeks. Local party organisations company donations to political parties. to the bureaucracy. The result make the arrangements for his But it did not create any alternative has been a destruction of speeches, and meet the costs from channel for legal political funding. This accountability in a bureaucracy donations by their members. Money left political parties with no option but that already had too little is not, therefore, a crucial obstacle to raise money through clandestine accountability. to being a candidate. methods and in cash. (iv) Clandestine funding, no matter In India, on the other hand, the Those who provided the cash were what the source, has destroyed typical constituency covers 6,000 not altruists, so they demanded the party system in India. sq. kms, contains 1.8 million people favours in return. Over the last four (v) Kickbacks have also ensured and one million voters and has 1,000 decades this has criminalised the that India places orders with the to 1200 polling booths. Just political system and done immense less technically qualified firms, manning these on polling day harm to the country. In this affidavit I often for substandard or as yet requires between 8,000 and 10,000 have space only to mention the salient untested equipment. In the area workers, all of whom have at least to points of the damage that has been of defence procurement this is be fed and offered transport. One done... But apart from the fact that especially harmful to the nation. sitting MP told me recently that it there is a very large volume of (v) Kickbacks inflate the capital cost her at least Rs, 5,000 to man circumstantial evidence from which cost of projects and make it each polling booth on the election inferences can be drawn, the following more difficult for Indian goods day. The candidate cannot provide developments follow logically from to compete in world markets. this money openly, as it is far in the absence of legal sources Criminalisation of Politics excess of the prescribed ceiling in offunding. Corruption is not a private but a the Representation of the People (i) It has brought into the public vice that can completely Act. It has to be provided by the legislatures and into the undermine the rule of law and make political party. government people with access governance impossible. In India, over Under Indian law there exists no to large sums of black money and the past three decades, it has handed legal method for political parties to muscle power. the political system over to raise more than a small fraction of (ii) It has made kickbacks on criminals,and, as Mr. Gujral correctly the amount they need. government contracts a universal saw, legitimised the wholesale Various decisions and phenomenon. MPs, MLAs and extortion of money from millions of enactments over the last three ministers who have raised money poor and middle class citizens of the decades have on the one hand made to fight elections have to pay it country. The latter two developments it progressively more difficult to back. They do so either by doing have all but robbed Indian democracy raise political funds legally, and on favours, or by recovering the of its moral legitimacy. Corruption has the other vastly increased the money from government thus become a dire threat to India’s political parties’ need for funds. expenses. continued survival as a nation. No. 128 35 There is no society without some briefly became a member of the Deve corruption. What has made it spread Gowda cabinet on the like a galloping cancer in India is the recommendation of Mr. Laloo Yadav, tacit blessing it has received from before public anger in Bihar forced all political parties. This can be an embarrassed Mr. Deve Gowda to traced to a single decision that Mrs. prevail upon him to resign. Gandhi’s government took in 1970: In UP in October 1996, the to ban company donations to Bahujan Samaj Party not only gave political parties. When fund a ticket to a known hoodlum, gathering was a legal enterprise, Mukhtar Ansari, but when the Bihar individual politicians could be Police obtained a confession last corrupt but there was no need for month from a criminal arrested in the official leadership of a party to Bangalore that he belonged to be corrupt. The ban choked off the Ansari’s gang and that Ansari was legal flow of funds and forced depth to which the country’s politics behind the kidnapping and murder political parties to look for donors has been criminalised. According to of a Vishwa Hindu Parishad treasurer, who were capable of, and willing to the EC’s statistics, more than 100 Nand Lal Rungta, in January this contribute black money. Since black criminal gangs are active in Bihar year, the chief minister, Mayawati, money could only be generated politics. He also revealed that there transferred the DIG of police who through criminal activities ranging are 100 gangs with more than 5,000 had flown down to Bangalore to from tax evasion to smuggling, members in Uttar Pradesh, and 110 record the confession. bootlegging, and murder, this made in supposedly well governed But why blame only Smt. all political parties accessories to Maharashtra, of whom no less than Mayawati? In 1997, When the BJP crime. 55 are in Mumbai. Nearly 1,500 of chief minister of UP, Mr. Kalyan With alarming rapidity a new the 13,952 candidates in the last Singh, staved off a challenge to his hierarchy emerged: at the top were general elections (1996) had a record, government by inducting 34 large companies which continued to not of petty crime but of murder, defectors from the Congress and the fund the party in power, albeit with dacoity, rape or extortion. Worse BSP, it was found that 19 out of the increasing reluctance. Further down still, over 700 out of today’s 4,072 34 defectors had records of violent the line were small and medium-sized elected MLAs have criminal cases crime. Hari Shankar Tiwari, ex- traders and entrepreneurs, who pending against them in 25 states. Congress MLA who Kalyan Singh found in the new situation an Last year, Taslimuddin, a known appointed Minister for Science and opportunity to trade funds for Bihar hoodlum with murder and rape Technology, was implicated or licenses and permissions that would charges against him, was not only indicted in no less than 37 murders. facilitate their growth. At the bottom elected to the Lok Sabha on a Janata These people needed no inducement of the pyramid were criminals who Dal ticket from North Bihar, but to defect. They had joined the initially supplied muscle power in Congress or BSP earlier solely exchange for protection from the law, because they needed immunity from but have gradually infiltrated the the law.