Ides of September: Month of Judgements
Be you ever so high,
The law is above you.
September 2013 will go
down in the modern Indian history as a memorable month for two pronouncements
by the Supreme Court of India and their possible catalytic effect in giving new
dimension to the country's politics. It is safe to assume that these judgements will have a
far-reaching impact on shaping the destinies of many politicians and political
parties in this country. This month also saw emergence of a new political star
in Narendra Modi and yet another cameo from endearing and ever-confused Rahul Gandhi.
This is how the month unfolded:
Sept 4 - Supreme Court of India rejects Central Govt's review petition of its historic judgement of July 10, 2013, which stated that "convicted MPs/MLAs/MLCs would stand disqualified immediately if convicted by court for crimes with punishment of 2 years or more."
Sep 24 - Central cabinet approves an Ordinance to negate this judgement and sends it to the President of India for his assent.
Sept 27 - Rahul Gandhi Congress Vice President states that in his personal opinion, the ordinance is 'complete nonsense' and 'it should be torn up and thrown away'.
Sept 27 - Supreme Court in a landmark judgement allowed voters to cast negative votes observing "when a large number of voters will press NOTA (None of the above) button, it will force political parties to choose better candidates. Negative voting will lead to systemic change in polls."
Sept 11 to 30 - BJP's PM's candidate Narendra Modi addresses huge political rallies in Haryana, AP, MP, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Tamilnadu, Delhi and Mumbai.
Sept 30 - Lalu Yadav, former Railway Minister convicted in 17 years old Fodder scam and sent to jail.
All the above events had different backdrops,albeit, similar contours but likely to converge on same path leading, one hopes, to the highway of a clean polity in India. There is no doubt that these judgements will have substantial prophylactic effect on the country's ailing democracy. The apex court has proved it once again why they are perceived by common man as last resort. One could not have asked for more in these depressing times. The message from the court is unambiguous. Keep the criminals out of politics and ban their entry into the temples of democracy( Parliament and State Assemblies).
Of course, the bell tolls for
the political class and they should wake up. It is time for politicians,
particularly those who have relatively unsullied and untainted image and still
many years left in their chosen vocation, to rise to the occasion and take the
call to provide a strong body to the spirit of
judgements. They will be doing a
great service to themselves and to their tribe in the bargain. Remember what
politics used to be in the 50's and 60's when the leaders would mix freely with
the crowd, honesty was still a cherished word and driving force behind their
profession was the basic spirit of social service.All that has vanished in the deep sea of regret and anguish. It would be difficult to bring back
those halcyon days but at least sincere efforts can be made by the present crop
of politicians to regain people's trust and goodwill.
Then you would not require an army of commandos or goons to protect you from
the same people whom you want to reach. There will be no need to hire a crowd.
Expenses on elections can be scaled down drastically. No pivotal role for black money as elections could be financed in a transparent manner.
All this appears like a dream but still possible and doable by honest and visionary political leaders in this country. As Walt Disney said "If you can dream it, you can do it". Supreme Court has already gifted the nation, not one but two historic judgements. Now it is over to you folks,the practitioners of World's second oldest profession to use these judgements to protect our beautiful and vulnerable democracy which has been under constant attacks by a bunch of criminal ,corrupt, casteist and communal politicians.Just remove the veil of hypocrisy and see the sun of reality. Go for candidates with a clean image in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. While winnability factor cannot be ignored, the education, integrity and reputation as a sincere social worker should carry maximum weightage.For starters,at least major political parties can take a lead in this direction. That will be our real tryst with democracy.
P.S.: Rasheed Masood, Congress MP from Rajya Sabha and known for getting a meal for Rs 5 has been jailed for 4 years in a scam. He is likely to beat Lalu Yadav to become first convicted leader to lose his Parliament seat. All this has been made possible by the recent historic judgement of Supreme Court. It could not be more ironic when we celebrate today birthdays of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri, two great leaders from the same party. May their souls rest in peace.
Very candid views and aptly stated too, today being birthdays of two prominent figures in Indian History and the decision by the cabinet to withdraw the ordinance and the bill. It is very interesting to note that media and opposition including BJP is trying to take the credit. However, to me there are three heroes. The first and most important one is the Supreme Court, then the President (in spite of his long association with Congress and loyalty) and finally the "Ma ka Ladla" (no matter what people might tell about his behaviour and actions).
ReplyDeleteTIMES news was trying to pass the credit to people of India, but I do not think so. Reason - When Anna raised his voice against corruption and for Lokpal bill, millions rallied behind him and battled at different locations, but when entire political community agreed on principal to challenge the Supreme court judgement by filing a review petition that led to submitting the ordinance to president for his stamp, the very same people did not come out on the street to protest. To take advantage of the situation BJP did a somersault for political mileage. On the other hand and while no one talks about it (may be some did initially), this seemed like a master planning by Digvijay, Madam and associate and at a perfect time to launch Rahul baba as PM candidate in a sensational way and also to counter NaMo (Manmohan is already a spent force and served its shelf life).
Nonetheless, it is certainly a remarkable period that will go down in the history of India that brightens the hope of countering the ruthless politicians. Mind it, no politician or political party likes it and they will find the way to circumvent it at any cost. We all need to be vigilant to counter them.
Now that the two legislations to bar tainted politicians are in place, the focus should shift to other important issues, such as removing some very special privileges enjoyed by these politicians including fat salaries, self proclaimed salary increases (no pay commissions for them), high perks in terms of subsidized food in parliament canteen, free train and air passes and most importantly them remaining above the law through their misbehaviors and blatant abuse of their powers.They certainly need to be shown their place i.e. being Sevaks and truly elected representatives of people and not the Kings/Gods.
Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram...........
A fine analysis of the events. There is indeed a lot of hope for clean politics and good governance. A hint of doubt about the direction that the politics may take, is quickly pushed back by the activist role played by the Judiciary, rise of the Aam Admi Party and the support it has received from the public. I only wish for some great public speakers of the caliber of Vajpayee and Jagannath Rao Joshi to emerge, which can induce large scale public participation in the electoral process.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant synopsis of the current political state. I am ever so hopeful for the rise of the Aam Aadmi Party...... finally a party worth considering.
ReplyDeleteTo me the verdict is an auxillary thing to stop a criminal being allowed to contest. But as a comman man/voters realization is more important than the verdict in it self.
ReplyDeleteHow of us beleive that this news has reached to the masses?
How the comman man is made aware that the person is contesting is not a criminal ?
Can a criminal record of so called contestant be scrunitized and published before election?
How can we make Voting a easy and better excericise rather than people standnig in queue for hours, so they participate ?
These are some of th question that if corrected honestly by the Police and Election commisioner we will have a clean government, especially the last one. Becuase most of the people don't want to move out and vote..
Great assessment and views. Let's hope corrupt politicians and bureaucrats keep getting to see the inside of a prison cell. A couple of years with such verdicts and we should have a cleaner system.
ReplyDelete