Up in Arms to Dig Ugly Past of Enemies will Endow no Party with Brighter Future
Poison kills poison, as Duryodhan discovered to his chagrin. When
used in ignorance, it kills both the dispenser and the dispensee.
Parties assume that poisonous attacks are the only method to flummox
foes. Today, past acts of omission and commission have become lethal
weapons to neutralise opponents. For the last two years, no party has
refrained from digging up the past of adversaries and flung the
unsavoury parts into the political abattoir. Promises made during the
elections, in 24 months, are not even a remembrance of things past. None
of them have taken out peace marches, candlelight processions or
walkathons to the Human Rights Commission office to protest the fact
that 300-odd drought-struck districts are being denied even basic
facilities like drinking water. Instead, defence acquisitions meant to
protect the country have become public pantomimes of poisonous
projectiles.
Undoubtedly corruption, bribery and nepotism are
major threats to the survival of democracy and good governance. But they
need to be tackled by investigative agencies. Let the law take its
course. But, like the rapacious Indian rivers in flood, Indian laws,
too, have deviated from their original course, thanks to the massive
encroachment and erosion on the polity by politically pushed probes.
None of the well-connected bribe givers or takers in the Bofors scandal
have been brought to book, even after 30 years. Shouldn’t Indian leaders
be worried about the saboteurs within who derail the legal process?
Isn’t the fact that those named in the AgustaWestland scam continue to
perambulate through Lutyens’ Delhi’s charmed circles a cause of worry?
This shows that the caucus of corporate cartels, middlemen, political
leaders and civil servants who paint files and proposals in the colours
of the cocktails and cuisine served at coterie dinners is alive and
well.
It is a deserving topic for a doctoral thesis as to why not a
soul has been convicted for over a dozen major corruption scandals in
the past 40 years—the Bofors affair, the Scorpene deal, the Airbus
payoff, the Barak Missile scam, stock market manipulations etc. If
scandal-ridden Italy, where probity in public life is under a shadow,
can conclude the `3,546-crore helicopter scam trial and jail important
officials, including the chairman of tech-giant Finmeccanica, how come
all key players in the scam, whose names have popped up in India, are
roaming around freely in the corridors of power and are VIP guests at
political and corporate weddings? An FIR was registered in 2013 and only
a Delhi-based lawyer was arrested. The grilling of star suspects was a
farce. They were invited for a ceremonial trip to the offices of the
investigative agencies. Letter rogatories were dispatched to a couple of
countries, routinely seeking details of the transactions. It is only
after the Italian trial was finished and its contents made their way
into the Indian media and Parliament that the agencies decided to summon
the suspects or witnesses.
It is evident that all such scandals
remain unresolved, only to be later used by parties to their advantage
during and after elections. Undoubtedly, the chopper scam is one of the
dirtiest defence deals in recent times. The UPA government signed it
under pressure from lobbyists. It was cancelled after the media exposed
the role of powerful middlemen. The Italian court has concluded beyond
doubt that dirty dealings dominated the sign off. But in India, the
issue has turned into a fight between the ruling BJP and the Congress.
The government is copiously quoting from the verdict to expose the role
of Congress leaders in helping middlemen make money. The party is
hitting back for the delay in nabbing the real perpetrators. Ironically,
the papers were signed during the UPA regime, though the process to
acquire the helicopters began after NDA came to power. In the absence of
any visible and credible action against the Indian suspects, the
Congress has decided to brazen it out. It has adopted a similar
approach, as the Bofors strategy. Since NDA I failed to prosecute any of
the suspects during its six-year rule, the Congress has given itself a
clean chit. It has challenged the BJP to prove any of the allegations
against it or its leaders. Mysteriously, some of the accused were
acquitted because investigative agencies failed to produce any original
document in court. Curiously, successive Central governments led by
either party never approached the Supreme Court to appeal against the
lower court orders. Even in L’affaire AgustaWestland, the Congress is
trying to turn the tables on its foe. It asked the NDA to explain the
reason for the defence ministry’s U-turn over banning Finmeccanica in
August 2014, and then diluting the decision a few weeks later.
The
moral of the current political slugfest is that parties are still in an
election mode. Both the text and subtext of the debate are written
using negative adjectives. By spotlighting the past sins of the
Congress, the ruling dispensation is giving a fresh lease of life to the
demoralised and decimated party. Voters had peremptorily shrunk its
tally in the Lok Sabha to just 44—the lowest since Independence. The BJP
must keep in mind that double jeopardy prevents anyone from being
punished twice for the same crime. Indira Gandhi was ejected by voters
for imposing the Emergency. But she was back in 30 months because the
ruling Janata Party was obsessed with sending her to prison instead of
providing a better government. But the Modi government is not Morarji
Desai’s. It has provided a corruption-free system. It has ensured
economic stability and decisive leadership. Despite a few flip-flops on
Pakistan, India is considered a prominent player in international
diplomacy. It has become a superbly attractive and glamorous destination
for foreign investors. Instead of projecting its achievements to put
opponents on the back foot, NDA strategists have chosen the path of
aggressive confrontation. They are convinced that revealing the ugly
past of its enemies will endow it with a brighter future. But it
shouldn’t forget that the mandate the people gave it, is not to harp on
murky antecedents but to cleanse politics and provide a clean and
productive present and future.
The moral of the current
political slugfest is that parties are still in election mode. By
spotlighting past sins of the Congress, ruling BJP is undermining its
own achievements and giving a fresh lease of life to the decimated party
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