Some Congressmen in the habit of mudslinging are trying to deflect focus from the anti-corruption debate by indulging in accusations against Anna Hazare and his team. Which other country has an unelected prime minister or, criminal cases against nearly a third of its elected representatives, and these same people are talking about democracy in peril from the unelected?.
Congress Party spokesperson Manish Tiwari says, "Our
democracy faces its peril from the unelected and the unelectable…." (13
June 2011) Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee labels Anna Hazare a tyrant! These
Congressmen, who are habituated to mudslinging, have persistently indulged in
hurling accusations at Anna Hazare and his team to deflect public focus from
the Lokpal debate.
First they tried to fabricate a CD over some registration
of a plot against the Bhushans, which attempt fell flat. Now they are trying to
get people to believe that Mr Hazare is working for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh/Bharatiya Janata Party and not for the masses. Only the corrupt, and not
democracy, should feel threatened by such a mass movement. Democracy is the
people, not the government.
And let it be understood by the arrogant who occupy
positions of power, that democracy is not their personal domain or a
'members-only club' where 'unelected' citizens have no role to play. If that
were so, should we assume that Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose and the
entire galaxy of our freedom fighters got away with their sins, and that Manish
Tiwari would have prosecuted them for being 'unelected tyrants'. Such people
must introspect and make a serious attempt to change their outlook.
I have ten observations that could help analyse the
government's perception vis-à-vis the ground reality, in the ongoing turmoil in
the country's political field.
1. No other democracy in the world has an unelected prime
minister apart from India, which is supposed to be the world's largest
democracy. Which is probably also why it is being said that "our democracy
faces peril from its people…"
2. No other prime minister or president of a democracy
has been as silent or as invisible as is the case in India.
3. No other government in the civilised modern world
receives orders from an extra-constitutional authority (10 Janpath) as
obsequiously as the Indian government.
4. No other government in the civilised world has been
seen staggering so indecisively, and so clownish, as our government has been.
First, they tried to make fun of Anna Hazare; then, terrified at the
overwhelming response to his call and the support for the anti-corruption
campaign, the government caved in and set up the joint drafting committee for
the Lokpal Bill. Unable to answer questions raised by the civil society members
of Hazare's team, Pranab Mukherjee calls him a tyrant! Next, the top four in
the government prostrate before Baba Ramdev, then beat up the yoga guru's
supporters two days later. What kind of 'democracy' is this, and who is
destroying it?
5. No other democracy in the world has as many as nearly
a third of its members of Parliament (mainly the Lok Sabha) (about 162 plus
Suresh Kalmadi, A Raja, Kanimozhi and now may be even Dayanidhi Maran and P
Chidambaram) facing criminal charges ranging from trespassing to murder. (This
is more than a 26% increase over the record of members in the previous Lok
Sabha. There are nine ministers in the central cabinet who face criminal
charges, one of them for 'theft'. (According to National Election Watch, 76
members of Parliament are involved in serious criminal cases. A total 522 cases
are pending against various members of Parliament; 275 of these are under
serious sections of the Indian Penal Code.) What more do we need to add, Mr
Manish Tewari, that will imperil democracy in India.
6. India ranks at 87 in the survey on the 'International
Perception of Corruption' conducted by the World Bank and IBRD, Bertelsman
Foundation, World Economic Forum, Global Insight and Transparency International
Berlin. India stands on level with countries like Albania, Jamaica and Liberia
with an index of 3.3 (out of 10), that has fallen from 3.5 in 2007 and 3.4 in
2008 & 2009.
7. No sane government, other than a heartless, tyrant
would unleash brutality against a peaceful bhajan-singing congregation of
innocent men, women and children, as happened at Delhi's Ram Lila ground, late
night on 4-5 June 2011.
8. According to media reports (The Times of India,
Ahmedabad, 8 June 2011), India not only tops the list of nations having tons of
black money stashed away in Swiss banks, but its cache of black money ($1,546
billion) is far more than the combined total of the next four countries in the
list of black money deposits namely, Russia, the UK, Ukraine and China ($1,056
billion). Contrast this with the poor farmers committing suicides, hapless
pregnant women delivering babies at hospital gates, and destitute tribal masses
fed up with a callous administration, seeking solace in a Maoist rebellion.
9. No other government can boast of so many scams as the
UPA government.
10. Only the DMK appears to be ahead of the Congress (so
far, at least) in the corruption race-so what if only a few of them have crash-landed
in Tihar Jail!
However, these are merely some facts of the reality, not
something that Manish Tiwari and Pranab Mukherjee would like to believe. They,
like some of their colleagues in government, are suffering hallucinations and
illusions. In Mr Hazare, they see a heavily-armed warrior-'a tyrant'-at the
head of an angry army of India's masses, charging ferociously straight into
them. This scenario reminds one of Wordsworth's adolescent thief, who was
fleeing with a stolen boat, but he felt the hilltop behind was chasing him so
menacingly, that the farther he went the bigger the shadow became that loomed
over him. For, the more the government tries to shoo away the Lokpal and the
uproar over corruption, the more vigorous becomes the public outcry against
corruption.
Indian politicians could not have asked for more decent
and loving enemies than Anna Hazare and his candle-wielding supporters, or Baba
Ramdev, with his devotees practising abstinence and yoga. Arrogant governments
in West Asia and North Africa are facing more violent and destructive
uprisings. We have a choice to change peacefully.
While the anxiety of those in power is understandable,
they cannot avoid the problem by looking in the other direction. The tide is
unstoppable. The people deserve and they are demanding an effective Lokpal, to
rein in rampant corruption and they will get it, with the government's your
co-operation, or the tumult will crush authoritarian arrogance and install
people's choice.
**Karan Kharb: The writer is a military veteran who
commanded an Infantry battalion with many successes in counter-terrorist
operations. He was also actively involved in numerous high-risk operations as
second in command of the elite 51 Special Action Group of the National Security
Guard (NSG.) He conducts leadership training
and is the author of two bestsellers on leadership development that have also
been translated into foreign languages.