Thursday, June 30, 2011

There’s no right like ‘right to exemption’, Mr Sibal!

Edit, Governance Now, June 16-30, 2011

What we have, instead, is article 14 which guarantees 'right to equality' before the law

It came as a rude shock, yet it was to be expected. When the process of drafting the Lokpal bill got too serious, our “democratic representatives” balked. The government members of the joint drafting committee said the PM and the MPs (among many others) can’t be included in the Lokpal’s ambit because that will make the PM “dysfunctional” and violate “parliamentary privileges” of the MPs. The BJP said law-making was a parliamentary exercise and it would commit or comment only when the matter comes to the house. The Left dittoed.

The message is simple, and clear: our public representatives can’t be called to accountability. And that is how it has always been. They are the ones who make the law and they decided long ago that they are accountable to the parliament (that is, themselves) and to the people (once every five years, not in-between). Period.
Veteran political commentator Prem Shankar Jha says it is much more than just the culture of exemptions and privileges that our MPs (and MLAs) love so much. “It is a culture of ownership. We own India and all its resources. Therefore, we can take anything we want and are accountable to none, except ourselves. We are effectively above the law. We are the elite. The law is for the ruled. We are the rulers.”

Once elected, even if most of them get much less than half the votes polled, the normal law breaks down for our representatives. The traffic rules and toll taxes are not for them. They can’t be bothered with security checks or queues at airports and railway stations. Planes and trains wait for them. Key public buildings have separate entries and hospitals separate wards. They can’t move around without elaborate security cover. It doesn’t matter that 162 of our Lok Sabha members have criminal cases pending against them.

It also doesn’t matter that the average asset of our current Lok Sabha members is Rs 5.33 crore and that 315 of them are crorepatis. They get free accommodation in Lutyens’ sprawling bungalows, with free furniture and fittings, free electricity, water, phones, laptops and internet connections. They get low priced food in canteens and have a mini hospital to themselves at the parliament annexe. They get virtually endless free travel by plane and train, along with their companions, in additions to their spouses and sidekicks. Then they get a generous salary (Rs 50,000 a month) with a number of tax-free allowances running into a lakh or more of rupees every month, interest-free loans for cars and VIP discounts at state emporia and state cooperatives. And they also get to splurge Rs 5 crore a year by way of MPLADS funds.

Former Lok Sabha secretary general Subhash Kashyap wonders at the need to extend such privileges to those who least deserve it and yet are unwilling to any kind of scrutiny or accountability. We must do two things to change the Kafkaesque situation, he says: change the political culture and bring systemic reforms to ensure that those with criminal background and ill-gotten wealth are kept out. He is also against ‘nominated’ persons occupying exalted offices of the prime ministers and ministers.

Former cabinet secretary TSR Subramaniam rues that the constitution makers failed to foresee the kind of politicians who would follow them. Nehru and Ambedkar, he says, probably thought their inheritors would be like them and so didn’t prescribe a code of conduct or put elaborate checks and balances. The result is for all to see. While it is not too late to make amends, his advice to our representatives is succinct: Don’t forget, Article 14 of the constitution guarantees ‘equality before law’.
But does anyone really care? n

prasanna@governancenow.com

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