“... THAT government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not vanish from this earth” said US President Abraham Lincon speaking at the dedication of a national cemetery at Gettysburg in 1863. It is perhaps the best-known definition of democracy in American history.
In the Indian context, our Parliament has always been well represented by men and women coming from various states, speaking different languages, following diverse religions and belonging to different casts. Members’ educational, economical and professional backgrounds have also been vastly different, but all of them had one qualification in common — they were elected by us. Thus, they have been people representing the people of their constituencies, in running the government for us, the people at large. After all, we are the world’s biggest democracy!
Despite all its positives, decision making in a democratic government is by majority vote and is never known to be quick and fast. Democracy is perhaps the most complex and difficult of all forms of government. It is filled with contradictions and requires its members to labour diligently to make the government work with accountability. We are probably experiencing one such difficult situation now and seem to be drifting in the undesirable terrain. Right from the day Left decided to withdraw support to the UPA government, all that we read and hear about is ‘deals’. At the centre of all is the nuke deal. But the government requires 272 (majority) before 123 (agreement) and that has thrown up the game of politics open to all sorts of deals.
We hear about an airport being renamed to garner a few votes and wonder if Taj Mahal and India Gate will also be named after some MP’s wife or a daughter in the coming days. We see MPs talking to TV channels from their hospital beds and party leaders pressurising the attending doctors to let the MP travel to Delhi on the voting day. Some MPs are being persuaded by promises to consider nationalisation of mines in their area and others are being offered ‘structured deals’ , such as CM chair in the state along with two ministers-of-state positions in the Union Cabinet or the desired Cabinet berth at the Centre and deputy CM post for the son. A few MPs are also agreeing to indirectly support the government by abstaining and are silently extracting their pound of flesh.
Then, there are smaller parties, demanding creation of separate states, possibly with a vision to become the USI (United States of India), comprising over 500 states, each covering the area of a constituency. And there are discussions for introduction of industry-specific or company-specific windfall taxes, threatening to end up in some MPs coming up with a list of permanent account numbers (PANs) that they wish to be taxed at higher rates.
There are interventions at the highest level to patch up differences between big businessmen and there are usual lunches/dinners being organised by political parties to hold their flocks together. Finally, there are TV channels and MPs openly discussing anything from Rs 25 to 100 crore as the price for one vote in favour of the government. And what else than a promise for release can be a deal with MPs (with criminal record) in jail to enlist their support, when they go out on bail to vote in Parliament. In short, it seems to be a government of the deals, by the deals and for the deal. Isn’t that deal-o-cracy ?
In such a cacophony of personal and party specific deals, one really wonders what our MPs are thinking about the nuclear deal. What do we get and what do we give in by signing up 123 agreement? Are we running our nuclear power plants at full capacities? Has our country fully exploited its potential for hydro power? Have the party think tanks shared their viewpoint and aligned all their members? Or are fence-sitters planning to defy the party whip and realign themselves in anticipation of early polls? Isn’t current level of inflation that is affecting the common man a bigger concern than the nuclear deal? Are our MPs not bothered to know whether the loan waivers granted in the budget reaching the target farmers or not? None of these may seem relevant in the dirty deal-o-cracy .
To get our elected members focus on real policy issues and ensure good governance, we actually need the government to get out of ‘running businesses’ and concentrate on its key roles viz. defence, law & order and delivery of justice. Once the government gets out of businesses, MPs may not see value in demanding specific ministries and there will be no deals to strike. Till such time anything like that happens, may the MPs who represent us, responsibly exercise their votes, for our democracy to triumph over the dirty deal-o-cracy !
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