Bankruptcy of ‘Identity’ Politics

In a democratic republic an individual should be the unit for governance. His or her identification to a particular community should be of limited political relevance. However, India’s diverse social and unequal economic fabric has been prostituted to the advantage of political parties which claim to represent the cause or identity of one specific community as distinguishable from the other.

Irony of such representative politics is that it seeks to ameliorate the conditions of the very sect on whose social or economic backwardness it justifies its own existence. If the identifiable group is no longer deprived, the existence of a separate political outfit will be redundant. The political party who claims to work for the poor has every incentive to ensure that there should always be zillions of those. The need for continued political relevance compels them to work positively to ensure that anything that fuels the mobilization of the group is avoided at all cost.

Worthlessness of this brand of politics is empirically proven. It is this brand of politics that allows Bahujan Samaj Party in ensuring that the deprivation does not leave the marginalised scheduled tribes. It allows Rashtriya Janta Dal to be sole guardian the Muslim-Yadav community and the poorest of the poor and do nothing to benefit them.  It allowed the congress to permanently reverse the path towards uniform civil code by nullifying the landmark ruling of the Supreme Court and bending backwards repeatedly by sustaining regressive and archaic laws which would be despicable by any objective standard in a civilized society. So convenient and addictive was this trend that they had the audacity to subvert the constitution by introducing religious based reservation, prejudicing the interest the very muslim community which it claimed to represent.

Acceptability of this politics grants the party an immunity from any level of underperformance or corruption as ability to govern was never the basis for their claim for power. It is contagious as it almost forces other political rivals to adopt similar pattern. Consequently, what the country witnessed the creation and widening of social divide, invention of competitive and often conflicting identities and precedence of symbolism over substance. Meanwhile, the national interest is relegated leaving the identity of an individual as Indian largely irrelevant.

The last thing that a community would need to secure its identity is self-proclaimed political guardians. 

Political Brilliance has no Substitute.

‘Governance’ is considered to be anybody’s task and often understood as requiring little less than honest intentions and formal education. Even the most informed voter often casts his vote in favour of a presumably less corrupt candidate. Having an incorruptible image is often considered sufficient to be in the business. If it were true, one would not be hard put to identify leaders in India’s sixty year long political history with demonstrably effective governance record.

Unfortunately, politics is a discipline by itself and governance is rocket science. In India’s inherently complex and evolving socio-political dynamics, this is increasingly true. Honesty is both necessary and desirable but by no means sufficient. Political brilliance has no substitute. Incompetence, on the other hand has no virtue. The importance of it is required to be stressed as unfortunately politics is confused with romanticizing poverty and glamorizing false pride. 

Political brilliance is by its very nature less evident and difficult to trace. If history is any judge, we also know that it is rare. It is characterised by leadership quality, decision making ability, political will and the acumen in governance. Disdaining qualities or rendering them irrelevant will prove suicidal. What we have also witnessed very often is that a political discourse which ignores political brilliance generates sub-standard governments.

Lack of political acumen is capable of creating epic blunders. Nehru’s vision of Kashmir which lacked foresight and national interest led to an almost irreversible problem. Rajiv Gandhi’s addiction to irrational, anti-national and sectarian sentiments churning out one disaster after another is not unknown either, while political brilliance of Sardar post independence and Indira Gandhi during the Bangladesh War led to unification of India and consolidation of national security, respectively.

It is hard to imagine why a leader should be judged on extraneous grounds except for governing abilities.   

Demonstrable and relevant merit is indispensable for any employment. Being young may not be enough, being a dynast is totally irrelevant. Any departure from the norm will render the institution deficient. Politics is no different. 

The simple answer the question of who should be in the business is that it has to be the one who knows how to do the business.

Let the votes not be ‘cheap’, again!

Democracy can be a disaster, if the votes are ‘cheap’. Unfortunately, the largest democracy in the world has shown propensity to ‘cheap’ votes.  India’s grand old party has understood and exploited the democratic setup marvelously. It denigrates public opinion by putting a very low price to people’s votes. So, we see the vice president of the congress party finds it absolutely relevant to discuss the assassination of his grandmother during a campaign with the voters prior to assembly election and relies overwhelmingly on largesse schemes for continued political prevalence. Congress is more than comfortable chewing traditional instruments which are increasingly getting outdated in modern day politics, viz... dynastic charisma, historical hegemony, secularism, inclusiveness, worshiping poverty, stroking fear psychosis etc.  The continued dominance of the congress party can be neatly summarized by this phenomenon. And perhaps this explains the audacity of the congress president and arguably the most powerful political person in India when she still claims the mandate in face of countless scandals and epic failures without even being questioned once by either the press, the bureau or the people at large for nine years at a stretch.

An educated and informed voter is an antithesis to congress’s political culture. It becomes increasingly difficult and embarrassing to sell him functionally outdated ‘isms’, stories of ‘sacrifices’, and state largesse over and over again. Their unending romance with systemic blunders leading to irreparable damage becomes more and more evident and becomes incapable for a cover up. From Kashmir to maoist menace to creating world records in corruption, all finds its root to a great extent in the congress’s political theology.

Imagine from the scratch, the most undesirable economic or social evil which a country could possibly have - name it and thanks to congress that India has it. Congress has striven relentlessly to invent at least some of them from absolute nothing while has contributed immensely to stimulate some others. Consequently, the problems in terms of poverty, terrorism, institutionalization of corruption, naxalism, nepotism, economic and gender inequality, economic depression, religious fundamentalism etc. has exploded beyond repair etc.

Congressional setup is unique, it no only defies nationalism but also common sense and naturally breeds an entrenched enmity with intelligence, prudence. It develops a remarkable fondness for obsolete tools for governance. Hence, even a mention of merit, qualification, performance and governance record make them jittery and red faced. It is very natural to see Congress behaving ridiculously childish and unintentionally hilarious in their conduct and speeches when faced with concrete economic and security issues. Consequently, the vacuum created by lack of ideological setup, foresight, political brilliance and clear vision is allowed to persist. The only effective reason it stays in power, strives for power, and claims for power is because they always had it - the only reason the party high command stakes his authority is because his or her family always had it.

Congress’s phobia to governance and accountability based political setup has blossomed and is becoming more evident than before in the run up to the upcoming general election as they are increasingly forced by the media and popular public opinion to justify their authority which they always took it as given.

The incumbent prime minister of India once described naxalism as the single biggest threat to internal security. On similar lines, congress can be described as the single biggest disaster to present day Indian politics. There can be only one more thing worse than having no central government. It is having a congress led government. 

Media's Scrutiny: A Spectacular case of hypocrisy

Media prides itself in doing a scrupulous task in presenting to its viewers and readers the content which keeps them lettered and guides them to an informed judgment. While the vigilance administered by the media is often criticized for being immoderately incisive, but surprisingly its selective standards of scrutiny largely goes unnoticed. More than anything else, media needs to shed hypocrisy.

For quite some time now, media has devoted considerable amount of time and ink in presenting to us all the facets of incumbent Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. While Media’s fascination and interest is understandable, given the fact that many believe him to be the prime minister in waiting, it is the choice of content and absence of equivalent interest in any other incumbent or other plausible prime ministerial candidates, which is incomprehensible.    

As modi’s establishment boasts about remarkable growth rate, economic freedom, international accolades on reconstruction and development, record agricultural production, turnaround of the tourism industry etc. Media misses no opportunity to point out its traditional, all time hit rebuttal about 2002 riots.    The variety of information which media deems it fit to telecast or publish to bring the point home is revealing. Evidence, facts, judicial pronouncements, testimony of convicts, lengthy investigative reports, and statistics are considered almost irrelevant in demonstrating his direct or indirect involvement in the pogrom. Want of proof which even cast a suspicion on his involvement has driven media intellectual frenzy.

Resultantly, every obscure detail about him has attracted the attention regardless of its relevance. Modi’s refusal to wear a skull cap becomes an undeniable proof of his communal mindset. His donning of a saffron coloured kurta will only further corroborate it. He having only regretted the holocaust and not tendered a personal apology will then form a piece of clinching evidence. Columnists thinks it entirely reasonable to translate his poetry (which is originally written to Gujarati) in to English to peep into his mind and thereby in to his ability to govern.

And just when they were running out of required rhetoric; it floated new standards of assessment which is designed to indicate repulsive side of his character. Viewers and readers are informed repeatedly about his succinctly knitted kurta from one of the most expensive shop in Ahmadabad and his precisely trimmed beard, his tendency to get photographed every now and then, his obsession with excessive marketing of his work. We are then informed as to how his choice of vocabulary reflects unpleasant face of his personality;  viz..’mataye aur behne (mothers and sisters)’ undoubtedly indicating his conservative mindset; ‘upvaas instead of anshan’(meaning ‘fast on personal reasons’ and ‘fast for a cause’), showing his lack of understanding;  ‘I’ instead of ‘we’ in speeches, demonstrating authoritarianism. Historians, civil society activists, marxist intellectuals, former judges have come to media’s rescue and have enriched it with such theories.  Euphemisms, metaphors, are used by them almost routinely to reflect upon his ‘dreadful’ image. Parallels of his persona with historical hate figures are drawn effortlessly.

While it is disastrous to draw monumental conclusions from isolated facts, media with the help of its ‘liberal brigade’ have drawn conclusions from absolute no facts without slightest hesitation.

And precisely when this mindless outpouring is going on, media finds it of no relevance to fill up the vacuum of information on the other side. Media simply makes no effort to find out the actual educational qualification and alleged mis-declaration of the same by the person who has served as the president of the single largest party for fifteen years and is the chairman of the incumbent ruling alliance for nine years now - Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. It is considered absolutely understandable that even after twenty three years she is not made to answer by any government agency or anyone for that matter on bofors howlitzer scam of which her husband-the then prime minister was in the dock. Her relation with the Italian middlemen and absconding scam kingpin Ottavio Quatrocchi becomes a dead issue.

No damage is done and no investigation is initiated even when her son-in-law is found indulging in countless financial irregularities leading to the establishment of a gigantic business empire in a record time of ten years. It is considered entirely reasonable that she need not give reason to the people on why this businessman is also exempted from frisking at all Indian airports by way of government order. In a government where she behaves like a super prime minister and where scams after scams involving trillions of dollars keep on unravelling scalding almost everyone associated with the government, Mrs. Gandhi escapes even the slightest dose of inspection, leave alone full-fledged investigations. Her effrontery receives no attention from the media or intellectuals.

Equally unnecessary is for the media to even peruse through the draft ‘communal violence bill’ - the most ridiculous piece of legislating drafted by National Advisory Council of which she is the Chairman. The unprecedented politically convenient and administratively ridiculous model of governance comprising of dual power centres which gives her all the power with zero accountability and makes a mockery of democracy also fails to raise any eyebrows. While modi’s development claims immediately finds lengthy counters indicating that there is enough left to do in interms of malnutrition, human development etc. and when even his twenty four hour electricity supply in eighteen thousand villages fails to receive the desired accreditation, Mrs. Gandhi’s record as a member of parliament and as an administrator for straight nine years of one of the most backward district in the country invites no analysis. Media’s sense of reverence for Mrs. Gandhi appears to have no parallel.

Her party’s policy of going extra soft on millions of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and by allowing subversive legislative and administrative mechanism to facilitate their stay despite it being manifest threat to the national security also fails to raise even a suspicion about her own secular credentials and her allegiance to the nation. But no one dares to point a finger even when the situation swells out of control and ultimately culminates into communal riots. Foreseeability of the riots and non-action are again obviously not discussed.

Her ludicrous choice of phrases like, “we should attack and not be on the defensive”( as a response to CAG’s report on coal scam), “let them ask” (as a response to oppositions’ demand of resignation pursuant to coal scam), “rahul ka sapna” (as a comment on the constitutional amendment motion on lokpal bill) and “power is poison” (while apparently bequeathing her share of power to her son) surprisingly invites no media scrutiny whatsoever.  When modi’s vocabulary is subjected to heavy-duty vivisection, Mrs. Gandhi’s unimpressive speeches in rally are received with extraordinary grace.

No efforts are being made to find the truth- to peep into her mind, her stand on critical issues. The issue is not even broached up. Her persona which heavily relies on ‘mystery branding’ is allowed to sustain. Her rule is almost considered as ‘given’ when media is not even interested in knowing her opinion on the economic, political and social problems affecting India or in evaluating the consequences of such absence of opinion, leave alone the ability to implement it. Nothing, absolutely nothing is somehow capable of sullying her image.

Media’s silence is more than telling. People are made to digest that the ‘queen’ can do no wrong! 

Perception matters. It should not!!

In the last decade or so, media seems to have attempted to contribute significantly in informing people at large about facts and details behind political events. However, perceptions still remain irreplaceable while framing of political judgment. Facts and details can be boring, extremely volatile and are often short lived. Perception acts as a direct substitute. It is easy, convenient and often goes uncontested.

Our incumbent Prime Minister, from the day he occupied his chair in 2004, is ‘perceived’ to be an ‘economist’ with impeccable honesty and integrity. It is this continued perception which resulted in victory for the congress and his re nomination to the post in 2009. 

If one were to simply brush up and study the course of events and the established set of facts during last nine years, Prime Minister egresses as anything but an economist with integrity. 

Irrefutable facts evidencing disturbing credentials emerged about the UPA left presidential candidate Pratibha Patil after her name was announced for the post. She founded and continued as the chairperson of a ‘mahila sahakari bank’ (woman’s co-operative bank). Bank was found to be ill managed by Reserve Bank of India after several inquiries and RBI was forced to order its liquidation citing the interest of depositors. Irregularities smacked of corruption and nepotism.  Out of the funds collected from depositors (mostly comprising of small vendors, rag pickers and other indigent depositors etc.), loans were issued to her family members and first degree relatives (including male members) worth millions of rupees and were later declared as ‘non performing assets’. But for her presence, the borrowers in the first place would not have even managed to get a penny loan out of the bank.

However, Prime Minister found it absolutely unnecessary to even have a look at these facts investigated RBI, by official liquidators and by banks own internal audit in their reports. Several letters written to her by Union to the bank also indicated how ‘loot’ was carried out under her chairmanship.

Series of events also showed as to how she was also suspected of shielding her brother while he was charge sheeted by CBI for conspiracy to murder. Prime Minister who is believed to be an ‘honest economist’ summarily rejected these overwhelming set of facts as ‘mud slinging’. Resultantly, Pratibha Devisingh Patil became President of India and continued in office for five years.

It was hardly a surprise when her tenure as a president failed to inspired and was marked by unending controversies ranging from her extravagant and massive expenditure on foreign trips, unprecedented clemency largesse to dreaded convicts serving punishments for brutal multiple murders and gruesome crime on children and women, and breaching protocols.

The otherwise indecisive Prime Minister has not only defended her, but he was equally quick in putting his entire weight behind former telecom minister A. Raja when the allegations of 2G scam (second biggest scam in the world after Watergate scandal) emerged for the first time, Suresh Kalmadi before he was jailed for the CWG scam, and former CVC chief P V Thomas before he was disqualified by Supreme Court; all of whom the congress party and the prime minister himself now finds completely indefensible and claims to maintain a safe distance.

Perception had always done the trick for the Prime Minister. So strong was its effect that he was able to entirely avoid any accountability for his debut ‘cash for votes’ scam which surfaced during UPA-1 regime.  

Prime Minister’s second term in power has seen a series of debacle and disasters. Every possible thing which could go possibly go wrong with a government has gone wrong. Monumental scams involving billions and millions of rupees, undue favours to political favourites in building economic empires, economic mismanagement leading to unprecedented fall in the rupee, lowest GDP growth rate, continuously soaring inflation, international disapprobation, international aggression, administrative inefficiency and indecision making, wholesale judicial reprimand on multiple issues, civil unrest in large parts of urban and even rural India etc. So much was the chaos that when the Indian Express wrote a story about a possible military coup, it almost seemed believable.

Such is the situation in the government that the best possible tactic, given the media and people’s fascination for breaking news, to budge attention of the people from one scam or blunder, is to invent another. In face of all this, the perception, the presumption refuses to die. The teflon coating refuses to tire out. Meanwhile the smugness, habitual obduracy, mysterious silence and imperturbability of Prime Minister remain impervious.

To those for whom shielding, fielding, protecting and defending the corrupt is not sufficient enough to be convinced about one’s ‘personal culpability’, Comptroller and Auditor General of India indicted Prime Minister himself in the biggest ever scam in independent India.  

CAG’s most damaging accusation in its report on coal block allocation was that “In all since July 2004, 142 coal blocks were allocated to various governments and private parties following the existing pattern of allocation which lacked transperancy, objectivity and competition”. Prime Minister himself was in charge of the coal ministry for most part of this period(2006-2009). CAG states that final decision on the process of allocation of coal blocks through competitive bidding was made way back in July 2006.  Para 13 of his statement as read out in the parliament in response to the accusation merely stated that “Any administrative allocation procedure involves some judgement and in this case the judgement was that of the many participants in the Screening Committee acting collectively. There were then no allegations of impropriety in the functioning of the Committee.” A very convincing reply indeed!

CAG reports unambiguously states that the loss caused to the exchequer due to faulty allocations is upto Rs. 1,86,00000 Million. On this, Prime Minister states that CAG loss estimates are ‘questionable’. That’s it!!. Take eighty percent discount. Does that make it any better? All this in a country where approximately three hundred thousand people are engaged in manual scavenging and government will require few thousand million rupees to get rid of it.

Prime Minister had also shown complete faith in the age old tradition of congress by allowing subversion of every independent institution, mainly the investigative bodies, so that the truth will be never be known. Consequently, absence of final definitive account or an official stamp on the scam generates lengthy debates and generated confusion allows the prime minister to retain and maintain the perception. The last week drama over the issues of coalgate and railgate leading to the resignation of two senior ministers should now strike a final nail to burst this enduring perception. Who was former law minister trying to protect after all?

But do not even point out these facts. How can you even sniff a scam? Prime Minister highly ‘qualified economist’ with undoubted honesty!!

Prime Minister has picked on every opportunity to play tawdry political tricks. Way back in 2006, he said that religious minorities have the first share on nation’s resources. In fact, it wasn’t just an unintended slip, he meant what he said. His government had the audacity to introduce religion based reservation in educational institution and even go in an appeal to the Supreme Court after it was declared unconstitutional by the High Court. The latest one from him came in his campaign rally in Gujarat, where he told the gathering how minorities in the state are not safe.   To add to all this was sheer apathy. When country was roiling over horrific delhi gang rape and people took on streets, Prime Minister took his own time which lasted for a week before he could address the nation. Government under the leadership of prime minister has managed to be extremely versatile even in their blunders. But let me recollect, Prime Minister is not only perceived to be honest and an eminent economist, he is also perceived to be secular and very sensitive!

-Bhargav