Bull's Eye

Under the UPA government, India's governance continues to decline. Two factors motivate administrations to act. These are fear and greed. Greed works when bribes are exchanged. Fear works when an official feels threatened. To make that happen without terror requires pull. Few citizens have pull. Moreover, pull itself is becoming irrelevant. Officials don't care about what superiors want. That is why Pappu Yadav and Arun Gawli win elections. They deliver to citizens what ministers can't. And the blurred distinction between criminals and politicians has made morality irrelevant.

People ask if Dr Manmohan Singh can stop the rot. He cannot. He has missed the bus. Our political system is founded on laws and principles. But it works by custom and tradition. Unless a leader breaks with custom and tradition to restore law and principle, the system will not reform. L.K. Advani and Manmohan Singh are middle-class icons of morality. But both stuck to tradition and ignored the law. That is why despite them crime and corruption continue to escalate. Consider just one example of how custom destroyed the system.

The Constitution created a Rajya Sabha for obtaining the views of the states in Parliament. Rajya Sabha MPs had to be permanent residents of the states they represented. To get elected, candidates gave false affidavits claiming to be permanent residents of a state. They would cite as their permanent address the residence of a friend or relative belonging to that state. These false affidavits under oath enabled them to get elected. Manmohan Singh, L.K. Advani and many others followed this practice. Eventually the law had to be amended. Now outsiders can contest Rajya Sabha from any state. Then why have a Rajya Sabha? Such examples can be multiplied manifold.

Was it surprising then that for his political survival the PM refused to confront Laloo Yadav, Shibu Soren or Taslimuddin? The PM claimed that the NDA government had acted similarly. Was it his case that the UPA government is no different from the NDA?

Meanwhile, Maoists last week killed an SP and four policemen in Bihar. Voters prefer effectual criminals to ineffectual politicians. Would they, then, prefer organised militants to individual criminals? Maoists refused to lay down arms while negotiating with the Andhra government. Had they disarmed in exchange for amnesty, they could have democratically taken over the country. The political vacuum is unprecedented and Maoists are spread across nine states. Fortunately for politicians, the Maoists behaved stupidly. They refused to surrender arms. They persist with their losing game.

(Puri can be reached at rajinderpuri2000@yahoo.com)