Bull's Eye

Democratic systems evolve with experience. The Indian system is evolving wonderfully. It makes life nice and comfy.

Consider the Rajya Sabha’s evolution. It was established to allow state legislatures representation in Parliament. State assemblies elected candidates belonging to the state to represent its interests in Parliament. This was done to strengthen federalism. The distinguished representatives thus elected were described as the House of Elders. To enter Rajya Sabha, the candidate, therefore, had to be a permanent resident of the state.

This, however, was impractical. Sometimes parties wanted to accommodate outsiders. A simple practice evolved. The candidate would lie. He would swear through affidavit that he was a permanent resident of the state. He would give another’s address as his own. He would get registered in that state as a voter. Hey presto! He became a permanent resident. This stratagem based on lies became standard practice. Among such liars were Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and leader of opposition L.K. Advani.

Being practical, our leaders feared that continuous lying could damage reputations. So they devised the next step. They passed a law allowing any person from any state to contest the Rajya Sabha from the state of his choice. The heck with federalism—at least they didn’t have to lie any more!

Once the doors opened for outsiders to become Rajya Sabha candidates from any state of their choice, things became easy for moneybags. All parties and politicians need money. So moneybags arranged the needful. They either entered Rajya Sabha directly or sent in their chosen favourites. Gradually the Rajya Sabha got converted into a Rich Man’s Club.

That explains the list of recent Rajya Sabha nominations cutting across parties. Mostly the candidates are rich. Or, they have rich friends. The richer one is, the more votes he gets. That is why in various elections inexperienced newcomers to politics, funded by the rich, or the rich themselves, have attracted more votes than rivals who are described as national leaders and have slogged in politics all their lives.

Because politics is a practical business, sooner or later all parties adopt these practical norms to fill the Rajya Sabha with rich members. In the latest election, that icon of clean politics, Nitish Kumar, did likewise. He made a rich sitting MP elected by his rival Laloo Yadav’s party his own candidate. Any guesses why?

But be practical. Isn’t it better for MPs to be rich before entering Parliament than to become rich after entering it?

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