A systemic vacuum looms. What will fill it? Naxalites claim they have the answer. They already control one-third of India.
Only the Congress and BJP have governed Delhi. Both parties seek an ordinance to change the law and frustrate the court. Kapil Sibal is a lawyer, a cabinet minister and an MP. He led five other Congress MPs from Delhi to urge the government to issue the ordinance. The Leader of Opposition, L.K. Advani, wrote to the PM urging him to do the same. Local politicians of both parties outdo each other in demonstrating against the court order.
Why is this happening? Repeatedly violation of laws was allowed. The lawbreakers were not punished. New laws were made to regularise illegal activity. Illegal shops got electric connections. Unauthorised buildings were allowed construction in broad daylight.
Every lawbreaker says: "I have been running my illegal establishment for 40 years and the government did nothing. Where will I go now, how will I survive? Thousands will lose jobs!" This brings tears to the eyes of some mediapersons and politicians. Suppose Veerappan had said: "I have been operating illegally for 40 years and the government did nothing. What will I do now, how will I survive? Thousands of forest encroachers will lose their livelihoods!" Would the mediapersons and politicians have shed tears for him?
Cynics say all this happened because we are a bad people. But don’t we have a bad system? Cynics say people make a system bad. But doesn’t the system make people bad? So what’s wrong with the system?
Those who administer laws, those who prosecute lawbreakers, and those who make laws are, for all practical purposes, the same people. There is no separation of powers. There are no checks and balances in the system. The working of our Constitution reveals that. The NDA government set up a Constitution Review Commission. The Congress and Left parties howled in protest. They accused the NDA of introducing fascism. They offered no proposals themselves. Now a systemic vacuum looms. What will fill it? Naxalites claim they have the answer. They already control one-third of India.
(Puri can be reached at rajinderpuri2000@yahoo.com)