The Hindu Business Line : `Operation Duryodhan': Is seeking money merely `stupid'?

THE Bharatiya Janata Party veteran and the party's outgoing President, Mr L. K. Advani, has given a new nuance to the terms `stupidity' and bribe-taking. Till now one had thought that accepting money for doing something that was your job as an employee of an organisation or an elected representative of the people, as our MPs are, would be described as immoral, dishonest, deceitful or corrupt.

But now Mr Advani tells us that if an MP accepts money for doing the minimal of his job description — asking a question in Parliament — he is just being `stupid'.

In the Lok Sabha debate on the expulsion of the 11 MPs caught on camera in the cash-for-questions sting, called `Operation Duryodhan', while the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, said the punishment was necessary to uphold the "dignity" and "integrity of the citadel" of Parliament, Mr Advani had this verdict to deliver.

Opposing the expulsion of the 11 MPs, six of whom were from the BJP (one from the Rajya Sabha), he was quoted thus by The Indian Express: "Punishment for the members is as good as capital punishment. It is too serious a punishment for the stupidity of seeking money for asking questions in Parliament. I cannot be a part of it."

This is truly strange coming from a person whose party has shouted from the rooftops about "probity in politics". By describing the trapped MPs as stupid, what is the message the BJP stalwart is giving the nation?

That, for a member elected to the highest legislature in the land — the citadel of democracy, as the Prime Minister called it — to seek money is nothing more than stupidity.

Of course, at one level, one can sympathise with the BJP that after the coalition it led — the National Democratic Alliance — lost the 2004 General Elections, its already depleted strength in the Lok Sabha will be reduced further by five — quite a blow.

Also, the buzz in the Saffron Brigade is that the sting operation was targeted mainly at the BJP and the lone Congress MP trapped was only naam ke vastey (for form's sake), to give the operation credibility.

With Aniruddh Bahal directing the sting operation, a link is seen between his earlier association with Tehelka, which was virtually annihilated during the NDA regime for capturing on camera the former BJP President, Mr Bangaru Laxman, accepting cash, Janata Dal United's Jaya Jaitley discussing money, etc.

An aside: Perhaps, Mr Laxman should now ask Mr Advani why he was not spared, by labelling him `stupid' rather than being asked to step down as party chief.

However painful the expulsion of the 11 MPs — though refreshingly speedily, in less than two weeks of the sting being made public — it has restored faith in Indian democracy and reaffirmed the dignity of its most concrete symbol — Parliament.

Remember the outrage and pain that the entire nation suffered when there was a terror attack on it on December 13, 2002?

In one voice, cutting across political parties, castes, communities, religions and regions, all Indians had condemned the act, because an attack on Parliament was seen as an attack on Indian democracy itself.

Yet, that was only a physical assault and by criminal minds. But more despicable is the act of the 11 MPs, who are supposed to guard the democratic values most zealously.

The BJP has opposed the expulsion of its guilty MPs under the lame excuse that it was not appropriate to deliver this `capital punishment' on the MPs on the recommendation of the Pawan Kumar Bansal Committee set up to probe the charges, and that the matter ought to be referred to a Privileges Committee.

This argument is untenable. Clearly, on certain issues and during testing times politicians have to rise above party politics and look beyond the arithmetic of their strength in the legislature.

Anyway, real strength does not always come from numbers, which are as fickle as the voters who make or break those numbers.

Did not the Congress of Indira Gandhi, which had reached the pinnacle of power after the 1971 Indo-Pak war and the liberation of Bangladesh, receive the worst-ever drubbing in 1977, post-Emergency? Or, the NDA of the `India Shining' campaign bite the dust?

The truth is that the BJP, which is loathe to lose five MPs in the Lok Sabha, unsure as it is about winning back those seats in the bypolls that will necessarily follow, is a pale shadow of itself.

Internal dissidence, power politics and machinations to grab the top party post, the gross indiscipline which resulted in the expulsion of Ms Uma Bharti from the party, and the utter failure of the party's leadership to get out of the shadow of the RSS and other Sangh outfits on such issues as Mr Advani's forced exit as party chief, have taken their toll on the party.

In public perception, the ravings Ms Uma Bharti and the shrill campaigns of Ms Sushma Swaraj — remember how she had threatened to tonsure her head, wear only white and sleep on the floor if Ms Sonia Gandhi became Prime Minister — come off poorly vis-à-vis the enigmatic silence of Ms Sonia Gandhi at crucial junctures.

How many interviews of Ms Sonia Gandhi has one seen in the 20 months the Congress(I)-led UPA has been in power? Hardly any. This does not mean the Congress is an epitome of all virtues, or its politicians are saints.

Far from it. Ms Sonia Gandhi's confidante, Mr Natwar Singh, is in the dock over the Volcker Committee report allegations, and the party has more than its share of squabbling and machinations.

Perhaps, by good fortune — if not by design on the part of the sting operators — the Congress managed to get away with only one of its MPs in the ranks of the infamous 11 who have been expelled.

But on the positive side, in its 20 months the Manmohan Singh Government has done a pretty decent job of governance.

The economy is booming, the monsoon has been good even though floods have wrecked havoc in many pockets, and there have been no major scams. Also, it seems to have learnt a lesson from the BJP spin doctors' hyped-up `India Shining' campaign ahead of the 2004 elections.

There is little doubt that certain pockets of India are shining brighter today than they did during the NDA regime, and no thanks to politicians for this. Corporate India is doing well, the IT/ITES sector is flourishing, and the `Old Economy', relegated to the back benches during the heady days at the turn of the new century, has struck back.

All of this had led to the FIIs making a beeline for Indian equity almost as if there will be no tomorrow for Indian stocks.

But those of us who can look beyond the shine of FII patronage, the glitter of mega malls overflowing with branded goods and designer-wear, swank multiplexes running to packed halls showing the latest Bollywood films, or eateries offering the finest dining experience in international cuisine, have concerns on Rural India and urban slums.

Here, we see the flood ravaged risking their lives for doles of Rs 2000, some rice and kerosene, farmers earlier devastated by droughts now being destroyed by floods, and millions of Indians still struggling to make ends meet. Images of sunken eyes and broken spirit haunt you, if you care to only look.

However much a cliché this might sound, it is too early yet to raise a cheer for India. It will have to wait till the kisan, the rural and urban mazdoor, the slum-dweller can become part of the resurgent India.

When a child will no longer have to scrub your vessels or mine, or clear tables in restaurants or roll bidis or work in dangerous industries such as firecrackers, when he/she will be in school and able to read Harry Potter, if not in English, at least in his/her mother tongue, that will be the time to honestly — and confidently — claim that India is indeed shining.

Meanwhile, those who betray the confidence of the millions who have so much expectation from them, who greedily pocket the taxes you and I pay must be punished when they confirm our worst suspicions.

Granted, they may not be the really big fish, but then weren't they `stupid' enough to be caught? If for nothing else, let us punish them for their stupidity!

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

More Stories on : Politics | Economic Offences

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
BPO industry due for mid-course correction

Welcome cover

Re-designing India's manufacturing

`Operation Duryodhan': Is seeking money merely `stupid'?

Home is where talent is

WTO: Hong Kong Declaration can be a positive force

Needed, a fair deal for patent seekers

Freight train speed

Stampede deaths