India — a lawless nation

The response to the anti-corruption movement of Anna Hazare was staggering. The middle class responded as never before, ordinary citizens marched on the streets and protested, students came out in large numbers and the media response was unbelievable. The movement appeared more widespread than the JP movement of the 70s, or the Mandal protests. It was nationwide and almost became a confrontation between the Parliament and the citizens, surprising the political leadership.

VOICE OF THE CITIZENS

The more one analyses this event, the more the signs of State oppression come up. In every facet of our life, we are oppressed by the agents of the State, with the political leaders unable or unwilling to intervene. For the smallest of needs, a water connection, a power connection, a ration card, a birth certificate, a death certificate or to file a police complaint, bribes are demanded in most parts of the country and the poor suffer the most! If citizens protest, they are mercilessly beaten up by the police, under the full glare of the television networks, or thrown into jail, for no reason, save that they rose in protest, to await a trial which could take a lifetime. No police in any democratic country beats up people like our police does, using the same methods the British used when they ruled India.

Our infrastructure is rotten and almost primitive, our cities dirty, a fair part of the taxes we pay eaten away by corruption, and yet we have more billionaires, than at any time in our history. The rich and influential, our political leaders and the powerful have created a system where their needs are catered to because of an unholy nexus. They have separate norms for themselves.

Parliament has almost stopped being the effective voice of the citizens, with the political parties trying to score petty political points, paralysing Parliament, and very often preventing the making of needed laws. Parliament is meeting for lesser and lesser days, with very many absentee members.

The last bastion of effective governance, the judiciary, too, is giving way, overburdened by cases, indifferent and insensitive at lower levels to the need for quick justice and upholding the rule of law. Yes, the higher courts are making a brave attempt to set right the balance and uphold the rule of law, but to the ordinary citizen, the need for quick justice overrides the bright spots of the higher judiciary. In fact, some perverse elements of our society use the court system to harass innocent citizens, using the inherent delays to feather their nests.

Our business leaders too, with some exceptions, seem to be giving up their prime responsibility of creating wealth for the community as a whole, and are using their political contacts to become billionaires, whatever the means. Crony capitalism, suddenly, has become the new normal. Parts of civil society seem to have their own agenda, championing causes where they have vested interests, and becoming the new illegitimate power centres, almost bending the government to their will. The lone sentinel of a good society seems to be the media which is having a field day exposing all these evils, though commercial interests are slowly bending the media to do their bidding.

The ultimate sign of an oppressive State was the revelation regarding the district of Bellary in Karnataka, where the State was captured by business, running a separate ‘Republic of Bellary' governed by the rule of man, and not the rule of law.

NEED FOR CHANGE

Yes, the good elements of the State are slowly trying to right this wrong. We need wholesale change to make our Constitution work. Change will only come if the state first and foremost discharges its prime responsibility of speedy delivery of justice to uphold the rule of law. We have only 13 judges per million of the population, where we need at least 50. We need a massive investment in the justice system, a compensation structure far higher than the present one, to attract good talent, and a prosecution system to bring offenders to justice within a reasonable time.

We need a massive delegation of power to our villages, our cities, and our States. There has been a massive centralisation of power in Delhi, with economic resources, laws and talent favouring the Central government in a manner not envisaged by our Constitution. The Centre legislates on items in the concurrent list freely, funds programmes at variance to the needs of the States, and generally acts as a hegemon, increasing the gap between the needs of the citizen and the ability of the State to deliver. Our cities need more resources, more taxing powers and more political power, so that governance is closer to the needs of citizens. The power and resources of the Central Government has have to shrink and be more focused on what only it can do, with an increase in the power and resources of our City governments and our State Governments in that order.Parliament needs reforms! We need State funding of political parties to fight the elections, a ban on criminal elements entering Parliament, the right to recall our representatives, the right to reject candidates on the voting slips, and above all, a right to citizens to petition Parliament to make laws based on a system of demonstrated popular support. Parliament must, by law, debate these Bills, and vote to demonstrate that it listens to the people.

Lastly, we need men and women of character, who will respond to the call to public service and be willing to join political parties and the bureaucracy. Most of us deride our politicians, refuse to participate in the political process, and lament the want of good governance, forgetting that we get the politics we deserve. The political parties too need to open up to such achievers, democratise their functioning and become more inclusive. We need to change the recruitment rules, so that more high achievers can join the senior bureaucracy on merit making up at least 25 per cent of such positions. This will open up the system and democratise it further.

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