Corruption and the Lokpal Bill

On Corruption and the Lok Pal Bill

  

Anna Hazare’s hunger strike had started off with a “Do or Die” ultimatum. If the Jan Lokpal Bill wasn’t adopted by the Parliament within the 30th of August, procedure be damned, the strike would be indefinite and lead up to a wave of struggles all over the country. The Manmohan Singh government and assorted parliamentary parties blew hot over this threat to ‘Parliamentary sovereignty’. But they found few takers and were soon forced to bow to Anna. News channels had a field day, their tone shrilling up as the days passed. This was the spectacle of the century, a Big Boss reality show of gigantic proportions. There was of course a slight change in the format– the sole entrant in the hunger strike, this most open and simple of all forms of struggle, was permitted the right to disappear from public gaze daily and furthermore to enjoy the ministries of corporate healthcare. Thus, over the course of a few days, a 21st century Gandhi was discoursed up – media savvy, corporate friendly and yet as rural as it can be, khaddar topi and all.  Democracy of the ‘crowd in the streets’ variety was held up against Chanakian machinations of the ‘official’ variety. The disgust and anger long felt by people against politicians was deliberately fanned up. MPs were publicly heckled and that sight was beamed all across the country. Truly, the political class in India had never ever been so isolated. Finally, the cathartic show ended with a true Gandhian compromise, the type which can be stretched at will. Quite symbolic of conspicuous absences in the Ram Lila maidan crowd, Anna ended his strike by drinking juice from a glass held by a Dalit and Muslim girl. And, surprises of all, the winners of this edition of the show came out in seemly pairs: Anna and Manmohan, ‘civil society’ and parliament. The advantage was with Anna and his civil society. But the bad guys were now good guys, sagacious statespersons worthy of leading the nation. Give them a Munna Bhai hug and join the chant - Chak De!

Will this have a bedtime story ending - ‘they married, had a most beautiful Lokpal Act baby in due time and lived happily ever after.’? It may and it may not. The bickering has started. Privilege motions and tax notices are sent to various lead actors of the Jan Lokpal movement. They in turn accuse the government of backsliding and dirty tricks. Anna himself has declared that half of the ministers are cheats and thieves. Of course, this could very well be jostling for space and credit. Let us assume that these hitches are ironed over.  If it really does end like that, will it be all that happy for the vast majority of this country? Where do things go from here? Well, a lot matters on how the outcome of the hunger strike is judged, how the widespread interest it stirred up is weighed and put to use. The significant support generated by Anna’s strike, the overwhelming elation seen in many centres of the country when the government had to concede some of the main demands, were sharp pointers to the anti-politician mood of the educated urban middle class youth. But the enthusiasm seen here for Anna and the Lokpal affair was conspicuously absent among the rural broad masses and significantly weak in their urban counterparts. Yet the mood is common, quite often more fierce. The explicit message, delivered to every hamlet with a cable TV link, that the hated Netas and Babus had to finally bow down to the people, was highly enthusing - for all of the masses. Will that bolster aspirations and efforts to realise them, stepping out of line?  Will there be demands to channel the Anna current towards vital issues of people’s livelihood? Taking sides with some ongoing struggles? Already Irom Sharmila has called on Anna to join her 10 year old hunger strike against the Armed Forces (Special Areas) Act. Will the political awakening of the urban ‘apolitical’ youth grow out of the confines of a one point agenda? Will they advance to a more critical look at their surroundings? And, as it happened in the wake of the mass movements of the 1970s, will the more militant among them move on to make common cause with the bottommost layers of society?

Passions had to be fired up during the hunger strike. Its victory had to be proclaimed and celebrated. But it is now equally imperative that a division is made, lines are drawn, and minds moulded. None the least because the urban, upper-caste, middle class is a significant component of the Indian ruling classes social base. Therefore its ideological apparatus, the media, intelligentsia and those rare intelligent ones among the political class, is in a refurbishing mission overdrive. The central message being delivered is that Indian democracy has at last found a trustworthy watchdog in the politically alert ‘civil society’. The lesson is being hammered in that the people of this country are blessed with a live and kicking democracy and politicians who can be brought around to accede to the people’s views. Non-violence and Gandhian methods are held up as sufficient means to step in and set things right when the political system fails to respond. The whole Anna Hazare iconolatry and the Lokpal business are being shaped into a re-legitimisation exercise – there is some rotten stuff that needs clearing out, but the fundamentals of the system are sound, a little bit of fine tuning is all that is needed. Can we buy this assurance? There are any numbers of reasons to be sceptic. To give just one, there is the matter of skeletons clattering in the cupboard, or more precisely in 38 graveyards. The State Human Rights Commission of Jammu and Kashmir has confirmed digging up 2156 unidentified bodies from them, all delivered for burial by the Indian armed forces. Admittedly, even for a country of 100 crore plus, 2156 unknown bodies should be big news. Not so for this largest democracy, particularly when it’s in its Gandhian mode. We saw some mention in the print media, hardly any in the TV channels. Bones don’t make TRP, especially when it’s Muslim and Kashmiri.

The Anna team has arrogantly restored that slogan ‘Indira is India…’ of the dictatorial Emergency days, replacing Anna for Indira; a chilling reminder that the distance from populist idolism to dictatorial reign can be covered rather quickly. Remember the switch from Indira Gandhi of bank nationalisation/Bangladesh liberation fame to the brutal empress of Emergency. And in case the cherubic smile of an Anna or that didi-like image of Kiran Bedi makes one think that THEY can never be dictators, let us also recollect what happened across our border, in Bangladesh. Advised by the World Bank and imperialist capitals, stalwarts of their civil society, headed by Nobel Prize winner Yunus Khan, took over and carried out a dictatorial reign with army backing. The apparent purpose was to cleanse out the corrupt political scene and set things in order. Some bigwigs were arrested, cases charged, and the country prepared for election. Along with that a most vicious suppression was launched against all militant, revolutionary opposition.  Hundreds were illegally detained, tortured and killed while that good old civil society was busy with its civic matters. So let’s take a step back, view things in a broader context. Let’s think over what was posed, struggled over and is assumed to be achieved in this whole Lokpal issue.

The Issue

Corruption has always been a part of the political system. But with globalisation the magnitude of corruption shot through the roof. When the gates were opened for the foreign Multinational Companies (MNC) to enter our economy in a big way, there was also a huge influx of foreign money and the ruthless imperialist corporate culture. As the MNCs went about rampaging for natural resources (minerals, land and water), they threw hefty amounts to Netas, Babus, media persons, and agents of this already rotten corrupt system to clinch their deals. Once in a while, in the heat of competition, some disgruntled elements within the ruling classes leak out these unholy deals. Let’s take a brief look at some of the recent scams.

1) 2G Spectrum Scam

We have had a number of scams in India, but none bigger than the scam involving the process of allocating unified access service licenses. The centre of attack around this Rs.1.76-lakh crore worth scam is the former Telecom minister A Raja – who according to the CAG - evaded norms at every level as he carried out the dubious 2G license awards in 2008 at a throw-away price; pegging them at 2001 prices. That’s the CBI case. But there is more to it than this.

When mobile telephony first came into India none of the big players were interested in putting in the initial investment to create a market. Mostly unknown figures like Mittal of Airtel who had been a contractor for decades with telecom industry jumped into the fray owing to their proximity with the top bosses of the department. Soon its potential was realised and all the big ones in the corporate world - Reliance, Tata, Birla, etc jumped in. They too were helped by the government in power then, the BJP led NDA. For example, Tata was handed over the entire infrastructure and cash surplus of the government owned VSNL and thus became a big time player overnight.

 With 2G the stakes went high and so did the competition. There arose a tussle amongst those who had done the initial ground work and those heavyweight newcomers who were trying to edge out the others. It is in this contradiction that the beans were spilt and the matter got exposed. Today the blame is put on a few persons like a Raja or Kanimozhi, while all others right from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram, to the main beneficiaries who indulged in outright goondaism and frauds like the Ambanis, Tatas and others, are safe and sound.

2) Commonwealth Games Scam

Another dirty feather in the cap of the Indian scandal list is the Commonwealth Games loot. Yes, literally a loot! Even before the long awaited sporting bonanza could see the day of light, the grand event was soaked in allegations of corruption. It is estimated that out of Rs. 70000 crore spent on the Games, only half was spent on Indian sportspersons. Things went to such an extent that even the basic infrastructure couldn’t be completed in time, besides being shoddy in quality. Exposure of this state of affairs was a big blow to the super power image cultivated by the rulers. Some heads had to roll. This time it was Suresh Kalmadi. The Central Vigilance Commission, involved in probing various Commonwealth Games-related projects, has found discrepancies like payment to non-existent parties, wilful delays in execution of contracts, over-inflated prices and bungling in purchase of equipment through tendering, apart from misappropriation of funds. This was going on for years, right in the capital. Yet only Kalmadi and some officials are in indicted. Though others like Sheila Dixit have been named in reports, they remain free.

3) Satyam Scam

The scam at Satyam Computer Services was something that shattered the peace and tranquillity of Indian investors and shareholder community beyond repair. Satyam was, till date, the biggest fraud in the corporate history to the tune of Rs. 14000 crore. The company’s disgraced former chairman Ramalinga Raju kept everyone in the dark for a decade by fudging accounts for several years and inflating revenues and profit figures of Satyam. With a tacit understanding with the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh YS Rajashekhara Reddy, the funds were diverted into those of YSR’s son's business and his own son's company Maytas Constructions which got premium contracts in the State and government lands at through away prices.

4) KG Gas Scam

This is another high profile case exposing how the government takes care of its big business patrons. The modus operandi was to submit a bid which shows a certain capital cost. Later, during the operation of the contract, the capital cost was inflated by a huge amount with the connivance of DGH and the Ministry of Petroleum. The capital costs in the KG Basin D-6 Block allotted to Reliance Industries went up from $2.4 billion in the initial contract to $8.5 billion. This was the pattern followed in other gas and oil fields also, involving Reliance, Cairn Energy and others. The high price of Reliance gas - $4.2 per Million BTU (MBTU) – was set in 2007 by the Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Pranab Mukherjee. Reliance itself admitted in the court case between it and NTPC/Anil Ambani Group that its production cost was $1.43 per MBTU. Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) had initially agreed to supply gas at $2.34 to both NTPC and Anil Ambani. Even then RIL would have made profits of 50%. The government then went ahead to change the rates of other oil companies so that there remains no other option but to buy from Reliance only. The government entered into a contract with the fertiliser companies to purchase gas from Reliance, thus affecting a price hike of fertiliser. This means the government plans to fleece the farmers to feed the Ambanis.

5) Black Money
According to the data provided by the Association of Swiss Bank in the year 2006, India has more black money than rest of the world combined. UK has $390 billion in black money, Russia has $470 billion and India tops the list with almost $1500 billion i.e. $1.5 trillion. With India’s foreign debts amounting to around $300 billion, 5 times that amount is just stashed away in secret bank lockers. This information had vindicated the general impression that people had - the top bureaucrats and politicians have stacked huge amounts in Swiss banks. Only the Indian government was 'in the dark'. After being home minister of the country for 6 years and doing nothing the BJP leader LK Advani woke up to this reality just in time for the 2009 elections and wows to bring that money back if elected!

The most pertinent question that arises is why in the first place none of the governments thought of stopping money from going out of the country. Of course the modus operandi was well known. Yet even today none of the parliamentary parties, including the so called Left, has a policy or a vision on how to plug these holes and has never made it a point in their election manifestos even. These are some of the commonly known routes

• over-invoicing/under-invoicing of exported and imported goods
• hawala route
• illegal export of foreign currencies

The hawala racket and the other methods are carried out by well knit mafias and inability to control it can be understood. But international trade is done very much under the nose of the vigilance departments, yet this has been going on for decades. The case of Hassan Ali whose entire activities was known to the Enforcement Directorate years back but nothing was done is an example. And there must be scores of Hassan Ali(s) still undetected. There is reason and logic behind this. The hawala route is often used by political parties to bring in election funds. The CBI has recently concluded that a hawala channel was used by Hindu fascist forces to channel in funds for the Babri Masjid demolition campaign. In the 1990s LK Advani and a number of Congress leaders were implicated in a hawala scam.

Finally, let us remember that the late Harshad Mehta, notorious for the share market scam of the early 1990s was invited by the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao for consultations on matters financial. If not for his fraudulent speculation the Indian stock market would never have bloomed out.

Is this just a matter of some corrupt people or wrong policies?

The government serves as an instrument of the ruling classes in furthering and protecting their interest. This is the same for every country and no different here. The US that swears by private ownership and competition as the foundation of the capitalist system and is strongly opposed to any state intervention went on to give support to the fraudster banks, at the cost of people, during the recent financial crisis to the tune of $10 trillion. Over the past 63 years the Indian state had done just this under a Constitution that defined this republic as socialist. It is under the tutelage of this state that the Tatas, Ambanis, Goenkas, Godrejs have flourished to this level. The state had been finding ways to fund and subsidise the rich at the cost of the toiling poor. Recent reduction of corporate taxes alone has saved the corporate world a whopping 75,000 crore rupees last year and it is estimated to save 88,500 crore this year.

Take a small example - the total spending for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections was ‘officially’ pegged at Rs. 10,000 crore. Going by the money power seen at election time the real amount must be a staggering 10 times higher than this. But we will stick to official figures. The breakup of this spending throws up some interesting insights.

• Rs 1,300 crore by the Election Commission,
• Rs 700 crore by the Centre and State governments and
• Rs 8,000 crore by political parties and individual candidates.

Where did this final item, 80 per cent of the total, come from? Obviously it is the corporate and the feudal lords that have thrown in this amount as an investment to reap benefits once the government is installed. And reap they certainly do. We repeat – this state serves the interests and only the interests of the big corporates and big feudal lords at the service of the imperialists, that’s all. It is done in the guise of democracy, with your vote as permission, as a sanction from you. In this sense, most of the scams are not really acts of corruption. They are the justified acts of this state in favour of the classes they represent. They were termed scams once they got exposed - otherwise it was business as usual. It is not that one Madhu Koda or one Raja are alone to be blamed for this state of affairs, as the ruling classes and even the civil society, think tanks and defenders of this system would want us to believe. No matter who was in power the story would have been the same. If there is an opportunity, then whoever the minister in charge is, he/she will not miss the chance to serve the ruling classes and in turn get good returns for oneself and the party. Remember how the Radia tapes exposed the nexus between the ruling and opposition parties, mediated by leading lights of the media, the lengths they would go to, all united in serving the interests of Reliance honcho Mukesh Ambani. The judicial system is also tainted. For a number of years now we have been hearing about this from the highest levels of the judiciary itself. A former Chief Justice (now heading the Human Rights Commission) stands accused. The judiciary aids corruption by action and non-action. As of end-2010, there were 9,927 CBI cases pending in courts. Of these, 2,245 cases (23% of the total) were pending for more than 10 years.

To hide these facts the loot has to be shared and so an efficient system of bribing got evolved during the past 63 years. Right from PMO’s office to the lowest in the rung, the peons at the panchayat offices, all are to be oiled with bribe. The recruitment itself is being done by taking hefty sums which they are later allowed to recover from bribes. If it is a problem of policy it could be corrected by bringing in reforms and changing the policy. But the foundation of this system itself is based on corruption, deceit and lies and meant to hide reality from the people. Which is that one country that has singly made 40 per cent of the foreign direct investment in India during recent years? No, it’s not anywhere in the advanced West but a tiny island in the Indian Ocean, Mauritius. Obviously, that isn’t Mauritian capital. This is Indian black money rerouted through that country. In other words that amazing growth rate our rulers talk about would be impossible without black money and the corruption that facilitated it.

The very type of capitalism that is growing here, scientifically named bureaucratic capitalism, is crony capitalism. It acquires strength and spread, it becomes monopoly-like, in direct relation and proportion to proximity with the power centers in government. Hence, it itself is a prime breeder of corruption and nepotism. This is systemic in nature and not just a problem of few individuals or the policy of this or that government. Lack of transparency, accountability and consistency, as well as institutional weaknesses such as in the legislative and judicial systems, provide fertile ground for its growth. Systemic corruption occurs when corruption is an integral and essential aspect of the economic, social and political system. Systemic corruption is not a special category of corrupt practice, but rather a situation in which the major institutions and processes of the state are routinely dominated and used by corrupt individuals and groups, and in which people have no alternatives to dealing with corrupt officials.

True, neo-liberal policies of the government of India are the major, immediate, cause of such big financial frauds as seen now. But it is certainly not the outcome of neo-liberal policies. These policies have just aggravated in magnitude what already existed, due to the huge inflow of money facilitated by globalisation. Any attempt to cover up this reality only tends to further hoodwink the masses and strengthen their illusions. The revisionists CPI and CPI (M), who are now part of the ruling classes, have been doing the same over the years.

What is Lokpal Bill?

The basic idea of the Lokpal is borrowed from the office of Ombudsman, which was established to check corruption and wrong-doing in Scandinavian and other nations. In early 1960s, mounting corruption in public administration set the winds blowing in favour of an Ombudsman in India too. The Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) set up in 1966 recommended the constitution of two-tier machinery - a Lokpal at the Centre, and Lokayukta(s) in the states.

The ARC while recommending the constitution of Lokpal was convinced that such an institution was justified not only for removing the sense of injustice from the minds of adversely affected citizens but also to instill public confidence in the efficiency of administrative machinery. Following this, the Lokpal Bill was presented for the first time during the fourth Lok Sabha in 1968, and was passed there in 1969. However, while it was pending in the Rajya Sabha, the Lok Sabha was dissolved so the bill was not passed at that time. The bill was revived in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and most recently in 2008. Each time, after the bill was introduced to the house, it was referred to some committee for improvements - a joint committee of parliament, or a departmental committee of the Home Ministry - and before the government could take a final stand on the issue the house was dissolved. All through these decades, corruption at the highest levels went on merrily.

This is where the drafting and campaigning for a Jan Lokpal bill came in.  When that started building up to a public movement the government agreed to a joint drafting committe. But in the end all it offered was a toothless piece of legislation; except for those declared guilty of filing false complaints. They will get it in the neck! The one notable feature of the government’s bill is that any society or trust that is financed by the government or gets funds under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act or gets funds from the public will come under the Lokpal. Thus NGOs will be under scrutiny. Obviously, this is a tool to keep them in line. The Jan Lokpal bill authors resist this widening of the Lokpal ambit. They argue that there are 80 lakh NGOs in the country and bringing them into Lokpal scrutiny would make its functioning impossible. But, tasking the Lokpal with checking on multiple layers of government officials, all the way down to a sweeper, is not, in their view, a problem! So they suggest a separate body to oversee NGOs while the government proposes the same for the judiciary and lower levels of government officials. In sum, there's a lot of outmaneuvering going on here - save your skin and roast the others! One thing common to both is the elitist selection process of the Lokpal - a group of party leaders, bureaucrats, and citizens whose 'eminence' will be determined, not by their service but by their position (such as Director of an IIT), will compose the search committee. They will obviously select their types. And in this supreme body there will be no reservations-not for Dalits, not for Adivasis, not for women.

The most striking aspect of the Jan Lokpal is its harsh provisions. That is its biggest defect also. A number of critiques have already pointed out that its’ provisions will lead to a despotic authority, over and above that of the existing government machinery. For instance, if the Jan Lokpal of Anna and his followers becomes a reality, it will be a body with the combined power to investigate, prosecute and punish. It will also have the right to intercept and monitor messages transmitted through telephone or internet. These dangerous aspects of the Jan Lokpal bill that directly touch on human rights have been commented on by critics. A trailer of what could happen was seen in the tapping of Swami Agnivesh’s phone, till recent a member of the Anna camp, by his rivals in the same camp. One must admit that this was very Gandhian, the end justifying the means!

Pin the numerous ills of society to corruption; seek redress through an all powerful elitist, bureaucratic body. This is the conceptual frame underlying the Jan Lokpal bill. The expectation is that it will deliver the goods since it will be ‘above politics’. On each of these counts this is faulty. Corruption is only one of the issues. Though a big issue, it certainly isn’t bigger than the human-eating, country-selling nature of the system. While the politics (and politicians) of the ruling classes stink, that is no fouler than the political logic of the state they manage. Any apparatus derived from the existing system is bound to be partial to it and will inevitably be guided by this logic. Born of the elite, it may be benevolent to the people, but only as a patronising, dictatorial ‘high power’.

The Movement

As we noted earlier, people of various strata are increasingly united in their anger against the rulers, the Netas and Babus. But this comes from different angles and means different things. This diversity is also seen in the matter of people’s attitude to Anna Hazare’s hunger strike. As it became prolonged, the interest and support it gained started spreading out from the urban middle class limitations seen initially. The climb down of the government was widely celebrated. But within this, distinctions remained.

While the general masses, those at the bottom layers, were happy, their scepticism is also evident. This is well justified. It’s true that the lowest strata of society face the real brunt of this corrupt system but there are more severe issues than corruption that they confront on a daily basis. The reality lived by this majority is not at all addressed. Hunger, malnutrition, unemployment and under-employment, survival issues, loss making agriculture, growing debts etc. – none of these were ever considered by the Anna Hazare crowd as genuine problems. The issue related to the social fabric of the society like that of caste and religious discriminations and atrocities and those emerging due to the backward Brahminic culture like dowry is surely no less  relevant and pressing than the money stacked in Swiss banks. The fact is that the continuing exposure of various scams of huge magnitude has not made the same impact on these sections of society as on the middle and elite classes. This emerges from the alienation faced by them over the past 64 years. The feeling that the state is for all of us, that there will be justice done to the victims and the guilty will be punished, that we have a say and a share in this system, is long lost among the vast majority. Their faith in this system is abysmally low; especially when the big corporates or the big political leaders are involved in crimes. From Bhopal Gas Tragedy to Narmada dam issue, from 1984 Delhi anti-Sikhs riots to Bhivandi, Gujarat, Orissa and hundreds of others riots, from fodders to fertilizers to sugar to many more scams, the investigative agencies, the legislature and the judiciary have time and again failed to deliver justice. Lokpal bills are not at all a solution to this. So news of one more department, yet another commission, to look into matters of corruption is of little interest to the masses.

This disparity in the thinking of Bharat and India has been there since long. The boom in the educated middle class brought about by globalization and imperialist penetration has deepened this divide further. Their limited vision had since long distanced Bharat as a plague. Those populating it are seen as the backward people, those who are corrupt  enough to sell their votes, good only to produce more children, drink and be lazy, deny the opportunities to the upper caste ‘meritorious’ by demands for reservation and other ‘freebies’; those who put the country to shame. Social classes that should be united with are thus seen as burdens. The tremendous growth in the media business and information boom is maintaining this divide to serve corporate interest. The growing middle class is its real market and is addressed and groomed to consume more and more, lead a western lifestyle and thinking. They are an important social base of this system; their confidence in this system is vital for the ruling classes.

Globalisation has empowered a section of the urban middle class with immense opportunities which nobody could have imagined just a decade before. Their take home salaries increased. There are sufficient commodities and entertainment venues in the markets and malls to spend the extra amounts and fulfil their temptations. This is also part of the growth story we hear. It was accompanied with a lot of propaganda that India is becoming a super power. This boosted the otherwise sagging morale of this strata. But with scams revealed, almost on a weekly basis, their ego, morale is shaken up and so too their illusions of India being a great nation. This is the gallery to which Anna Hazare and his associated were playing. This is the collective ego it is consoling and pampering. It is no wonder that it got wide support from ruling class intellectuals and media. The anti-reservationist sections and the extreme Right literally jumped in. A website named IndiaAgainstCorruption.com, brimming with enthusiasm over the Anna movement has an ‘anti-reservation forum’ aggressively promoted as “Taking Opinion and Making Opinion - participate in the Anti-Reservation community”. The slogans of ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Bharata matha ki jay’ will surely jell with this crowd. In true Gandhian fashion. Anna Hazare has a place for the Dalits also in his corruption-free world -“It was Mahatma Gandhi’s vision that every village should have one chamar, one sunar, one kumhar and so on. They should all do their work according to their role and occupation, and in this way, a village will be self-dependant. This is what we are practicing in Ralegan Siddhi.” He explained his method: “We asked from them water to drink and had food together. Based on this relationship, we started telling them the reasons why people kept them at a distance. We said that the society condemns you because your living is dirty, your food habits are dirty, and your thinking is dirty. Therefore, you have to change. With such constant hammering, the Dalits were also made vegetarian.” (http://kafila.org/2011/04/14/the-making-of-an-authority-anna-hazare-in-ralegan-siddhi/, accessed 3-9-2011) At the bottom-end the “dirty Dalits”, at the top “crooked politicians and bureaucrats”. It is the middle, the upper-caste middle to be exact, that must clean up both.

There is another aspect to this movement. A close look at the tussle between the UPA government and the Anna team will be of use to understand it. The initial position of the Congress was firm. A government has been formed by the majority that was elected by the people. It has proposed a bill. Now it’s up to the parliament to decide. No one has the right to disrupt this due procedure sanctioned by the Constitution. While critical of the government, this absolute adherence to parliamentary procedure was shared by all on the opposition benches. It was echoed by a section of the media and intellectuals. To this the Anna and his followers replied by insisting that the parliament and government are bound to defer to the people’s concerns and demands. They (and no other at least for now) being the people, parliament must enact the law they have proposed. In the midst of this jostling, what could the people, whose name all take, conclude?

A minute’s reflection would remind us of a well known fact. That the political leaders are a bunch of crooks and self-servitors has been known to the people for quite some time; long before it was realised by Anna Hazare or Kiran Bedi and their team; long before they admitted it publicly. These crooks used to keep their loot made by serving the crorepathies and criminals secret. Now things have come to such a pass that the very parliament is packed with those who have made their crores, via politics or by other means, and assorted criminals. Just because they won an election by spending a few lakhs, it’s amply clear that they can’t speak for the people. But does that endow the Anna team with the sole monopoly? The answer must be a resounding no, for two reasons, at the minimum. One, even if it swells to a few crores, the urban middle class rallied to Anna can never be representative of the impoverished exploited masses of India, that vast majority pulling on with Rs 20 per day. Two, the Anna team does not rely on these oppressed people but on that den of crooks, the parliament. Getting its proposed bill adopted by parliament is all it was (and is) concerned with. Once done, the game of exploitation and oppression can go on merrily, due care being taken not to fall foul of the Lokpal. This is the essential characteristic of this whole Anna business. It channels the rage of the people against corruption into pacific zones, safe for the ruling classes. Isn’t this is a piece of dirty treachery?

For some years now, in a large swath of India, a society free from exploitation and corruption, has been growing without devastating the environment. This has been central in blocking rapacious moves by multinationals and Indian compradors to plunder resources on a massive scale. Adivasi people, pushed to the very margins by the 64 year-old “growth” of India, have been the main force in achieving this. They could do it because they took up arms, guided by proletarian ideology and led by a Maoist party. The Indian rulers have declared this revolutionary movement to be the greatest threat they face. They have deployed a huge force, brought in the army, and threatened aerial bombing. But wide sections of the populace, including significant sections of the urban middle class, came forth to oppose this “War on the People”. This unprecedented turn held out great promise for the future of India. The possibility of bridging that division between Bharat and India was slowly emerging. A course of action that would really wipe out corruption along with the exploitative system was being brought to the attention of the youth. The hardworking, self-effacing, simple life style of Maoists was being compared to the self-seeking greed of the Gandhitopiwalaas and Khakinicker Sangh Parivaaris. Well, isn’t the Anna-led agitation blocking and defusing this pro-people polarisation? By posing the issue of corruption as one of individual degeneration, it lets the corrupt system, this breeding ground for all anti-people, anti-country activities, of the hook. By feeding the opium of non-violence, it diverts the people from a growing awareness of the necessity of revolutionary violence. It pushes them back into the seats of passive spectators of parliamentary antics. So isn’t this another edition of the Indian exploiting classes’ Gandhian char-so-bees?  And isn’t the timing of its blooming out, just when the ‘War on the People’ has been stepped up with the direct entry of the army and UAV surveillance, significant?      

This then is the larger question we must face up to. Fighting corruption is good. A law, some reform that will bring at least a semblance of control over the open loot going on, is welcome. But with that inscribed on its banner just what is this Anna movement up to? Is this movement going to bring about any hope, any plausible room for change, let alone solve the burning issues of the country? Will this give a new weapon for developing it into a movement for radical changes, so that some checks and balances come into the hands of the people? Will this self-claimed civil society deliver when it needs to stand up firmly facing severe adversities? Do those claiming to be THE civil society really represent the sentiments of the entire country? Does the hope generated by these new leaders have any chance to actually fructify? What are the chances that a Lokpal will be able to clean up the muck?

Let us take the issue of black money alone. First of all there is little chance that the Swiss banks will allow anyone to take away 1.5 trillion dollars. They will just collapse. ( Some spokesperson for the Swiss banks has already put out an 'official' statement, whittling down Indian holdings to a few millions.) Again even if an agreement is achieved whereby the concerns of the bank is addressed there is no chance that the culprits who are ruling the country for six decades will just let themselves and their families and friends get exposed and punished. 1.5 trillion dollars is no small amount and it cannot be the handy work of a few. The numbers of people involved may go up to 10s of 1000s. Almost all the top brass of all the 3 arms of the state and all the departments are involved for sure. Who will arrest whom and who will take the responsibility to judge them and who will punish them? They are all beads woven in the same string, feathers of the same bird.

At the most, at the upper-levels, some bureaucrats and disposable politicians will be hit by a Lokpal. Some may be jailed. Some property may be seized. But the main thrust of the attack will be on the lower levels of the political structure and bureaucracy. This has already been demonstrated by the experience in Karnataka, which had the most active Lokayukta (a Statelevel Lokpal) in the whole country. True a Yeddiyurappa was netted, but only when the extent of law-breaking and loot threatened the very system itself. And that too only when in-fighting within the BJP created ample space for whistleblowers.

All Indians learn in school about Gandhi’s simple lifestyle. What they  usually don’t know is this comment made by Sarojini Naidu (once President of the Congress): it needed Birla’s crores to allow Gandhi live in a hut. The Anna-led movement has certainly been true to this Gandhian principle. According to the accounts published by the IAC, updated August 16, of the Rs 57, 90, 440 collected this year, 37 lakhs, nearly two-thirds, were contributed by just 8 people (http://www.box.net/shared/oycxnu4vxtlqdmdy2n2r). Jindal’s 25 lakh was the biggest.Cash and services from NGOs headed by stalwarts of the Anna camp, Arwind Kejriwal's Public Cause Research Foundation for example, funded in turn by the Ford Foundation, is of course 'free'.

Corruption isn’t just an individual’s degeneration

But the lifeblood of this rotten system.

How can you weed out corruption

From a field of corrupts?

Let’s not be deluded by Lokpal Bill.

Instead of cropping tips of poisonous weeds,

Let’s dig out the soil breeding corruption.

Down with corruption; Down with the corrupt social system!

Struggle India

September 2011