A long way to go

All of us boast of India being the world’s largest democracy. Does democracy truly describe what we are? Our regular elections are supervised effectively. Booth capturing, bogus voters and violence are less frequent.

Money remains a strong influence. It has gone far beyond buying votes. A new feature is ‘paid news.’

Guha Thakurtha’s report for the Press Council shows that the practice is growing in both print and television. It varies (as do the charges) from publishing the name and picture, to laudatory references of the candidate, objectionable parts of the opponent’s life and career, and his party, with sometimes made-up derogatory references to them. The Election Commission has not been able to stop this.

We know that all elections (whether students’ unions, corporations, panchayats, legislatures or Parliament, are expensive to fight. Winners have to recoup their expenses, while corruption of government functionaries is wide spread at all levels. Illegal earnings from sale or lease of natural resources, land, infrastructure contracts, and from leakages in large social welfare programmes like the public distribution system or the national rural employment guarantee scheme, have been confirmed by surveys and are widely known. Few are independently investigated, speedily prosecuted, and salutary punishments imposed.

Use of social media could reduce the need for advertising and for ‘paid news.’ Political parties have yet to learn the use of social media for mobilising funds, volunteers and targeting ideas. A significant number of candidates and winners in elections have been jailed on criminal charges or have criminal charges pending against them. They are not barred from standing for elections, getting elected or participating in framing legislation.

The UPA government introduced some imaginative measures to transform our society. The Right to Information Act has brought growing transparency to public policy. The national rural employment guarantee scheme has experienced over 50 per cent theft of funds. Despite these vast leakages it has improved livelihoods for millions of families.

The Right to Education Act has significantly increased the number of children in schools. Many other schemes have in varying degrees helped the poor with housing, health services, nutrition programmes, unemployment benefits, etc. Panchayat raj has brought women into public life and improved matters to some extent in villages. The road construction programmes (first introduced by Vajpayee on a national scale) have made a difference to connectivity and provided work for many. They all suffer from large thefts and poor targeting of beneficiaries.

Lives of the deprived, from among scheduled castes and tribes, and Muslims have improved only marginally. Women continue to be exploited in every way --killed as fetuses, at birth, for dowry, sexually harassed at home at any age, and at work, with rape a common occurrence among all classes and parts of India. Government has done little to make women and other marginalised sections of society feel safer, more equal, and better off. After initial success in reforming the economy and achieving high growth, the Congress has got bogged down in populism. Growth has faltered badly. Inequalities have risen sharply.

The executive has become suborned by the immense financial powers and low levels of accountability of ministers and government officials. Without  true administrative reform, clear definitions of responsibilities, individual accountability, impartial appointments, stopping of transfers as punishments, transparency in financial decision-making and decisions involving large sums of money, speedy investigations and severe penalties for proven misuse of office, people in the executive are far above other people in prosperity and power.

The judiciary is understaffed, underpaid, with little infrastructure support, and some corruption. An important feature of our democracy is the obedience of the executive to judicial orders. Prime ministers have stepped down, top politicians have been charged and arrested. In most critical matters our judiciary has been wise and balanced.

They have been able to moderate or overrule the ideologies of lower courts. But the executive delays investigations, deliberately botches them, and so prevents punishments. Justice is inordinately delayed by too many adjournments, for little good reason. Some judges display a paternalistic, feudal, indeed casteist mindset. Courts do little to follow up on execution of their decisions. Lawyers also behave many times as being above the law.

The Verma committee points to the exemption of armed forces and other police authorities from trial by civil authorities for crimes unrelated to their official activities, like rape and murder of innocents. The same applies to the police. Police and armed forces are not answerable even when they commit unlawful acts --another special interest group in our democracy.

State governments show even less respect for the law and public opinion. The chief minister of West Bengal acts decisively against cartoonists who lampoon her. Gujarat encourages protesters who forced withdrawal of Husain’s paintings of nude Indian goddesses, though they do not protest against similar depictions at Konarak, Khajuraho and many other places.

In Chaatisgarh, the state armed civilians to fight insurgent Maoists, resulting in mass killings. In Haryana the government permits khap panchayats to inflict punishments on innocent lovers. In Karnataka the government allows loutish fanatics to intervene when they see boys and girls together. True democracy demands that this is not permissible.