The Lumpen, the Corrupt, and the bedlam in the House

- Dr. Ramesh N. Rao

It costs the Indian taxpayers 40 lakh Rupees per hour to keep the Lok Sabha functioning. So, every time work is shut down by our “law-makers” in the House of the People, the citizens of India bleed money through their noses. As has happened since the BJP-led government came to power in 1998, the Lok Sabha and the country have literally been held to ransom by the Congress-led opposition every year during the week of December 8th.

This year too it happened as India’s lumpen “law-makers” joined hands with India’s leading “editorial” writers to whip up passion in the Lok Sabha ostensibly about the bad behaviour of the BJP in 1992 when the Babri Masjid was brought down. “Sack the three ministers who connived in this crime” they shouted and berated and booed and halted all proceedings in the supposedly august House of the People.

For six days, no business was accomplished in the House. Let us say that our wonderful lawmakers would on an ordinary day work eight hours. Six, eight-hour days means 48 hours of work stoppage, leading to a loss of Rs. 19.20 crores to the nation. How do you, the ordinary citizens, seek redress for such unlawful and wasteful activity by your representatives? Sorry to say, you have no way now.

Why? Because you are ruled by misfits, goons, buffoons, and mindless power-grabbers whose only wish, aim, and goal is to run the country down while paving the insides of their houses with marble and gold. I am not saying that there is not one good soul in the hallowed halls of parliament. It is simply that the majority of them are worthless and they belong to the uneducated and uneducable class. They are traitors in the garb of do-gooders, and they are the bane of civil, lawful society. Moreover, who is responsible for them being there? YOU!

Governments have to be held responsible for their acts of omission and commission. But, is shutting down the proceedings of parliament the way to do it? It simply goes to show that India is not a country of laws, and that India’s lawmakers are the worst offenders. Moreover, can the three ministers, Advani, Joshi, and Uma Bharathi be removed from office when the case is still pending in the courts? The parliament’s work is to deal with issues of the immediate past and with the present, not that of matters eight years ago.

Moreover, the three ministers have all been elected by the people, twice/thrice, since that day in 1992. Arun Jaitley, the Law Minister, pointed that out in his rebuttal to the Opposition’s demand to dismiss the ministers. Did it make sense to the knuckleheads that the people of India have elected and sent to parliament? Of course not. Nor did it make sense to the editors of English-language dailies who poured oil on the fire by labelling the Prime Minister as a fundamentalist in secular garb and what not. The country has enough problems, and there is enough rot to stem, without our pseudo-secular newspapers goading the lumpen Members of Parliament to storm the well of the House.

“Storm the well of the House” – what an euphemism for the vile, stupid, and larcenous act that it is! Arvind Lavakare, writing for Rediff Net says about similar mindless behaviour on the part of “your representatives” on November 22: “But the press reports on November 22 focussed on the childish, churlish behaviour of the Samajwadi Party in obstructing the acknowledged leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi of the Congress, from being the first to speak on the proceedings of the second day of our Parliament's winter session. Supporters of both parties repeatedly stormed the well (pit) of the House – a practice that's now become quite common. The House was adjourned without transacting any business whatsoever. Note the utter contempt these Parliamentarians showed that day for decency and fair play, for the irrecoverable immense loss of time and money they were causing to the country. Are they human beings or are they animals gone amuck? Are they Indian citizens or are they Trojan horses?”

One is driven to such outrage at the outrageous behaviour of India’s rulers that people are led to suggest the most drastic of solutions. Lavakare, for example, asks “With all the puny and petty perverts around and ensconced, what will it take to disinfect them all and cleanse the country in one go? Will an Armageddon in Srinagar or Siachen scare the very shit out of their thick skins of grotesque selfishness? If that be so, then so be it”. NO, no, no. Indians have suffered enough traumas in the past thousand years without them having to suffer yet another one. However, that does not mean that Indians have to be like those frogs who sit it in the water as the temperature is slowly raised to the point where it and they are totally cooked. Do Indians realise that they are being slowly cooked in the cauldron of caste, hate, regional, and lumpen politics? Awake, beware, and jump out the cauldron and whip those who are bringing the country to ruin.

India is a country driven by the rivalries of myopic, uneducated, criminal leaders. The only way the country can straighten itself is for the people to elect good leaders. But for that to happen Indians themselves need to be educated. At present, it is the lumpen electing the lumpen, and the criminal supporting the criminal, and the crooked and corrupt hoodwinking everyone.

Talking of corruption, would it not be the duty of your legislators to ask the government what it is doing about all the recommendations that the Central Vigilance Commissioner has been sending to the government? The Commissioner, Mr. N. Vittal, one of those rare bureaucrats with a spine and a conscience, recently said that Delhi is the corruption capital of India (HamaraShehar.com, December 14, 2000). Speaking at Vellore, in Tamil Nadu he said that about 25 percent of the corruption money generated in the country originated from Delhi. The Commissioner told reporters that “A recent raid at the residence of an IAS officer yielded unaccounted money totalling Rs. 14 crores”, and that the only way to tackle bureaucratic corruption was to end political corruption. The BJP claimed that it would tackle corruption, but that is something it too seems to have left on the wayside as it clings to power.

Mr. Vittal has made many fine suggestions to curb the role of money in politics and government, but it seems that in the mess and cesspool that Indian politics is, no one is willing or capable of paying heed to sage advice. The CVC has suggested to the Election Commission, for example, disallowing tainted candidates to contest elections. He has also called upon the Central Government to allow 100 percent tax deduction for monetary contributions by individuals to political parties. What has been the response? Everyone, the ruling as well as the opposition party members, has squatted on their hands and frustrated this honest bureaucrat. It seems that Mr. Vittal characterised the state of Indian affairs as Rakshasa Raj (the rule by demons) instead of what we aspired to and hope for: Sakshara Raj (the rule by the literate).

But ending with what we started out with: is there no way to straighten out crooked politicians? Are India’s present set of “leaders” like the proverbial dog’s tail – crooked by nature? But that is giving into despair. If India has to be and is to be a country of laws then the work has to be started in the corridors and halls of government. Why, for example, does the Speaker of the House allow such ugly and unruly behaviour by parliamentarians? As Lavakare points out, the Speaker, Mr. Balayogi has the power to take these legislators to task. Instead, in an inexplicable and cowardly act he simply said that members were refusing to listen to his call for order, and pronounced that he had no other option but to adjourn the House for the day. Rule 373 of the official “Rules of Procedure & Conduct of Business -- Lok Sabha” empowers the Speaker to direct immediate withdrawal for a day of any member whose conduct in the House is “grossly disorderly”.

When young, I used to read in the newspapers that unruly and recalcitrant legislators were regularly evicted from the House, whether in New Delhi or in the state capitals. What has happened to that power to slap legislators on their wrists for wasting the country’s time and resources? Lavakare points out that till November 1986, such immediate withdrawal for disorderly conduct in the House had been effected by various previous Speakers in 37 instances. This Speaker, who has travelled the world talking about India’s parliamentary democracy, does not seem to have the courage or the conviction or the knowledge to act decisively and correctly. Wake up Mr. Speaker, and bring the House and country to order!

Ramesh Rao
December 14, 2000

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