Honest PM

Of an Honest PM and all the dishonest citizens

The media has relentlessly been trying to make us believe that our beloved PM is an honest man with impeccable integrity. However recent exposures – 2G scam [his inaction part], CWG scam and appointment of CVC among others – have started raising some eye brows. For argument sake let us take for granted that he is the most honest man in this country of over 1.1 billion dishonest people! That raises the questions, ‘Why should an honest man allow his deputies to indulge in scam after scam of monstrous proportions? Why should he preside over such acts and head such a motley crowd and not just step aside if he can not rein them in? Is he convinced that he is the only honest man who can save this nation from the other [unscrupulous] persons waiting to garb the gaddi? Is there any sense in having an honest man just as a figure head who does not answer the questions raised by the media or even the parliament, while his chelas take the country for a ride? Don’t we deserve a PM who will lead us from the front and not hide behind the spokes persons? Even after so many scams have been exposed in such a short time, should he continue to stick to his chair? What are his stakes? What motivates him to continue to hold on?’ The above questions suitably reworded apply to the Congress party [which claims to be honest] and UPA [a bundle of honest parties!!!] too.

In the first place why and how did he become the PM? He came in as a proxy for Sonia [let us avoid calling them as Gandhis which they – Indhira to Rahul – are not, a surname they have just usurped for political/personal gains] who in fact was not allowed to take over as PM by the then President Abdul Kalam, for reasons which is/are anybodies guess, but it was not just that she is not an Indian by birth for sure. Take my guess for that ‘US did not want a descendant of Nehru – a staunch socialist who did not open the huge Indian market for their colas, lipsticks, nail polishes and deodorants – to become the PM again, after getting rid of Indhira and Rajiv and establishing their rule of India by proxy [PVN]’. She was reluctant to enter politics when Rajiv died and presumably entered only to protect the interests of Quaterachy and to get her husband acquitted in the Bofors case, which she has achieved recently and how did she come to assume her present position – President of INC? She just walked in to the party office with some goons and physically bundled out the elected President – Sitaram Kesari – and occupied the chair. And how did Rajiv occupy his chair as PM earlier? The Parliamentary Party was yet to meet to elect their new leader after the assassination of the then PM Indhira when he was commissioned by the then President of the union – Gyani Zail Singh – and appointed PM, reportedly on instructions from Indhira before her assassination. This is the honesty of INC.

What is the justification for the media to believe that the PM is honest? Is it just that he was not a politician but a bureaucrat before becoming a minister? Bureaucrats are the conduits for most of the corrupt deals of politicians in office and off course they get their cut. But is it that he was not a bureaucrat in India but with a world body? Or is it just that they have not been able to unearth any scoop against him?

If one can not find suitable answers to these inconvenient questions, it can only mean the other possibility that he is not honest. Again for argument sake only let us consider this possibility. To suspect his integrity there must be some prima-facie justification. He is not an elected representative of the people of India or a bureaucrat – meaning he is not answerable to the people of India – he can not be voted out, as he never faces the voters, or dismissed. His background of holding some position in World Bank etc. compounded by his tenure as Finance minister in PVN’s cabinet for 5 years and now as PM for the past 61/2 years must have given him world wide contacts at the highest levels. In this age of E banking, you can not rule out his ability to get his Swiss Bank account credited with Dollars and Euros without the knowledge of even his wife and party chief and not to speak of the media. It is possible that he is very much adept in hiding these deals from others. He does not have to get small cut backs from tiny local deals [!!!] [and get caught by the local media] which he has left for others – Rajas, Kalmadis, other ministers, bureaucrats, MPs, CMs etc. – to do. His sponsors are the corporate giants of USA and Europe in nuclear equipment manufacture, GM crop/ seeds, cosmetics etc. In fact his brain child ‘Liberalisation, Privatisation, Globalisation’ [here in after called LPG for short] has benefited those corporations and their countries of origin very much more than India. In short he does not represent us but only represents US.

The recent visit by US President proved this beyond any reasonable doubt to the discerning. Mr Obama probably misplaced the draft of speech to be delivered at Mumbai and inadvertently delivered the speech prepared to be delivered on arrival at New York, at Mumbai itself. He spoke of how US will get 50000 jobs by dumping their wares in India and how it will help reviving their economy instead of what benefits his visit will deliver India. It was pathetic to watch the ‘who is who’ of Mumbai and business and commerce applauding his mis-delivered speech. Further in parliament he offered a gift – Security Council seat – for buying their wares – a Diwali/ New Year sale tactic. He visited India as a sales man – CEO marketing of the American corporate houses – only to book orders for them. In fact it will be more appropriate to call the American system of governance as corporate governance and not as democracy. The US government represents their corporate houses more than the people. Whom does the Indian government represent – we will see later.

The reforms [LPG] regime PM introduced as the FM in PVN’s cabinet, in the past 2 decades may have benefited the rich and middle class [30% of the population] but left the poor and rural populace [70%] in the lurch. It has enabled the ‘haves’ to become ‘have mores’ but rendered the ‘have nots’ to ‘have nothings’. With the introduction of the reforms, the rural – urban divide and the rich – poor divide widened in to a gash and in these 2 decades it has deepened in to a gorge. It has added another species to the list of endangered – the farmers. Over 350,000 farmers have committed suicide since 1991, not able to withstand the onslaught of the LPG regime. A report in 2007 said terrorism has claimed 351 lives in India that year. The terrorists look benign in comparison with the reformer causing death of 17000 – 50 times as many – farmers year after year since 1991. The few aam admi centric programmes introduced during his tenure namely ‘Rural employment guarantee scheme’ and ‘loan waiver for farmers’ were not initiated by him but done reluctantly only under pressure from mainly Left front and to some extent Sonia & Co. In fact introduction of the so called economic reforms – I call it deforms or uneconomic reforms – was a reversal of all that the Indian National Congress stood for from pre independence days well in to Indira congress days and even Rajiv congress days. It was a betrayal of the faith reposed by the voters in the congress party for their socialistic policies and aam admi centric rule, particularly after winning the 1991 elections on the age old socialistic policy plank. The fact that the voters threw out the Congress party from power [in to oblivion] at the earliest opportunity in 1996 and resurrected it in 2004 only under the hope that they have mended their ways from Narasimha rao days only goes to prove that Manmohan singh got everything absolutely wrong. Capitalistic economics or market economy – the new name for that – can not be called a policy at all, it is only a lack of policy as it not only ignores the welfare of nearly 70% population but it stakes the lives of the 70% for the betterment of 30%. To put it bluntly ‘the development of 30% - middle class and rich – has been achieved walking over the dead bodies of over 3 lakh farmers. Is it economics? Can he be called an economist at all? Can an honest person do this? And most importantly, would he have done it for free? Further this policy was not his discovery. BJP and their earlier avatar Jan Sangh have all along been advocating only capitalism as against congress party’s socialism. He only forced congress to switch side. For that his Manmohanomics was voted out by the electorate twice – not only in 1996 but in 2004 also, as BJP – NDA government’s [Jaswanth Singh’s] Singanomics and [Yashwanth Sinha’s] Sinhanomics were no different from Manmohonomics. But unfortunately without realising that, Sonia made him her proxy or was the decision taken across the globe and only implemented through Sonia and Abdul Kalam as was the decision to make him the FM in 1991?

‘Market economy’ driving people to insatiable desire for more money and more power, can never bring peace and happiness to the world. Only a moral based society can ever dream to live in peace and harmony. The rate at which crimes have risen, particularly corruption/ scams and crimes against women and children as a result of the greed fanned by the commercials in the TV/media after the introduction of open sky policy is alarming. The age old value systems have been buried fathoms deep. Normlesness has become the norm of the society.

As far the FDI inflow, they do not come to India to develop India, solve our problems or redeem India in short. They come here to take our wealth to their homes. We welcome them paying over five times the value for the dollars they bring in vis a vis the PPP value [purchasing power parity value of a dollar is less than Rs 10] and get impoverished both ways – export and import. We export at prices for below the intrinsic value of the product/ service, but the exporters get five times the value of dollars in rupees and they are happy. With the dollars thus brought in we import material/ service worth only the PPP value of the dollar [less shipping and handling costs] and not the exchange value as set by this Government. Who pays the difference? Off course ‘the aam admi – common people of India – you, me and the beggar on the street’. When ever the exchange rate of dollar vis a vis rupee falls, the PM and FM [earlier one in particular] mourn[ed], rather than celebrate for the improvement in rupees value. So is the case with sensex. An increase in sensex value may auger well for the business and industry but that leads to higher inflation and the common man suffers – money flows from the common man’s pocket to the rich investors’. When ever sensex drops the PM and FM go all out to prop it up – rather than propping up the common man’s interest. While the dollar earners are subsidised 400% by the aam adhmi, the farmers subsidise the eaters to the tune of 80%. The MSP awarded to paddy etc. is much lower than the cost of producing and the price the cultivator of vegetables etc., get is less than even the cost of plucking the fruits. Agriculture has become a quagmire and the farmer is left with no choice other than committing suicide under LPG regime.

His single point obsession with the passing of the Nuclear Power deal bill – it was not as much to light the homes in India as to keep the lights glowing in the US – the associated drama in the parliament, how he enacted ‘prepared to stake his position’ drama for the sake of the bill [and not for the sake of the welfare of the people of India] and ultimately how it was passed and at what cost [Rs 25 Cr per MP], as well as the drama enacted to pass the nuclear liability bill before Obama’s visit are the clear pointers to his honesty [Loyalty] or otherwise. Honestly, personally I am yet to come across even one person who believes the PM is an honest man. Every one agrees that he must be the most dis honest man in the country today and may be the richest person in the world albeit all his money locked up in Swiss banks. It is surprising how anybody – news magazine editors and correspondents in particular – can be so naïve to believe that he is honest. Going by Jurisprudence ‘unless and until proved otherwise, every one has to be considered innocent’, we have to only ‘consider him, as much as every politician/ bureaucrat, dis honest unless and until proved’ under the present atmosphere of scams. Anyway whether he is honest or not, his continuance in office has become undesirable if not untenable. The difference is only in the word – like sin Vs illegal, what is not illegal can still be a sin and vice versa.

The involvement of military officials apart from politicians and bureaucrats in the Adharsh housing and other land deals in Mumbai recently, taken together with 2G, CWG, CVC appointment etc. as well as nuke deals, attempt to foist GM crops on the un suspecting populace, and mass suicide by farmers – our ‘anna dhatha’ – needs to be addressed immediately. The country has to be saved from these scamsters urgently as otherwise we will slip in to anarchy. Replacing one minister here and another there or for that matter even the PM may be necessary but far from sufficient. Enquiry commissions will take decades to finally only absolve the accused gobbling up more money in the process than the scam itself. Let us remember, in the history of Independent India no politician has ever been convicted by the judiciary in spite of the people knowing by now practically every politician – current breed – whether in power or not is a criminal. Even fresh elections will only throw up some old wine in a new bottle – UPA or NDA, Congress or BJP – reminds me of a 1970s jingle ‘everything is same except the name’. Hence the scam ridden UPA government has to go and a national government with an interim parliament consisting of say 100 MPs from the current Lok Sabha with due representation to all parties and 100 more eminent persons – Chief Justices of Supreme court and all High courts, educationists, industrialists, business men, farmers, IGs, District Collectors, Generals, social activists and very particularly some leading Gandhians with equal voting rights or preferably double the voting rights as politicians, should be formed led by a person of proven impeccable integrity [eg. T.N Seshan, Gopalakrishna Gandhi, Rajmohan Gandhi – the real Gandhis] elected by the above parliament and not by any person just projected as honest. There should be no nomination for the post and each MP should vote for 3 persons and the PM elected by transfer of votes if no direct winner emerges in the first round getting more than 50% votes. This team should not introduce any new project but only speed up all investigations of gross irregularities, corruption/ scams and punish the culprits expediously, apart from running the day to day administration. They must audit the policies of the government in the past 2 decades and re form the policies to benefit the people of this country. This interim national government and parliament should hold office for five years during which even a review of the provisions of the constitution regarding elections including election of office bearers of all political parties should be undertaken and fresh elections conducted for the next normal parliament. The five year holiday for political activities [and scams] will ensure revival of better political systems/ formations and values.

As far the voters, we have to work towards revival of better democratic values. Grass root democracy as advocated by Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan in the seventies to stop the further march of the autocrat Indhira, is the best solution. Christened ‘Citizens for democracy’ it involves formation of street committees of voters who elect representatives from among themselves to the area committees and so on up to Parliament. This will enable injecting fresh blood in to politics by induction of non political representatives from among socially active people – eminent citizens. We still have a functioning democracy [Bihar has proved it again] though not working satisfactorily. If we the people decide, we can save the country from the ‘rule by the scamsters, of the scamsters and for the scamsters’ and stop the country from drowning in the mire of corruption and scams. JP saved the nation from Indhira in the seventies. His inspiration alone can save the nation again from the scam ridden politicians.