http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Jimmy-Carter-and-Goas-own-Oligarchy/articleshow/48397504.cms
We live in degraded times, with very few political leaders of any real calibre apparent anywhere in the world. That is why Jimmy Carter stands out even at 90 years of age. He remains an authoritative statesman with the courage to speak his mind. Just a few days ago, he did just that in a radio interview, expressing disgust at how big money has come to subvert elections in the US. The distinguished ex-President said, ""It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it's just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations." Carter's attention was focused on his USA, but he could easily have been talking about Russia, or the UK, or India when he continued, "now we've just seen a subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect, and sometimes get, favours for themselves after the election is over." A couple of days later, his analysis was considerably supported when the New York Times found the majority of campaign funds for the upcoming US Presidential elections in 2016 have come from a startlingly narrow band of a few corporations and super-rich families. The Republican Party has registered more than half of its hundreds in millions in donations from just 130 donors. The process of big money controlling the political process steadily increased in the USA in the 1980's, during the Reagan era. In India, by contrast, the cash pipeline overwhelmed the system in less than a decade. Just like the USA, most of the funding is secret and unregistered. Individual candidates have to declare donations, but parties do not. Thus the 2014 Lok Sabha election was likely the most lucrative election in world history, with at least $5 billion spent, but only the party leaders know exactly where the money came from, and where the favours will need to be returned. What is absolutely clear is some donors - it doesn't take much guesswork to figure out who - probably plowed in hundreds of crores each. How democracy got subverted in the USA is relatively easy to see. There were two judgements made by the Republican-majority Supreme Court - the 2010 Citizens United decision and the 2014 McCutcheon decision - that were final nails in the coffin. Now there are almost no limits to open money, secret money, even foreign money. In an echo of what happened in 2014 in India, just one entity led by Charles and David Koch, two right-wing brothers, plans on spending $1 billion to swing the next Presidential elections to the Republican Party. Just imagine the favours they will expect in return. In India, with its vast majority of voters in the rural heartland and still mostly deprived of any gains from the growth story that has unevenly affected a few states, the subversion of democracy is actually less easy to understand. This is because the spectacular rise of the BJP, and admittedly openly "development-friendly" Narendra Modi has been greatly built on the effort of the historically service-minded RSS. This is the contradiction that is playing out in Goa, where the RSS cadres among the MLA's are now turning around rather shamelessly to support big business interests in direct contradiction of the sentiments of the voters - and their own RSS base - who provided the BJP wave under Manohar Parrikar. It is confusing and embarrassing to witness current CM, Laxmikant Parsekar stubbornly go to bat for the violators of Tiracol, instead of his own people. It is equally bizarre to learn that another casino will now enter the Mandovi waters despite near-unanimous opposition from Panaji's populace, and the BJP's own stance when in opposition. What is an oligarchy? It is a system of government where only a few voices are heard and registered and acted upon. This is what used to be called an aristocracy. And as we are rapidly learning, while big money pours into the electoral system, that kind of domination by a few can go along very well with a "functioning" democracy. Elections are held, and winners announced. But real change is impossible, because entrenched interests hold on to power no matter what regime. Jimmy Carter says in the USA, "the [politicians] look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves." That is happening in Goa and the rest of India too - a political system by the oligarchs, for the oligarchs, of the oligarchs, and now there seems little anyone can do about it.