Not Simply Done
- Of elected cliques, fairness creams and other things we do to ourselves.
The great compromises that chip away at the great cause that is India.s.
By: Gopalkrishna Gandhi
(Gopalkrishna Gandhi is Governor of West Bengal. This is excerpted from the
S. Ranganathan Memorial Lecture he gave in New Delhi on November 28.)
Outlook Magazine - December 17, 2007
"Cry, My beloved Country" is an expression which comes to mind when we think
of some facets of the Indian condition, such as that section of our
population which lives on Rs. 20 a day; farmers who have committed suicides;
the hundred of families who have lost their kin to the violence all around
us; and the trauma inflicted regularly on women, of which we saw ghastly
examples in Guwahati only last fortnight. These constitute deep agonies. But
between these deep valleys of anxiety lies another terrain. For all its
undramatic nature, even this plane terrain has its own smaller ravines and
hollows. One such that comes to mind most persistently is the silent
interlocking of entrenched interests.
Great causes can accommodate great compromises. I will refer to three such
comings-together. The first is in the domain of the state; the second of the
society and the third concerns individuals - you and me.
My first example has its locus in something we are rightly proud of and
which has earned the world's applause - our elections. The coming-together
of interests in our elections is the coming together of low politics and
high money. In the first few years since 1937, elections meant the chance to
select, objectively , A over B. Today, it can still mean that. However, it
cannot but mean the pitting of A`s money resources against those of B.
Elections have come to mean, by definition, the infusing of candidature with
cash. The weaker the candidate, the stronger the cash.
An election episode of 1937 has been recounted by Lal Bahadur Shastri: "I
remember his (Nehru's) visit to the district of Allahabad. It was about
8.30 pm when he finished his speech. As soon as he had done so, he enquired
from the local Congressmen whether he said that the Congress workers of
Mirzapur had no sense of hospitality. ' I said I wanted to go and they
agreed to it without even offering me a cup of tea. 'Nehru had taken no tea
in the afternoon and . he was feeling very hungry. He asked me whether
there was any restaurant in the city. I remember the railway station where
some tea could be got. He said "let us go there". We motored to the railway
station and went to the railway restaurant. After having taken the tea , we
were asked to pay the bill. Every one of us searched his pockets and found
that none of us carried sufficient money. Between us we could collect about
two-and-a-half rupees. Nehru has about a rupee and a quarter, Mrs. Purnima
Banerjee another rupee and I gave the few annas to complete the full amount
required. How awkward would it have been if we had failed to make up the
amount among ourselves!"
Another cameo, this time from the elections that followed a decade later, in
1946: the highly respected Congressman of Bombay, Vaikunthlal Mehta, was a
candidate. His reputation was such that any individual or corporate house
would have considered it a privilege to assist with his campaign. When he
was contemplating the contest, his instincts for integrity were strengthened
by a letter he received from Gandiji. "Offer your name as a candidate for
the Assembly, on the condition, however, that you will not have to spend a
single pie and will not have to go begging for votes," the letter said.
Vaikunthbhai decided to send a postcard to each of his electors and do
nothing more. The postcards won him the seat after Independence. No donor
could have reminded the finance minister of his debt - for there was no
donor and there was no debt.
Both these elections were held in pre-Independence India. Let us come to
post-independence India in which C. Rajagopalachari had predicted we will
see "the power and tyranny of wealth". Candidacy is regarded by some as an
investment. The important consideration for such candidates - mercifully
their number is small - is that their candidacy will leave them richer than
when they entered it.
In 1957, Tata Iron & Steel Co want to change their Memoranda of Association
in order to allow the company to make contributions to political parties.
The matter went to court. The Bombay High Court allowed the change but with
a weighty obiter dictum: .."we think it our duty to draw the attention of
Parliament to the great danger inherent in permitting companies to make
contributions to the funds of political parties. It is the danger which may
grow apace and which may ultimately overwhelm and even throttle democracy in
his country."
Twelve years after, in 1969, a ban did get to be imposed on corporate
contributions to elections funds. But not even seven years had elapsed
after that ban when rethinking started. A bill was introduced in Parliament
in 1976 seeking to give companies the power to donate up to 5 per cent of
their profits to political parties. Nine years later, Section 293-A came to
be recast altogether by Amendment Act of 1985.
As the law stands at present, a political party may receive any amount by
way of contributions under the Companies Act. By way of an independent
encouragement for corporate funding, Section 77 of the Representation of the
People Act excludes expenditure incurred by political parties from the
computation of the Election Commission-prescribed ceiling on a candidate's
election expenditure.
There are two consequences of all this: first, candidates backed by
political parties and corporate donations enjoy a weightage over independent
candidates. Second and more important, before an election weighs votes on
its balance, cash weighs itself on the same scale's trays. Examples can be
cited of clear, bonafide and transparent donations by business houses to
political parties. Rajagopalachari himself approached industrial houses for
open donations to the Swatrantra Party. But a board of director's payment by
means of a white cheque to a party is not the only source of funding. There
is the Hindi saying, 'Haathi ke paaon mein sab ke paaon' (Many paws fit into
an elephant's footprints). Vast sums get flung into an election, both from
within and outside of the provisions of the Companies Act. This is where
black money mingles with the white, making the whole thing as grey as smog.
Beyond the action of grey money in elections lies the important question:
once elected with the help of another's money - be it an individual's or a
company's - can the victorious candidate look the donor in the eye and say
'No' when that donor asks for an inappropriate concession? The 'power of
wealth' then becomes, to use Rajagopalachari's phrase, a 'tyranny', not
only for the losing side but for the winning side as well. The time has come
for the laws concerning the funding of elections to be reviewed again. The
late Indrajit Gupta had chaired a committee to study it. Another study needs
now to be made of the working of Section 293-A of the Companies Act.
COMMENTS:
His Excellency, Gov. Gopalkrishna Gandhi will rejoice from within his bones
when he learns that there are still people around in this 'money eat money'
Indian politics who have formed a political party where money plays no role
at all in the winning or losing of elections.
As a matter of fact, just today, when I visited the Parish Priest of the
Ucassaim Church with a request to make an announcement, tomorrow being the
Sunday, to tell everyone to sign the copy of the 'Charter of Demands', which
will be circulating outside, prepared by the Mapusa-Bardez Nagrikancho
Ekvott, to be handed-over to the Chairperson of the Mapusa Municipal Council
with massive number of signatures from Mapusa and around, the good Rev.
Father had this to say. "Floriano, Goa needs people like you to be
elected, but don't mind my saying, you will never get elected" And to
express himself, he caressed his thumb and two fingers saying 'It is all
this' which you will never have", meaning .... MONEY.
Just like Vaikunthlal Mehta, the slogan that this party uses is " Small
money from a lot of people makes better sense than a lot of money from one
person" In this case, after getting elected, there are no favours to return.
For India (especially Goa) to come back in full circle to the
pre-independence election times, it will perhaps take another 500 to 1000
years for the people to want a savior to come to deliver them from the
pestilence of politicians and their money power, just like some 2000 years
ago as happened in Jeruzalem.
But one thing is sure. Whether it takes 500 years or more, the revolution is
bound to happen and the slate, which is over-written by a zillion times will
be wiped clean for the new writing to start afresh. Of that I am very very
very optimistic. And this optimism is built-in into the very being of the
GOA SU-RAJ PARTY.
Cheers & happy reading Gov. Gopalkrishna Gandhi.
floriano
goasuraj
