Making Politician accountable

The ‘sting’ is once again in India’s political air! Barely had the Indian public absorbed Operation Duryodhana — which showed 11 Members of Parliament accepting cash to raise Parliament questions — when another TV channel did another sensational "sting"-based story.

This showed seven MPs accepting kickbacks for sanctioning funds from the Rs 2 crores annually available under the MP Local Area Development Scheme. If the first operation exposed corruption among different political parties, the second showed MPs abusing a privilege given to them by virtue of being MPs.

MPLADS has long been used to distribute patronage. It was launched by Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao in 1993 as part of a "package" to buy support for his minority government, which included bribing Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MPs. It’s widely believed that MPLADS funds are channelled to contractors who give kickbacks to MPs. Many fictitious, irrelevant, or me-too projects are sanctioned at public expense under it.

Cumulatively, Rs12,800 crores has been spent under MPLADS, a sum higher than the Union elementary education budget.

It’s tempting for MPs to exploit a scheme that’s totally ‘legitimate’ to buy support from key groups in their constituencies. A majority succumb to the temptation. Some North-eastern states have adopted similar schemes where each MLAs can spend/sanction a huge Rs 1 crore. Under India’s Constitution, MPs can have no executive power, which MPLADS illegitimately gives them. The scheme should be scrapped.

The cash-for-questions scam corrodes an important democratic device, the Parliament question. MPs can ask starred or un-starred questions to extract information from the government and understand the rationale behind its policies so they can scrutinise these. Even cynical government officials take Parliament questions seriously because they can be punished for lying.

It’s outrageous that MPs should ask Parliament questions at the behest of interest groups out to embarrass competitors or illegitimately influence policy. The pharmaceutical industry has long been notorious for this. Even if a question is genuine, it’s wrong to accept a bribe for asking it. If it’s not authentic, the offence is doubly deplorable. The two exposes highlight the need to make India’s political system more participatory and accountable. It’s noteworthy that six of the 11 MPs caught in the first sting operation belong to the BJP, as do 4 of the 7 in MPLADS. This exposes as hollow the BJP’s claim to be a "party with a difference" — composed of people with integrity and convictions (however wrong). Over the years, the BJP worker, rooted in the RSS’s supposedly austere culture, has been edged out by carpet-baggers, or bitten by the corruption bug himself. Four of the 7 BJP MPs trapped in Duryodhana sting were RSS activists!

The exposes have generated anger and strengthened the view that politicians are uniquely corrupt. Some reactions are clearly excessive. An opinion poll found that 76 per cent of people think that the tainted MPs shouldn’t merely lose their seats. Forty-nine per cent think they should be barred from elections for life, and 26 per cent that they should be jailed. One per cent want to hang them! Two-thirds say less than 10 per cent of politicians are honest.

This expresses a strong upper or middle class prejudice. Politicians are certainly no more corrupt than the businessmen who bribe them. Corruption is pervasive in India. A Transparency International survey finds that Indians annually pay more than Rs21,000 crores in bribes to get public services. Eighty per cent bribe the police — 14 per cent just to file a First Information Report and 7 per cent to avoid false arrests! Among India’s most corrupt institutions are schools and hospitals. Schools alone make Rs4,000 crores in bribes. The upper class can be extremely hypocritical about corruption. Take its remarkably hostile reaction to the current drive launched under court orders to demolish 18,000 illegal constructions in Delhi. These thieves of public space are protesting the demolition with almost righteous anger: had they not paid municipal officials Rs 500,000 to start unauthorised buildings, and then up to Rs 100,000 a month during construction?

Such protests only show the rich have internalised corruption. They have no right to condemn others for doing the same, and even less to single out politicians. This is not to condone corruption among politicians. Many politicians are corrupt, but other groups are equally, if not more, so. The Duryodhana-sting MPs took a maximum of Rs 1.1 lakh. But Indian businessmen have under- and over-invoiced exports and imports to transfer an estimated Rs 90,000 crores to 450,000 crores abroad.

Political leaders should be judged by strict criteria because they represent the public. But other groups shouldn’t be let off the hook. All holders of office, and beneficiaries of government actions, must be held accountable. That’s democracy’s fundamental requirement. This means applying the rule of law universally-in municipal functions, collecting taxes, supervising the police and making the bureaucracy accountable.

However, how should the public make lawmakers accountable? Four measures are necessary. First, the sting operations warrant exemplary punishment, including the tainted MPs’ disqualification from elections for six years. They offer a good chance to evolve a consensus on differential penalties for varying malpractices, including defection, defalcation, intimidation and thuggery. This will help deter political wrong-doing.

Second, there must be the right to recall MPs for incompetence or corruption. Third, MPs must evolve a code of conduct. This was first proposed in 1951, in the Mudgal cash-for-question case. It was revived in 1993, and led to the creation of Ethics Committees in the two Houses. Under the code, MPs must truthfully record their assets and interests. All their actions which have a bearing on policy or monetary gain should be scrutinised under the Right to Information Act. Finally, there must be a focused effort to reverse the recent deterioration in the quality and duration of parliamentary debate. India must reform certain ultra-conservative conventions which exempt government from debating policy in Parliament and from seeking Parliamentary ratification for international agreements. The sting operations show that the time has come for real, focused, political reform.