The writer of the attached article is going ga ga over the first step towards accountability. Will this first wobbly step become stronger and firmer? If the citizens provide support to the likes of Tehelka, there is a chance.
What are the chances of such events taking place at state government level?
Until the system gets reformed to make accountability a way of life, such dare devil acts by investigative reporters will have to performed at regular intervals to keep the law makers and the law executors in check. I admire the tenacity of the Tehelka group.
Guwahati, Monday, January 2, 2006
EDITORIAL
First step in the right direction
Poonam I Kaushish
History was made on December 23, 2005. The impossible had become possible. Something that you and I always hoped for but never thought it could happen at least in our lifetime. Our leaders were fallible like us ordinary mortals. Look it at this way. In the 54 years not one leader has been held accountable. And it needs no reiteration to assert that our polity is corrupt and how! But I was wrong. Believe it or not, in India, that is Bharat, accountability is the new buzzword. Salaam India.
Capping 11 days of high drama, a historic vote in Parliament saw 11 MPs being expelled in the money-for-question scam. A day which will go down in Indian democracy as a day which ushered in accountability in the portals of the high temple of democracy. In a simultaneous, sweeping and swift exercise, 10 MPs from the Lok Sabha (5 BJP, 3 BSP and one each Congress and RJD) and one BJP MP from the Rajya Sabha ceased to be members. A sad and painful exercise yet necessary to stem the rot and more important to save the dignity and credibility of Parliament. Indeed the first tentative step to cleanse the political cesspool had been taken.
Yet there our mixed emotions. At one level there is revulsion. How could our Right Honourables sell the dignitary and honour of Parliament for asking fake questions. That too for an embarrassingly petty amount ranging from Rs 5000 to Rs 55,000. Never mind that the Question Hour is the hyphen between the Executive and the Legislature. In this sacred hour any MP can ask any question from the Government and hold it accountable.
At another level, sadness and doubts about the manner in which the action was taken. Sad because the House was divided on an issue which umpinged on the very essence, dignity and credibility of its being. That the expulsion would not be a unanimous decision, as was indicated earlier when the scam broke, became obvious when the BJP Deputy Leader and member of the Bansal Committee to go into the scam, VK Malhotra appended his dissent note in which he raised serious questions about the procedure adopted. Queries that are not easy to brush under the carpet as a case of sour grapes. Against the backdrop that a majority of the guilty MPs belonged to the party. Predictably, the BJP-led NDA barring the JD(U) opposed the motion and walked out of the Lok Sabha.
Though Malhotra agreed with the punishment envisaged, he opposed the action on the ground that the correct procedure had not been followed. According to him. No member of the House can be expelled except for the breach of privilege of the House, the matter must, therefore, be dealt with according to the rules of Privilege Committee, so, the matter must be referred to the Prilvileges Committee on a motion moved in the House, or the Committee adopt the rules of Privileges Committee, in the Privileges Committee the tainted members will have a right of examination, arguments, defence etc, which is necessary of natural justice, I will not like to become a party to create a precedent by which a member can be expelled from the House without proper procedure being adopted.
Describing this as a kangaroo court act, Leader of the Opposition LK Advani asserted, Heavens would not have fallen if the Privileges Committee went into the issue and gave its verdict in 15 days. The expulsion could have waited for the first day of the Budget Session in Parliament or a special session could have been summoned... the capital punishment is not commensurate with the act, definitely of corruption, but more of stuppidity. It is another matter that he robbed his Deputys dissent of its raisondetre.
According to the BJP, it has set a bad precedent which could have grave repercussions in the State Assemblies. Specially in those Assemblies, where the ruling party has a wafer-thin majority. Said a senior party leader. Now the Government can use its brute force and get an opposition MLA expelled on a flimsy ground of misconduct to increase its majority. Given the quality and composition of our State Assemblies it could lead to ugly situation and a free for all.
But this is not the end of sleaze in Parliament. In fact the obverse holds true. Clearly it is raining scandals for our Right Honourables. Barely had the dust settled on the Volcker drama and Foreign Minister Natwar Singhs resignation, that the cash-for-question scam hit TV screens. Worse followed. In another sting Operation Chakravayu, 7 MPs were exposed asking for money to sanction projects under the MP Local Area Development Scheme. Recall each MP is allotted Rs 2 crore per year to sanction projects in his constitutency. It is alleged that a minimum of at least 25 per cent makes its way back into an MPs pocket as kickback.
Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal hit the nail on the head. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Nine out of ten cases go unreported. Crimes which are much bigger. The latest is the scandal of two BSP MPs who are reportedly accused of being involved in a fake passport racket scam. Also murmurs of another sting in the offing: casting couch in politics. How times have changed. An honest MP is one who is not caught!
True, the first stone may have been cast to cleanse the political system. But the last word has still to be said. There is talk that the MPs may move court. Look at the irony. No one opposes the expulsion but one wishes it had been done correctly as in the case of Mudgal in 1951. Recall, the MP was charged with dubious dealings with the Bombay Bullion Exchange. Interestingly, Nehru himself investigated the matter and moved the motion in the House.
Said Nehru: On April 20, I had an interview with H G Mudgal in the course of which I informed him of the information we had received. He told main answer that he was connected with an organisation which published the Indian Market and did research work also. In the course of his professional work, he and his staff had helped the Bullion Association by preparing a pamphlet and a memorandum. He denied having asked Rs 20,000 or any other sum from the President of the Bombay Bullion Association, Whatever he had received was according to him, in connection with his professional work and there was nothing underhand about it.
I met Mr Mudgal for a second time again and further discussed this matter with him. He also gave me his reply on the lines which I just mentioned, in writing. The explanation that he gave me did not appear to me to be satisfactory. Yet again, at the time of tabling the Committees findings that Mudgal be expelled from the House, the Prime Minister said: Such a matter is always distasteful. From the facts that this report contains, I have been surprised at the extent, shall I say, of misrepresentation to me when I first inquired into the matter and the facts now show a conduct which I consider highly derogatory and highly objectionable.
Needless to say, a lot of water has flown down the Jamuna since then. Absence of probity at all levels of public life is common knowledge. This is the tragedy of our Parliamentary democracy. No doubt action has justifiably been taken. But a lot still needs to be done. For starters our MPs should stop scoring petty political points against each other. It is not an issue of BJP MPs are more corrupt than the rest. All our tarnished with the same brush. It is in the interest of healthy democracy that unhealthy precedents are not set. Parliamentary democracy can succeed only when the rules of the game are followed honestly. Else it will become redundant and irrelevant. INFA
Capping 11 days of high drama, a historic vote in Parliament saw 11 MPs being expelled in the money-for-question scam. A day which will go down in Indian democracy as a day which ushered in accountability in the portals of the high temple of democracy. In a simultaneous, sweeping and swift exercise, 10 MPs from the Lok Sabha (5 BJP, 3 BSP and one each Congress and RJD) and one BJP MP from the Rajya Sabha ceased to be members. A sad and painful exercise yet necessary to stem the rot and more important to save the dignity and credibility of Parliament. Indeed the first tentative step to cleanse the political cesspool had been taken.
Yet there our mixed emotions. At one level there is revulsion. How could our Right Honourables sell the dignitary and honour of Parliament for asking fake questions. That too for an embarrassingly petty amount ranging from Rs 5000 to Rs 55,000. Never mind that the Question Hour is the hyphen between the Executive and the Legislature. In this sacred hour any MP can ask any question from the Government and hold it accountable.
At another level, sadness and doubts about the manner in which the action was taken. Sad because the House was divided on an issue which umpinged on the very essence, dignity and credibility of its being. That the expulsion would not be a unanimous decision, as was indicated earlier when the scam broke, became obvious when the BJP Deputy Leader and member of the Bansal Committee to go into the scam, VK Malhotra appended his dissent note in which he raised serious questions about the procedure adopted. Queries that are not easy to brush under the carpet as a case of sour grapes. Against the backdrop that a majority of the guilty MPs belonged to the party. Predictably, the BJP-led NDA barring the JD(U) opposed the motion and walked out of the Lok Sabha.
Though Malhotra agreed with the punishment envisaged, he opposed the action on the ground that the correct procedure had not been followed. According to him. No member of the House can be expelled except for the breach of privilege of the House, the matter must, therefore, be dealt with according to the rules of Privilege Committee, so, the matter must be referred to the Prilvileges Committee on a motion moved in the House, or the Committee adopt the rules of Privileges Committee, in the Privileges Committee the tainted members will have a right of examination, arguments, defence etc, which is necessary of natural justice, I will not like to become a party to create a precedent by which a member can be expelled from the House without proper procedure being adopted.
Describing this as a kangaroo court act, Leader of the Opposition LK Advani asserted, Heavens would not have fallen if the Privileges Committee went into the issue and gave its verdict in 15 days. The expulsion could have waited for the first day of the Budget Session in Parliament or a special session could have been summoned... the capital punishment is not commensurate with the act, definitely of corruption, but more of stuppidity. It is another matter that he robbed his Deputys dissent of its raisondetre.
According to the BJP, it has set a bad precedent which could have grave repercussions in the State Assemblies. Specially in those Assemblies, where the ruling party has a wafer-thin majority. Said a senior party leader. Now the Government can use its brute force and get an opposition MLA expelled on a flimsy ground of misconduct to increase its majority. Given the quality and composition of our State Assemblies it could lead to ugly situation and a free for all.
But this is not the end of sleaze in Parliament. In fact the obverse holds true. Clearly it is raining scandals for our Right Honourables. Barely had the dust settled on the Volcker drama and Foreign Minister Natwar Singhs resignation, that the cash-for-question scam hit TV screens. Worse followed. In another sting Operation Chakravayu, 7 MPs were exposed asking for money to sanction projects under the MP Local Area Development Scheme. Recall each MP is allotted Rs 2 crore per year to sanction projects in his constitutency. It is alleged that a minimum of at least 25 per cent makes its way back into an MPs pocket as kickback.
Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal hit the nail on the head. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Nine out of ten cases go unreported. Crimes which are much bigger. The latest is the scandal of two BSP MPs who are reportedly accused of being involved in a fake passport racket scam. Also murmurs of another sting in the offing: casting couch in politics. How times have changed. An honest MP is one who is not caught!
True, the first stone may have been cast to cleanse the political system. But the last word has still to be said. There is talk that the MPs may move court. Look at the irony. No one opposes the expulsion but one wishes it had been done correctly as in the case of Mudgal in 1951. Recall, the MP was charged with dubious dealings with the Bombay Bullion Exchange. Interestingly, Nehru himself investigated the matter and moved the motion in the House.
Said Nehru: On April 20, I had an interview with H G Mudgal in the course of which I informed him of the information we had received. He told main answer that he was connected with an organisation which published the Indian Market and did research work also. In the course of his professional work, he and his staff had helped the Bullion Association by preparing a pamphlet and a memorandum. He denied having asked Rs 20,000 or any other sum from the President of the Bombay Bullion Association, Whatever he had received was according to him, in connection with his professional work and there was nothing underhand about it.
I met Mr Mudgal for a second time again and further discussed this matter with him. He also gave me his reply on the lines which I just mentioned, in writing. The explanation that he gave me did not appear to me to be satisfactory. Yet again, at the time of tabling the Committees findings that Mudgal be expelled from the House, the Prime Minister said: Such a matter is always distasteful. From the facts that this report contains, I have been surprised at the extent, shall I say, of misrepresentation to me when I first inquired into the matter and the facts now show a conduct which I consider highly derogatory and highly objectionable.
Needless to say, a lot of water has flown down the Jamuna since then. Absence of probity at all levels of public life is common knowledge. This is the tragedy of our Parliamentary democracy. No doubt action has justifiably been taken. But a lot still needs to be done. For starters our MPs should stop scoring petty political points against each other. It is not an issue of BJP MPs are more corrupt than the rest. All our tarnished with the same brush. It is in the interest of healthy democracy that unhealthy precedents are not set. Parliamentary democracy can succeed only when the rules of the game are followed honestly. Else it will become redundant and irrelevant. INFA
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