SATURDAY, MAY 04, 2024
Marian Pinheiro
In the year 1973, famous lawyer and jurist Nani Palkhivala said “I congratulate the politicians of India for keeping India poor even after 25 years of her independence despite all the resources and man power in India ”. Fifty years hence, the situations in India have worsened. Poverty and unemployment still continue because of the huge political corruption, which is nothing but the looting of the Nation
The Supreme Court judgement on the Electoral bond has opened a Pandora’s box, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg of the corruption in India. Electoral bonds were a mode of funding of political parties in India stared in 2017, till they were struck down. The bonds as revealed is of Rs 12,145.87 crores worth and Rs 623 crore remain yet to be revealed by the SBI.
The biggest revelation is how, electoral bonds have become a means of quid pro quo for the corporates and big-time law breakers. The modus operandi as revealed by the timings of these bond purchases shows corruptions in the form of haftas, kickbacks, intimidatory tactics by the political parties, with the help of enforcement agencies to extract money for illegalities committed by these corporates, be it for granting permission for the manufacture of drugs , harmful to humans or for evasion of taxes, permissions and grant of contracts etc. The actual loss to the nation by these illegalities run into lakhs of crores of rupees, much more than the values of these bonds. The consequences are huge, gigantic and the Indian people have to pay a very heavy price over the next few decades for this loot of the nation.
The Electoral bond scheme was introduced presumably to stop cash donations to political parties but interestingly cash donations to political parties have not been banned, which means that the cash donations continued to take place and this Electoral bond scheme provided a huge opportunity to the political parties to develop a system of quid pro quo for the favours their government does to the donor etc.
Yet another revelation that has come to light is, some corporates are not buying these bonds directly but through intermediaries apparently to camouflage the linking of bonds purchased vis a vis favours received
Corruptions of this nature has disastrous economic consequences for the nation. This kind of corruptions due to institutional failures as India has witnessed, in the conduct of CBI, ED, income tax authorities and State Bank of India etc, is a unique mode of looting the nation.
The irrefutable conclusion is that there are persons behind the smoke screen of the political party, who actually decides and are not answerable to the Government or the People and not even the Judiciary.
Governance is the management of the public funds, manipulation of these funds to personal or private advantage is corruption. Only rule of law and competitive politics can stop looting, that’s where the judiciary has to step in.
British introduced the tendering system for contracts for public works, presumably to ensure that government gets the best of service at the lowest possible costs. But over the years, the Indian politicians have turned this same tendering system to ensure that public works (Be it bridges, roads, buildings & drainage etc) are carried out at the costliest prices that too with substandard and often incompetent works. The falling of bridges, collapse of buildings, and defective roads have all become common occurrences in India. Lives are lost, livelihoods are destroyed and no one bothers and never the politicians, except, for lip services if there is an election round the corner.
Public funds for all these public works by whatever names and titles they are called or which political leader is claiming credit for the same, are all ultimately money that belongs to the People of India, collected or to be collected in one form or another.
Every citizen of India has contributed to all such funds in the form of various taxes. Individual contributions may be but a small or miniscule amount, yet every Indian has an equal right to know how and why such money has been spent and who benefitted? Though there is the Office of Comptroller and Auditor General, to verify the truth of such expenditures their’s is a constitutional responsibility, CITIZENS HAVE A SUPERIOR RIGHT.
A right to know and evaluate the purpose and genuineness and need for all such expenditures of public money.
Political corruption is the manipulation of the political institutions and the rules of procedure, leading to institutional decay, where in laws and regulations are more or less systematically abused by the rulers, side-stepped, ignored, or even tailored to fit their interests. The degenerative effects of political corruption cannot be counteracted by an administrative approach alone. Endemic political corruption calls for radical political reforms.
In justice and fairness, when the government could probe deep into private financial dealings of a citizen on mere suspicion, shouldn’t private citizens have a similar right to probe into an apparent misuse, abuse or over use of public funds through an appropriate entity?
With so much looting of public funds, by various dubious ways, to save the country from total economic collapse, the Higher judiciary as guardian of people’s right needs to create a monitoring body, by a panel of retired judges, with impeccable integrity to enquire into such draining of public funds.
Time has come for India, to decide on a mechanism, by which the political parties are made answerable. There has to be a system, wherein political parties and their financial dealing, both receipts and expenditures can be examined and made public on a regular basis. If India fails to reign in this huge and uncontrolled power wielding by political parties, India, will become a government of looters, for the looters and by the looters.
(The writer is a Professor of Law and an Education Consultant)
