Elections are here again. Often, two things happen in such times. One, we start noticing how dissatisfied we are with our elected politicians, and how little they’ve been able to do for the people as a whole. Secondly, we start blaming the voter for all that is going wrong.
The argument goes something like this: people are willing to sell their vote. Look what they’ll do for a note or two and some officer’s-choice-and-chilly-chicken. Or, OCCC, as some call it.
Often, it’s not we who are to blame, of course. It’s the easily-pressurised migrant voter who is behind this all. They just vote in a block. They’ll do anything for money. So what can we do?
In a word: it is not “us” who are responsible for ruining the system. But it’s always someone else who is at fault.
The need of the hour is to go beyond such simplistic thinking. Blaming the voter should not be an alibi, and an excuse, for not willing to see the mega problems where it really exists.
We saw much of it getting uncovered in the last week. This enlightenment came through the ‘Electoral Bonds’ scam.
So many things become clear from what undeniably is one of the biggest scams of modern times in Indian politics. It’s not the micro bribes that the voter finds coming his way that is important. It is the way in which the entire political system has been reduced to one of money, and money alone.
Add to this the lack of democracy in the functioning of political parties, no accountability by the leadership, no feedback mechanisms for citizens to get their voices heard.
Suddenly, figures like Rs 1200 crores are beginning to look small. How do industrial houses and others manage to rake up such money, just to pay our political masters? Where does the money go? How does it distort our entire system of governance?
Thanks to the work being done by so many (mostly online) news and journalistic initiatives, including the social media, the answers are becoming increasingly clear. Everyone concerned over it is closely following the impact of the ‘electoral bond’ revelations. Even the declaration of elections dates haven’t completely made us forget the impact of the former.
Connections are become clear by the hour. The State Bank of India’s reluctance in sharing all the information in a helpful format hasn’t blocked those interested from finding their own links. Those who have donated ‘electoral bonds’ to political parties are being connected with the favours, contracts, or even raids conducted on them. Even if a small part of this is true, it is indeed shocking.
The lessons Goa needs to learn from the ‘Electoral Bonds’ case are stark. Your vote is competing with crores of rupees. You can’t expect our politicians (or political parties) to behave any differently under such immense pressures.
Let’s be real: regardless of whom you vote for, and who wins, defections will continue to happen. The ‘demand’ for the same, and ‘supply’ for the means to make it happen, are simply too strong. The Opposition will continue to get decimated. You can’t obviously have faith in any political party, or those swearing by it today.
In such a situation, eternal vigilance is the job of the voter. Don’t take anyone’s word for it. Even your most trusted friend will by willing to sell out and betray you tomorrow -- provided the price is right.
‘Electoral Bonds’ sought to legalise political corruption. By bringing it all into the open (thanks to the Supreme Court order), it confirmed what some have suspected for all this time. With so much money floating around, can we expect fewer defections? Yet, the dominant media and public discourse will continually blame whichever party is in the Opposition for whatever’s going wrong.
With such huge funding links, can we expect no distortions in the projects particular funders have an interest in? Sections of the online media, and some in print, have done a fabulous job of drawing links between donations made and projects allocated.
Large sections of our political class went silent over the ‘Electoral Bonds’ issue. Union Home Minister Amit Shah put up a spirited, if unconvincing, defence while speaking at the ‘India Today’ conclave. Very few clapped, but all were willing to listen.
‘Electoral Bonds’ are much like the Modi policy on demonetisation. None of its (shifting) objectives were met, despite the huge human and economic costs involved.
In the case of the ‘Bonds’, virtually a new and uncontrolled currency was floated. There was no anonymity, despite claims to this effect. The intrepid lady reporter Poonam Agarwal went and bought two one-thousand rupee bonds; only to find separate markings of indelible ink on each. So, the citizen is kept in the dark about who’s paying whom, and the Opposition won’t get to know which party is getting what share and from whom. (However the State Bank and the government which controls it, obviously could know.) Likewise, black money could easily infiltrate the system, routed conveniently through shell companies.
Despite of all these unabashed links, a few were still willing to stubbornly defend the ‘Electoral Bonds’.
It might have attempted to shift corruption from being politician-based to being party-based. But that is probably only worse. It has a far greater potential to distort policy, to result in extortion and blackmail, and to lead to misuse of arms of the State to meet the private goals of the party in power.
The courts have played an important role in diverse dimensions coming to light. But they could have acted far sooner. Besides, it makes no sense whatsoever that the information about earlier (pre-2019) ‘Electoral Bonds’ should not be released as well.
There are valuable lessons to be learnt here.
All this goes to show how important a role information can play in our political life. The commitment of our current government to the RTI is far from certain. Even the Congress, which initially enacted it itself, started to whittle it away over time. By the way, a just-announced site for citizens in Goa to file their RTI applications doesn’t seem to be working: rtionline.goa.gov.in
The dubious role played by people who happen to come from a Christian background in distorting politics in India is shocking enough to be noted as well. In this case, the ‘lottery king’ Martin Santiago of Future Gaming tops the list of ‘Electoral Bond’ so-called donors. Not too long back, Anil Masih, a member of another Christian denomination, was caught in the middle of the Chandigarh mayoral election scam.
We still don’t know how much we don’t know. The discussions on this issue are definitely far more enlightening than so many hundreds of Civics classes we would have attended. And teaches us more lessons than all the exhortations for citizens to ‘exercise their precious vote’ during the elections.
Only time will tell us whether public memory is so proverbial short, that we forget this huge scam with time.
