The hungry republic

WHAT A tragedy it is that the country is “celebrating” the 62nd Republic Day on a note of despondency. To be sure, there have been a few previous occasions when the nation’s mood on the republic’s anniversary has been even more sombre. January 26, 1963, soon after the traumatic border war with China in the high Himalayas, was the first such. In 1976, in the stifling atmosphere of the Emergency, most Indians were deeply, if also silently, resentful. Eight years later, on Republic Day, the nation was tormented by the intimations of the searing tragedy to come: Operation Blue Star in Punjab that almost inexorably led to Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
Thank God, today there is no sign of external aggression or of anything like the Bhindranwale-led insurgency in Punjab in early 1980s. But that is precisely what makes the current situation all the more distressing. For, it is entirely the handiwork of the ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), with some help from the principal Opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), that the political class looks hellbent on provoking an explosion in the sensitive state of Jammu and Kashmir. Its ploy to hoist the Tricolour at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk on January 26, something it has never staged since 1992, is as disingenuous as it is dangerous, especially because both the state and Central government are determined to forestall it.
Political posturing by rival sides apart, it is the government’s dismal failure to check either the rising tide of corruption or the skyrocketing prices, especially those of food, that has understandably dismayed the people. And the way things are going the dismay could easily turn into anger. Prices of vegetables and onions are beyond the reach of even the lower middle class and are causing hardship to the middle middle class, to say nothing of the poor that form close to half the population. Shockingly, at such a time statements from exalted official sources show greater concern for the “nervousness of the corporate sector” than for the endless suffering of the vast multitude.
It would, of course, be churlish to deny that at present a larger proportion of Indians than ever before since independence eat better, live longer and have greater access to education and healthcare. Yet, in absolute terms, the number of those that go to sleep hungry is immensely more than that of people who have risen above the arbitrarily fixed poverty line. What a blot on rising India it is that the glaring gap between the rich and the poor is widening all the time. Worse, one of every two children is malnourished. Sure enough there is a plethora of poverty alleviation schemes. But, as Rajiv Gandhi famously said, of every rupee spent on them 85 paise are siphoned off thanks to monumental corruption at every level of the system.
Is it any surprise then that the UPA government’s credibility has been eroded gravely by the long and dark shadow that falls between its brave words about combating corruption and its actual deeds. At the 125th anniversary session of the Congress there was inspiring rhetoric about “zero tolerance” for corruption. Congress president Sonia Gandhi had spelled out a five-point, anti-corruption plan. But a succession of subsequent actions by the coalition led by her party demonstrates that the gulf between rhetoric and reality remains unbridgeable.
Immediately after the Congress plenary, the new telecommunications minister, Kapil Sibal, attacked the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for the latter’s computation of the loss on account of the 2G spectrum mega scam. He made out that there was no loss at all. For this the Supreme Court was constrained to pull him up and the Public Accounts Committee rebuked him. More startling was the government’s resolute stand, repeated vehemently regardless of the apex court’s observations to the contrary, that it would never disclose the names of those caught stashing black money abroad in secret bank accounts. The government invokes the “confidentiality clause” in double taxation avoidance agreements. The public believes that the swindlers’ list is being kept top-secret because “high-profile politicians and bureaucrats” figure on it, apart from tarnished tycoons, corporate crooks and freelance profiteers. Hopefully, WikiLeaks will publish the list and damn all concerned.
The recent non-event called “cabinet reshuffle” belied the Congress’ claim that those guilty of corruption would “not be spared”. The continuance in the cabinet of Vilasrao Deshmukh, indicted by the Supreme Court for obstructing justice, and Virbhadra Singh, who is being tried on charges of corruption, speaks for itself, as does the transfer of ministers considered too clever by half from one ATM ministry to another.
Two years ago India signed a UN convention on corruption that can help solve the problem of money hoarded abroad, but has inexplicably not ratified it yet. For four years it has not even reacted to the Election Commission’s request that the commission be given the power to “de-register” nearly a thousand political parties that take no part in elections but are engaged in money laundering by receiving big donations. No wonder the Economist says that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is not acting strongly enough against “eye-popping graft”, and adds that “a cautious prime minister is letting his second term drift away”.
The BJP was in disarray until last autumn. Now it has been able to put the government and the Congress party on the back foot because of unacceptable corruption and inflation. Other Opposition parties that do not like the saffron party have found it necessary to go along with it. Both sides remain inflexible and unyielding, especially over the demand for a joint parliamentary committee to investigate the spectrum scam. Consequently, instead of the country collectively fighting the monster of corruption, the two mainstream parties are engaged in a bare-knuckle fight against each other. And the BJP is merrily able to scream against graft in Delhi and shield the corrupt in Bengaluru. The party’s new president, Nitin Gadkari, has even made the startling discovery that what is “immoral” is not “illegal” and therefore acceptable.
The tussle, which wrecked Parliament’s winter session, has since escalated because of the ugly spat between Karnataka’s governor and ruling party. Who can say what this would do to the Budget session of Parliament and to Indian polity generally?