People's Democracy

 EDITORIAL

Pot Calling the Kettle Black

THE conduct of the former Chattisgarh chief minister, Ajit Jogi, is indeed reprehensible. Instead of accepting the people’s verdict and the Congress defeat gracefully, Jogi indulged in seeking to bribe and entice sections of the BJP MLAs in order to form an alternative government. The Congress party has rightly taken action against Jogi for having entered into such machinations and extending, in writing, to the Governor, Congress’s support to a splinter BJP group.

In a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, the BJP mounted a moral high platform in attacking the Congress on this score. The alacrity with which the CBI has filed the First Information Report (FIR) has confirmed, if ever such a reconfirmation is necessary, that the CBI functions at the behest of the PMO and the home ministry. So far no case has been registered or an FIR filed against Judev who was caught on camera accepting wads of cash. Not very strangely, for all these years no FIRs have been registered against those BJP or NDA leaders who were seen by millions accepting wads of cash as bribe in the Tehelka episode. Instead, the enquiry into this episode was directed more at ascertaining how such sting operations were conducted, in order to intimidate and persecute those who have made such exposures in the public interest. This has serious implications for the exercise of the right to information and the freedom of expression for the society in general and the media in particular. As pointed out by journalistically inclined legal minds that the sacrosanct right of the media to protect its sources can be prised open by such moves.

Likewise in the Judev episode the probe is to concentrate on who/how the sting operation was conducted. However, in a sting operation personally cleared by the deputy prime minister/home minister and personally carried out by the union law minister, Vajpayee’s CBI moves in promptly!

Condemnable as they are, such acts of bribing elected representatives in order to form governments have now become a benchmark of political immorality amongst the ruling class parties. It is indeed ironic that the BJP is adopting a moral high position when many of its governments in various states at various points of time were formed and survived precisely through such machinations. It is the BJP that had made a norm of offering ministries to all defected MLAs in UP. The splitting of the BSP, Congress, Lok Dal, Janata Dal etc for the continuation of the then BJP chief minister, Kalyan Singh, has not been forgotten in public memory. Or, for that matter, its government in Goa today has come into being precisely through such immoral moves.

Indeed, it needs to be reminded that Vajpayee’s swearing in as the prime minister, in the first place in 1998, was possible only through such and other unethical manoeuvres. The whole country was witness to various deals being struck so that letters of support could be sent to the President of India. The lady in Chennai had actually kept Vajpayee waiting for nearly 72 hours!

Sordid as they are, such universalisation of sleaze and corruption to establish political immorality as a norm of democratic functioning is indeed ominous. This strikes at the very roots of parliamentary democracy and makes a mockery of the people’s verdict in any democratic elections. If moneybags alone are to decide where elected representatives would sit and whom they would support then all principles of any political campaign or people’s decision reflected in their voting on the basis of principles and politics are nullified.

In order to restore people’s faith in the necessity and efficacy of this parliamentary system, it is necessary that proper action should be taken against all those who have been exposed in such grave acts of commission.  This however does not appear possible given the fact that those involved in the Tehelka episode continue to reign as ministers and Vajpayee and company appear to have no compunctions about this. In such a situation, it is only a popular people’s pressure that can force the ruling classes and their cohorts to take action and punish the guilty in such a manner which can prevent if not prohibit the recurrence of such episodes.