Do we deserve our rulers?

Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled over a small kingdom somewhere in India. Like many other rulers, he spent his time enjoying the good things in life, with his ministers and officials managing the affairs of his kingdom. One night, he dreamt of a majestic, resplendent deity who thundered – “O King. Anarchy reigns on your kingdom. Go and mingle with your people to find out for yourself the extent of their misery. If you don’t mend your ways, I, your kuldevi, shall destroy you and your family”

The king woke up, very much disturbed and a little scared. He decided to move around his capital incognito. Without fail, he noticed the traders trying to overcharge, the buyers trying to steal and his officials extort. The next day, early morning, he moved further to the outskirts of his capital and saw an old man cleaning thorns and broken glass from his door. Unfortunately, a thorn pricked the poor man’s foot and he fell down crying. Curiously, as he picked the thorn out, he cursed – “The way this thorn has pricked my foot, let a lance pierce the king's heart”. Offended, the king berated the old man stating ‘You fool. You put your foot on the thorn on account of your falling sight and lack of attention. What has your king to do with it that you curse him thus? The old man replied – “Sire. Law and order is absent in this kingdom. We all live in such fear of robbers that while we have buried all our valuables, to save our lives, we spend our nights in the jungle, after securing our houses by spreading thorns, glass outside the entrances. Each morning, we come back, clean and try to go about our tasks only to repeat the act in the evening. Tell me, if our king had attended to our security, would this thorn have pierced me?”

Failing to provide an answer, the king moved ahead, to find a middle aged woman climbing a tree to pluck some berries. Unfortunately, she slipped and fell down, badly hurt. As she gasped, she cursed – “The way I fell down from the tree, let the king fall off his elephant’s howdah and be crushed under its feet”. Angered the king cried – “You old hag. Your youth has withered but it has not deterred you from youthful activities. You fell down because of your infirmity, not the king.” The woman responded tearfully – “My husband was killed by robbers and I have to sell fruits to sustain myself. I have two young girls and normally would never have had to pluck fruits myself. But worried about them getting picked up, I have to keep them secured in the house, away from eyes of everyone. Had the king upheld law and order, my husband would have been alive and even otherwise, I would not have had to climb trees. So, is not the king responsible for my plight?”

After experiencing more of such snubs, the king realized the folly of his ways and started attending to his kingly duties. Soon thereafter, the situation normalized and the people lived a happy and prosperous life!

This was a story and hence there is a happy ending. More importantly, this tale seeks to link the well being of a people to its very top leadership. And haven’t our scriptures spoken oft about the need for the king to uphold dharma? If the king was righteous, the Gods would be happy, the elements of nature bountiful. It would rain on time, crops would be aplenty, rivers would respect their boundaries, there would be no untimely deaths and so on. If the king would be evil, misery befell his people and the people would themselves adopt to evil ways. Yatha Raja Tatha Praja – As the king, so are his people.

Since the days of kings are no more, one wonders if adages of the old hold true today. Certainly, if we elect our rulers, then is it not that the ruled define the rulers rather than the other way? And if I have continuously elected the corrupt, the dynast, the incompetent as our representatives, then maybe we deserve them. It will be quite funny for a dispassionate observer to see a down and out Jayalalitha winning her next elections or an SP regime, known for lax law and order returning after a stint in the opposition. This peculiar phenomenon of the discredited gaining credibility in cycles is not an Indian phenomenon alone. A Mr 10% of Pakistan rose to become its President while Bangladesh alternates between its two begums, both embroiled in various scams.

So, we are told that if we don’t have qualms to bribe the policeman to let us off hook on the challan or pay some money to the babu to get our files moving, are we not corrupt ourselves? Don’t we then deserve corrupt rulers? We decry any attempt to tinker with the rules but ourselves make a hue and cry to get rules waived if it is for Unmukt Chand or Sachin Tendulkar. We claim to hate murderers but believe that Salman Khan is a National icon. We decry short cuts but Dhirubhai is our role model. My countrymen, don’t we then deserve what we get?

But then again, if the system works well, why would there be any need to pay bribes? If there would be a sufficient fear of the law, would anyone break law with impunity? If law would indeed treat everyone alike, would a son or a son-in-law not hesitate before treating the Nation with contempt? We live in a democracy but the design and costs of our electoral system ensures that we always have to choose between the lesser of two evils, as it appears then. If Jaya had to be punished for her monumental follies, did the Tamil people have any option other than to vote for a thoroughly corrupt DMK? Or, if Left was to be punished, did the Bengali people have any option but to vote for Mamata, even when knowing well that she had little by way of a constructive agenda to offer? More critically, the choices of human beings are always governed by the Recency effect. Exploiting this weakness of the human psyche, it is not difficult for a thoroughly incompetent government to attempt purchasing votes through handing out of copious doles near the election time. In a society where sustenance is the pressing concern, values and larger good of the Nation will by default, be condemned to be relegated to secondary concerns.

Our electoral system needs an overhaul if we have to have a make our representatives accountable to us. We need to evaluate if the American system, where the candidates go through an election process before nomination can be introduced. To reduce the ill effect of vote banks, a two tier election process in which the top 2 vote winners are made to go through a play off election, can be introduced. This would ensure that the local representative can justly claim to be a majority choice and better reflect the concerns of our people. A right to recall those representatives, who fail to meet the people’s aspirations can be introduced. To bring in probity, any candidate for any post, whether nominated or elected, should be made to disclose details of the assets, tax returns and income statement for his entire family and not just for the spouse. 

These steps could of course be ineffectual if not backed by judicial and police reforms. But, a beginning has to be made, if we don’t want to see the rulers continue to rule the way they have ruled us for the last 7 decades.

FDI in Retail

While the UPA Government’s move to open retail to FDI was unexpected, what was on more predictable lines were the reasons marshaled both in defence and against this move.

My previous post had enumerated why FDI in Retail is not a big deal either ways and newer arguments have done little to change this opinion.

A curious outcome of this decision has been the 'resurgence' in business 'sentiments'. So, are 'sentiments' alone what reforms have been all about?

Make the Judiciary Accountable - II

A friend suggested that a note talking about the need for Judicial accountability is incomplete if it does not throw any light on the contours of this concept. Rightly said and hence my attempt to address the gap.

For many years, the debate over the need for a formal mechanism to regulate judiciary would be killed over the fears of this regulation being a cover for executive interference in the Government. And truly, with the experience of ‘committed judiciary’ not being erased from our collective consciousness, even thoughts on regulating judiciary were considered sacrilegious. However, the ills plaguing the system were too stark to be ignored and faced with an imminent intervention from the executive, the Higher Judiciary attempted to self regulate with powers to transfer, appoint and castigate errant judges. However, like with other self regulating bodies, this attempt to self correct has been seen as compromised by the feature of ‘brother’ judges not willing to be seen as harsh on their brethren.

The judiciary has been rightly protected from the interference of the executive. But this protection has over the years morphed into a situation where

• There is an absence of any effective disciplinary mechanism,
• Judicial pronouncements over the years have meant that judges are protected from even being investigated for criminal offences
• Concept of contempt of court by which the judges have insulated themselves from public criticism
• Added insulation from RTI, through judicial pronouncements
• Judgements which mandate that institutions be manned by retired judges alone (latest is Information Commission)

Enter the Judicial Accountability Bill which was passed by the Lok Sabha in March 2012, as ‘The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010, and Constitutional 114th Amendment Bill, 2010. Though the bill is not without demerits, particularly with regards to provisions on obiter dictum and fails to address issues like judicial appointments, nepotism and redressal adequately, it is a step towards enforcing judicial accountability. Broadly, the bill strives to ensure:

• Defining a mechanism for probing complaints on misbehaviour or incapacity of judges in the higher judiciary; and
• Regulate the procedure for such investigation

At the same time, the citizenry needs to press for the following to ensure that judiciary becomes accountable:

• Transparency in appointments
• Withdrawal of exemption from criminal investigations
• Abrogation of the concept of contempt of court in view of criticism
• Applicability of the Right to Information
• Cooling off period before a judge can become a member of any of the constitutional bodies, commissions and a cap to the number of such bodies he can be a member of
• Prohibition on retired judges to becoming legislatures
• Mandatory disclosure of assets of their family and its periodic scrutiny

In case the prescription seems harsh, let us not forget that Judiciary is the most potent pillar of our civilization, as we know. A weak enforcement of law will ensure that only the mighty and the crooked will rule and prosper at the cost of all others.

Acknowledgment: Prashant Bhushan, for his efforts in educating people on this area

Make the Judiciary Accountable

For a people driven to despair by the shenanigans of its ruling classes, the higher Judiciary in India seems to be a beacon of hope, an institution still committed to upholding our constitutional principles.

And truly, the various High Courts and the Supreme Court of our country have handed out judgements which have restored the much needed sanity in the madness around us. At the same time, there have been judgements which have been inexplicable and give reasons to doubt if the higher courts are really the institution which are above ills afflicting the organs of the state.

We, as Indians, have a propensity to idolize and defend the indefensible if the alleged culprits are our idols. The same tendency gets extended to our judiciary if a judge passes even one judgement which is well received by the media and the thinking classes. We then seem to forget that judgements are pronounced by humans and lesser men, when officiating as judicial officers can wreak havoc in a way which probably even politicians cannot.

The United States has well recognised that most judges are political beings with defined ideologies and that their pronouncements are well coloured by their individual biases. Hence, the appointment of judges is a well defined affair in which the judges get appointed through a vote following a hearing on their record. In India though, such appointments are driven by a mix of political expediency and the fellowship of higher judiciary.

While any system of judicial appointments will have some or the other loophole, what is more required is to build a system of accountability of our Honourable Judges. Authority and accountability need to go hand in hand if the authority is to perform what it is empowered to. If the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers is responsible to the Prime Minister, the bureaucracy to the Prime Minister through a defined chain of command, the legislators to the people and so on, what is the case for exempting Judges from being accountable for their judgements?

So many times have the judgements of lower courts been overturned by the High Court. Countless times have High Court judgements been over-ruled by the Supreme Court. Stinging observations have been passed by the higher judicial authority on the atrociousness of judgements passed by the lower courts but that hasn’t made any difference to the careers of any of the judges concerned. Why are those judges who pass judgements which run contrary to principles of justice asked to explain their conduct? And we are still talking only of the lower courts. Why should the Honourable Supreme Court not be accountable? Before I am greeted with disbelief, I would request the readers to assess a few judgements in recent days

• The Court discharged Mayawati from the disproportionate assets case on technicalities
• The Court dismissed the petition against Mulayam Singh Yadav on unauthorised allotments of land
• The Court refused to make P Chidambaram subject to even an investigation in the 2G case when all facts point to his involvement in the decision making process
• An Honourable Judges’ penchant to dismiss any representation of the Gujarat Government in riot related cases at the outset itself
• Release of Sanjeev Nanda from jail even after accepting that he did run over 6 people in his Mercedes

 While these judgements have come in recent times, many other judgements in the last few years raise serious doubts over the intent of the Honourable judges pronouncing those verdicts. The regularisation of Commonwealth village on Yamuna Flood Plaints was blessed by the Court before the matter blew up. A chance to reform the defection game and resort politics was blown away by Supreme Court through a summary dismissal of the Karnataka High Court judgement. Almost everyone in the know now accepts that the then Chief Justice of India’s missionary drive on the Delhi sealing was driven by considerations not exactly honourable. Another retired Chief Justice of India has been hounded by serious allegations of accumulation of unaccounted wealth involving him and his family. But has anything happened to any of these people in question?

Armed with the powers of Contempt, the Courts have in effect muzzled anyone who seeks to ask – “Why, Your Honour, Why?”

It has become the norm for us to blame the executive, the legislature and the law enforcement for the woes plaguing our Nation. But if these legs of Governance are dysfunctional, can the judiciary, which sits at the apex of our Governance, escape the blame? It is the judges, the courts, which instil the fear of law among those who waver from the path of probity. It is upto the courts to set rights wrong, for it is they, who have the powers to summon, to probe and most importantly, to punish. How can then we let this exalted institution rot and crumble under the weight of unworthy men? How can we ensure that even those who are worthy enough to man these sublime posts do not waver and pronounce verdicts without any ideological or any other colour?

While not the perfect panacea, a Judicial accountability bill is the need of the hour. Let not the reform of our system stop at the demand for a Lokpal. We need a system which requires judges to be accountable and a Judicial Accountability Framework is a need which we would do well to recognise and press for fulfillment of!