The singular Congress victory in the Lok Sabha election has thrown up a wonderful opportunity to create a turning point in world history (to quote Uday Kotak). Clearly, economic reforms will move onto a more rapid path, albeit constrained by the lessons of the global economic crisis. Growth will rise, making deficit management easier. And, if the global crisis does, indeed, settle down, we could well see a return to aiming for double-digit growth as early as next year.
However, none of this will be sustainable (and Uday’s comment will fall on its face) unless Rahul Gandhi accelerates his hugely creditable efforts at political reform.
As many readers of this column would know, I was deeply involved in Meera Sanyal’s campaign for the Lok Sabha, and my main reason for aggressively supporting an independent was that all the political parties, including the Congress, were — are — corrupt and venal. Further, the Congress has the dubious distinction of having spawned dynastic politics, which threatens the very meaning of democracy.
The good news is that Rahul Gandhi seems to recognise that all this has to change. He has already been experimenting with inner-party democracy in Punjab with, reportedly, encouraging results. It is also excellent news that (at least as of this writing) he has chosen not to join the Cabinet so that he can continue to focus on reforming the party.
There’s a huge amount to be done, and Rahul will need to put out — and sustain — a Herculean effort to clean up the Augean stables of Indian politics. [For those like me, who barely remember Greek mythology, Hercules’ fifth labour was to clean King Augeas’ stables. King Augeas owned more cattle than anyone in Greece and had many herds of cows, bulls, goats, sheep and horses; Hercules was challenged to clean up the mess created by these animals, and he had to do it in a single day.]
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The analogy with Indian politics is quite apt. For starters, 41 Congress MPs in the current Lok Sabha have criminal records — that’s about one in five. And while this percentage is lower than the average for Parliament — which boasts a handsome 150 MPs out of the 533 analysed by National Election Watch, a full 28.14 per cent — who have criminal records, it is unacceptable to me, and, I would imagine, to Rahul as well. He needs to ensure that by the next Lok Sabha election, there are ZERO Congress candidates who have criminal records.
To do this, he needs to follow the lead of the Lok Satta Party, and set up an independent committee of citizens with irreproachable credentials to vet all persons applying for Congress tickets with a mandate to disqualify anyone with a criminal record. If there are several acceptable applicants for a Parliament (or, for that matter, assembly or corporation) seat, there should be a run-off, just as in the primaries in the US, with party members voting to select the most suitable candidate. The Maharashtra assembly elections, where the Congress-led state government is doubtless feeling MNS-nervousness, would be an excellent place to start.
He should also immediately require all Congress-led state governments to implement the Nagar Raja bill, which, in its undiluted form (thank you, Meera), will create a direct link between urban citizens and each layer of government, attacking the fabric of the soul-destroying day-to-day corruption that so many of us face.
Another huge part of the clean-up will be to change the perception — and the reality — that politics is primarily a vehicle to make money. While I believe that elected representatives should be paid well — the Singapore model, towards which we should move — it is absolutely unacceptable that so many people enter politics to — let me put it baldly — plunder the exchequer.
It is shameful that between the last Lok Sabha election and this one, many, many MPs increased their wealth by 300, 400, even 1,000 per cent; the Sensex only rose by about 85 per cent over the same period. If MPs can make so much more money than anyone else, they are either (a) working on their own businesses and not spending adequate time on their jobs, or (b) taking bribes, or (c) being privy to — or, indeed, making — “national” decisions that disproportionately benefit their own accounts, or (d) all of the above.
This has to change. Rahul should set an example by putting all his assets in a blind trust to be managed by professional asset managers. This way he can be free to focus fully on his job and not have his decisions swayed by possible personal pecuniary gain. This, incidentally, is what the President of the United States has to do by law. We need to enact a law where every MP’s assets are audited, held in trust and audited again after five years to ensure that they are not enriching themselves at the expense of the people of India. Rahul could make a powerful beginning by putting his own assets in trust AND requiring all Congress MPs, who wish to be part of the new, new Congress, to do the same.
In five years, the world will have a new hero — sorry, Mr Obama — and the only problem India would face is that the Congress party would have wiped out all opposition.