Privileged occupation

Bad governance can happen in many ways and India can proudly boast of practically any type one can imagine. The Supreme Court, by asking for the eviction of 465 persons of special status who have overstayed in their government bungalows in the pleasant environs of an otherwise not very attractive capital city, has drawn attention to one such.

It belongs to a category with which we are all familiar: special and differential treatment of the already privileged. Brazenly, openly, contemptuously India's governments flout the idea of equality of all before the law.

Indeed, so flagrant is this violation of the principle (on which the Constitution is based, by the way) that one cannot but help conclude that the system has not moved out of the days when the sage, Manu, laid down a formal code that allowed the king to mete out differential treatment depending on the person's caste. Manu himself had been inspired by Hammurabi, a Middle Eastern codifier of an even older vintage.

The principle was straightforward: which law applied to you depended on your status. Hammurabi thought status arose from money; Manu attributed it to caste. But the result was the same. India's presentday governments think it depends on your profession, with pride of place going to such oddballs as politicians and journalists.

It is not as if the government is powerless. The Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act had been passed as far back as 1971. It empowers the government to throw out people in unauthorised possession of government housing.

But it is used only to settle scores, not to apply uniformly. Secure in the knowledge that they are there to stay, these many illegal occupants have even made alterations to the premises as if they owned them.

What is worse, everyone knows the purpose these alterations and additions serve: they are often rented out. Now the Supreme Court has asked the government to formulate guidelines before the next hearing for dealing with these people. But what are we getting to hear, instead?

It seems the ministry of urban development has come up with a brand new policy, which if implemented will result in the allotment of government land and bungalows to recognised political parties. They will be charged Rs 88 lakh per acre, which sounds like a lot but is no more than Rs 1,818 per square yard, a fraction of what prime land costs. This, too, by the way is an old practice in India, though not as old as the Hammurabi-Manu formulae.

As the Mughal empire began to fray at the edges and weaken, supporters would often extract their price in terms of jagirs. This is precisely what is being contemplated now. And guess whose idea it was in the first place?

The communists, who have given a new meaning to "Operation Barga" that seeks to secure the rights of the tenant. Not unexpectedly, the CPI and the CPI(M) sit on prime government land in the capital on which are located their respective offices, Ajoy Bhavan and A K Gopalan Bhavan.

So do the rest of the political parties, of course, but only the communists have been allowed to build their own party offices. It seems Marx will not allow himself to be left behind by Hammurabi and Manu.