President upset at numbers game

President APJ Abdul Kalam today voiced serious concern over "dubious means" adopted to cobble up numbers to form governments and called for an introspection, remarks that assume significance in the backdrop of recent political developments in Jharkhand.

Observing that polling processes had been, of late, under "severe strain" with fatal violence, he said: "Let us be honest to ourselves. The arithmetical compulsions of incremental numbers and the alleged tradeability of certain legislative seats, won perhaps through means allegedly dubious and undemocratic, have many a time created doubts on our democratic system in the public eye."

The President was speaking in the central hall of Parliament after giving away the "outstanding parliamentarian awards" to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Minister Arjun Singh, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha LK Advani and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh.

Kalam said when politics degraded itself to political adventurism, the nation would be on the calamitous road to inevitable disaster and ruination.

Kalam said, "Let us not risk it. It is time all of us did an introspection and grew up to the expectations that were enshrined so diligently and optimistically by the founding fathers in our Constitution so that India sustained itself and grew as a mature, healthy, vibrant democratic nation."

Accepting the award, the Prime Minister regretted the decline in general atmosphere in Parliament and standard of debate and called for introspection before people lose faith in the institution.

Observing that people were yearning for a lifestyle change and expect MPs to bring smile on their faces through appropriate policies, laws and facilitating societal transition, Kalam said: "We seem to have been working with policies and procedures, which are at times based on mistrust."

He said Parliament needed to mount a mission to identify and scrap complex old laws and those procedures, which hindered growth-oriented development economy.

"This will give scope and a hope to a large section of the people who are honest, to flower and flourish. India must move to a trust-based system and only members of this great Parliament can bring about this change," Kalam said.

Seeking to distinguish between "political politics" and "developmental politics", he said the former was needed at the time of independence movement.

Today, he said, what was needed for India was a mission to make it free from poverty, illiteracy and unemployment and this situation necessitates developmental politics.

Visualising a situation in which political parties perform in the environment of developmental politics competing with each other, the President said while one party would promised to make India a developed nation with a growth plan of every five years in 15 years, another would unveil a new strategy to achieve it in a shorter period.

In another scenario, he expected parties to ensure all border conflicts were resolved in 10 years while another would promise to create harmonious relationship within a period of five years. "Yet another may say, border trade will become meaningless," he said.

The Prime Minister said everyone would agree that the increasingly negative public perception of politics as an instrument of social change and those who make it their vocation was partly due to decline in standards.

"Without pointing fingers, we need to examine whether we are living up to the standards set by great parliamentarians of early years of our independence. It is for us to ensure that we set better standards for future," he said.

Singh said the day the people begin to lose faith in the institution of Parliament would also be the day that this important edifice would come under pressure. "We must not; we must never let this happen."