The Shibu Sorens of the country serve a few useful purposes too. Besides contributing profusely through case laws to the cause of criminal jurisprudence, such characters make you alive to the dark and disturbing possibilities and prospects that a democracy could throw up, making it seem like some kind of a ‘demon’ocracy. That someone with such a prolific track-record of crime, ranging from abduction and bribery to murder could be not just a law- making member of Parliament, but a cabinet minister implementing public policy is not merely a warning bell, but actually a death knell.
Ludicrous though it might sound, imagine this logic: Shibu Soren was actually an adviser to the President of India! And why not? Is the President not constitutionally bound to act on the advice of the ‘Council of Ministers’ of which our SS was a part? And that ‘advisor’ now faces the possibility of getting hanged, if the law of the land takes its course, provided, of course, it passes the scrutiny of super judges like prime-time pundits and HR activists. Thank goodness he has quit, or else, he would be advising the President on his own hanging. Or is it too early to conclude on that too? After all, this Shibu had been dropped from the cabinet twice earlier and each time he was reinstated, after a short gap. Now, who can guarantee he might not be angling for a hat-trick comeback? Not certainly our PM. For in these days of UPA, read, Un-Principled Alliances, Manmohans cannot be choosers!
Shibu’s siren is actually a grim pointer to the deeper malaise that has taken grip of the country; a rot that has steadily cut away at the roots of our democracy and that now threatens to bring down the edifice itself. And that is the consistent and conclusive erosion of all constitutional offices and institutions over the decades, a decay that looks irreversible. Political observers would trace the disease to the days of the Emergency. But the process has certainly gained a huge fillip with the advent of coalitions at the Centre, with survival not just a concern of individual politicians, but of political parties and Governments too. The higher survival stakes have naturally depleted the moral resources at a faster pace. And ironically, while during the Emergency it was the dictatorial ways of a PM that set the ball rolling downhill, now we have the weakest PM ever, and the ball has only gathered pace!
The PMO as a cause and a casualty is just a minor detail in the current scheme of things. And the presence of criminals in the cabinet just goes to prove how the constitutionally guaranteed prerogative of the PM in choosing ‘his’ council of ministers has been mutilated by coalition compulsions. And we are not, as yet, talking of super PMs, breathing down his neck. But it can be said with a degree of certainty that the cabinet is only a miniature version of that larger institution called Parliament. If post-Soren surveys are to be believed, a whopping thirty percent of the members of Parliament have criminal backgrounds with cases at various stages pending against them. Indeed, if the law were to take its course, a third of the law-makers would have to shift residence to prisons, with little chance of a walkout option for many of them in the light of the Soren-like charges they face. In a milieu wherein Parliamentary privilege of such a tribe is deemed more sacrosanct than even national security or democratic dignity, what credibility can one attach to the happenings inside those exalted Houses? No cash for answering that question!
And the highest Constitutional office? Those who dubbed the post of the President as a rubber stamp were actually being a bit charitable. A rubber stamp leaves its mark at least, but our Presidents don’t. They just come and go. Some optimists believed that given weak governments at the Centre owing to coalitions, the President’s stature and role would grow, to the benefit of the country. But some habits never die. And the nation too does not expect those habits to die. Otherwise, the Rashtrapathi Bhavan would have become vacant after the SC castigated the President’s signing on the dotted line in unseemly haste, from a distant land, in the dead of night to dismiss the Bihar Government. And no one seems to be questioning the rationale, either, behind the President sitting on Afzal Guru’s hanging now. No indignation is expected on the part of the President in dealing with Afzal, who caused the death of jawans belonging to the armed forces of which the President is the supreme commander! But even that seems an inadequate provocation for the Prez’s wings to catch fire!
With the PM, Prez and Parliament beyond purposeful salvage, the judiciary remains the last post of hope for the ordinary citizen. But things do not augur well on this count too, given recent trends. While the SC is the final interpreter of the Constitution, Parliaments have never hesitated to amend it to thwart or get over SC verdicts. But such conflicts of late have become confrontations with tones getting strident by the day. The current speaker for instance, never misses an op to stress, in public, that the judicial writs will not run in Parliaments. Add to this the utter impunity with which SC verdicts are ignored or even disobeyed by elected heads of government, a privilege that those who elected them dare not even entertain. The Kerala CM’s refusal to heed the SC verdict on Mullaperiyar is a case in point. And the SC itself has added to the confusion by asking the two states to talk it over, after delivering a concrete verdict! And the judiciary is not covering itself with glory by resisting every attempt at judicial reform. The draft Judges Inquiry Bill, 2006, contained proposals that made declarations of assets by judges mandatory besides introducing the much needed transparency in the appointment of judges and modes of inquiries against them for misconduct or incapacity. The final bill has been stripped of all such provisions and self-regulation remains the only leash on the judiciary!
Indeed, when institutions slide, unworthy individuals riding on sychophancy may climb up or get foisted on the pedestal. Small wonder that the nation is now being asked to thank Sonia Gandhi for the reduction in Petro prices! That sums up all the deficits of our democracy!
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