The Present
The Political Patronage Pyramid is now the status quo in every political party. The rot is universal; spanning all party lines. India’s
leftists spout dogmas straight from the Red Book, while their party
middle-management steal from the PDS system. In FY 2006-2007, Rs. 1913.76 crore
(US$ 500 million) of rice and wheat, about 63%, was stolen from the PDS system
in West Bengal state alone; the bastion of India’s Leftist parties.[i] The party elite look the other way while
subsidized food and fuel meant for the poor is stolen and sold on the black
market. The Congress has the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS),
enough said. The BJP has its Annapurna
Yojna (Complete Food Program) claiming to subsidize food to the poor, Ladli Laxmi Yojana (Favorite child money
goddess program) which creates a trust account in her name enabling her to
receive Rs. 1 lakh (US$ 2500) when she turns 21. There’s the Gaon ki Beti Yojana (Daughter of the
village program), Kanyadaan Yojana, Janani Suraksha Yojana, and so on. The
only common theme running through all these programs is that the recipient
group is the least empowered in society and hence least vocal in complaining
about benefits that never materialize (as they are pocketed by the middle of the Pyramid).
Southern political parties pass bills in state parliament
that use taxpayer money to give away free TVs, stoves and pressure cookers in
exchange for votes. The bills pass unanimously, actual taxpayers are too small
in number to have any say, and thousands of poor voters sweep back into power
the party handing out the biggest freebie.
With India’s parliament formed by Proportional Representation (PR), multiple political parties can form and grow. And grow they have, catering
to ever narrower demographic niches; electoral results of the last few decades
are showing the decline of national parties and the rise of fragmented local
parties.
In contrast, Winner-Takes-All (WTA) democratic systems
almost always result in a small number of large national parties. Party lines
are clearly drawn, with manifestos straying little from the national message,
and voters often voting on party lines. A single politician’s behavior reflects
on the entire party, regardless of geography. Politicians from one party are
quick to point out the shortcomings, indiscretions, and misbehavior of any
politician from the other party, regardless of geographical separation. Within
the legislative body – the Senate or Congress in the U.S - this acts as a
systemic self-enforcing peer group check against individual misbehavior.
Meanwhile, India’s PR democracy results in multiple smaller
parties in the mix, where actions of one politician in one minor regional party
do not reflect on the career prospects of another politician in another distant
regional party. With so many different political ideologies, a politician from
the southern coast gains nothing amongst his constituents by pointing out the
shortcomings or indiscretions of a politician from the Northeast. Hence
peer-review amongst India’s 552 parliamentarians is almost non-existent. Most dont even bother talking to each other.
Development funds get stolen, medicine gets siphoned off to
the black market, infrastructure funds are diverted, etc. There is no political
incentive for any parliamentarian to stop it. Upper echelons of the pyramid
have no moral authority anyway; that was lost a long time ago. Meanwhile, the
police are shackled by The Police Act of 1861 and are powerless against elected
politicians.
The Future of the Pyramid
Now consider the future. The very nature of such a human
pyramid renders it to be dynamic with the passage of time. As older leaders at
the top of the pyramid eventually retire or die, they are replaced by those
most qualified to lead the lower levels.
In other words, as time progresses, the lower levels of the pyramid
filters its own and sends upwards those most likely to send rewards down.
The churn is beginning to show now. When the Pyramid was first
conceived by the Constitution planners in 1951, it consisted of India’s elite,
highly educated professionals, mostly lawyers.
60 years later, most of the original pyramid is long gone.
Amongst their descendants, the honest intellectuals have left in disgust. The
few descendants that have chosen political careers have done so for utter lack
of any other redeeming quality or employable skill. The apples have
consistently fallen farther and farther away from the tree. The last wave of
intellectuals is nearing the end of its tenure. Independent intellectuals face
insurmountable barriers to entry, and end up choosing far more intellectually
rewarding and morally fulfilling careers in the private sector. The pyramid is
slowly de-generating from the bottom up.
The primary objective of a democracy is to serve as a
gigantic filtration system. The basic assumption is that if every individual is
free to vote, then the resulting filter will weed out the misfits, punish the
bad, and reward the good. But this assumption is based upon multiple premises;
that a majority of voters can access,
read and understand election manifestos; have an education that equips them to
coherently compare multiple manifestos; can comprehend causality; feel
ownership in government by paying direct taxes; are willing and able to look
beyond tribal, ethnic and sectarian lines, and aren’t living lives of such
deprivation that their votes can be easily bought.
India’s corrupt leaders have created a failed state that
ensures that these fundamental premises do not exist in the country. This is
precisely why India’s parliamentary democracy is failing so miserably, and getting
progressively worse.
It doesn’t just end at graft and corruption. The higher-ups
in the Pyramid also look the other way while the lower-downs indulge in
criminal acts of escalating gravity. 22.5% of India’s 2004 Parliament had
multiple criminal cases pending against them; cases of rape, extortion and
murder. This percentage has been steadily increasing; up to 26% in the 2009
parliamentary elections. Upper levels of
the pyramid can stop the rot, but they choose not to. They can easily bar
criminals from contesting elections, or refuse them party tickets in elections,
but in their desperation for support in ever shakier coalitions, they choose
not to.
These thousands of Faustian pacts all over the country have
enormous negative consequences on all levels of governance in India.
No comments:
Post a Comment