HOW DEMOCRACY WORKS IN OUR COUNTRY
People in general and the bhagats in particular fail to understand as to what I mean by political democracy and how it is different from constitutional democracy. The constitutional rights of the people are reframed in the party manifesto to bully us for fulfilment of our legitimate rights only if we vote for the party. There is a bargain in a political democracy than a dedicated will of a political party to implement constitutional rights of the people and constitutional duties of political party forming the government. Our Prime Minister Modi kissed the entrance floor of Parliament before entering the Temple of Democracy. The whole nation went emotional for the advent of a new messiah of Democracy, who will fulfill the hopes and aspiration of people. Now I will take you inside the temple to show how actually the democracy works in our country.
Freedom is a very vital component of democracy. In 2011-12 corporates had the audacity to write letters signed by top 20 corporates headed by Adi Godrej to tell Manmohan Singh that his government has failed in all departments of governance. Today the same corporates bemoan the trampling of freedom in democracy saying they couldn't imagine of such a day when freedom from democracy will so dictatorially trampled. Imagine the feeling of threat to freedom in democracy is there even among the corporates funding the political parties. So whatsoever, intimidation is the cause of threat to freedom provided in democracy now-a- days.
Ruling parties in all times had their reservations with freedom in media. They always suggested media editors to find ways not to damage the image of the government while reporting its performance and outcome of scheme implementation. Before 2014 the PMO never used to pressurise or convey her unwritten advisories to the media owners to show the doors to the “erring” editors or journalists. Even during emergency imposed by Mrs Indira Gandhi, I still remember, RN Goenka the owner of The Indian Express, RK Karanjia owner of Blitz and there were many who allowed their journalists to write and oppose emergency. Kuldip Nayar and Khushwant Singh opposed emergency in their own inimitable style in newspaper columns, that too during emergency. So it is a matter of concern if media houses, the fourth estate of democracy are dictated as what to write and what not to especially when the government claims of providing real freedom now than before - yes the definition of freedom has changed though to freedom of mob lynching, allowing vandalism by Shiv Sainiks, Bajrang Dal and Karni Sena, communal love jihad by Hindu Yuva Vahini and freedom to goons to go berserk to vandalize public property on the issues of reservation, communal and caste divide.
In 2014 election Rs 1352 crore was spent on election ads by political parties as per data released by Election Commission based on official figures submitted by political parties to the Commission. Let us not go into unofficial figure than on data released by Election Watch and Association for Democratic Rights (ADR) which reveals that BJP alone spent around Rs 781 crore in its 2014 election ad campaign, Congress which was in power that time spent Rs 571 crore and rest by the small parties that makes total of Rs 1352 crore.
After going through the trends of earlier elections of 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2009 it is Interesting enough to note that political parties in opposition never spent more than the party in power. Almost twice the amount collected from the corporates and spent in 2014 election in comparison to total amount collected and spent in the last 4 elections together. So who was giving money? It was the corporates. Why the corporates investing so heavily on opposition party? True, Manmohan Singh led Congress gave enough reasons for disappointment and hopelessness due to which Congress had lost mass appeal. The situation was such that victory of BJP was sure even without Modi. Subsequently the confidence of corporates in Congress was also shaking. Was this the only reason the corporates funded more to the party in opposition? What was its expectations? How this money was going to be utilized by the party or the government? Where the government will spend?
During 2004 to 2012 total corporate funding was only Rs 460 crore 83 lakh and during 2013 to 2016 Rs 956 crore 77 lakh - almost double. BJP alone got Rs 705 crore out of Rs 956.77 crore.
Normally people know that Indian Railways is the biggest job providers.Today it is a myth. It is not the railway sector but the political sector which is the biggest job provider. The biggest job providers are political parties. About 10 crore unemployed youth get employment due to nationwide state and Parliament elections. BJP has a force of 6 crore unemployed youth as per official data. India has around 30 crore BPL population earning daily wages between Rs 28 to Rs 33 as per Tendulkar Committee Report, Election Watch and Association for Democratic Rights (ADR). On an average Rs 500 a day per person is paid during 40 days of a election period ever since 2014. It is a huge amount if calculated Rs 500x40x6 crore.
Hence a huge money is splurged in our country during elections. Ironically speaking any developed country will stand by us if the impression of economy of 40 days is spread over to 365 days. So this is how the money is spent.
Vijay Mallya came to Rajya Sabha after elected in 2002 and also in 2010. In 2002 Congress government of Karnataka chose Vijay Mallya for RS through 46 MLAs - each was paid Rs 25 crore. Mind boggling amount of Rs 25 crore X46!!! Rs 1150 crore. Government changed in 2004. BJP came to power. Aviation minister, Praful Patel brought Vijay into Parliamentary Standing Committee which was attached to Aviation Ministry. Now Vijay had full liberty to influence policy to run his Kingfisher Airlines and interfere in framing policy for aviation industry benefiting Kingfisher Airlines.
Again in 2010 Vijay Mallya bargained for his RS seat, now with BJP government in Karnataka, for Rs.50 crore per MLA. The case in discussion of Vijay Mallya is deliberate here so as to show how the institution of democracy has become money spinning hub and how the corporates take advantage of their investment.
So through Vijay Mallya let us further take a guided tour of parliament the temple of democracy to see how democracy works in our country. On 1st March, 2016 Vijay meets Arun Jaitley in the corridors of parliament around 3.30 & 4 pm and they talk for long. On 2nd March the next day Vijay runs away from the country in Jet Airways to London with 11 suitcases taking advantage of his special category status. Any common man would have been grilled by the investigating team if any such meeting had taken place a day before with a criminal running away from the country the next day. This is the kind of democracy we have in our country where the vigilance team do not question the politicians in power.
Let us go further into the temple. On 5th March, 2016 five days after his leaving the country 17 banks filed petition against Mallya in Supreme Court for financial fraud of Rs 9091 crore taken as loan and made great escape.
On 13th March, 2016 Hyderabad High Court issues non-bailable warrant against Mallya for cheque issued to GMR at Hyderabad International Airport bounced.
On 24th April, 2016 Ethics Committee of RS declares Mallya a fraud decides to expel Mallya from RS on 3rd May, 2016. On the night of 1st May - a day before his expulsion Hamid Ansari receives a fax from Mallya pleading innocence and tenders his resignation saying, “as Ethics Committee has decided for my expulsion and I, being one of the members of Ethics Committee, tender my resignation”. And on 3rd May Mallya is expelled from Rajya Sabha.
Country's investigative agencies like IB, CBI, Income Tax, ED etc now came out of slumber after expulsion and cancelled his passport. ED suggested and got accepted ban on Mallya's foreign travel. Mallya's arrogance was a slap on the government when he said he doesn't require a passport while smoking an expensive cigar and enjoying his walk on the street of London.
This is the picture of political democracy that we have in India. This democracy is not that democracy which was supposed to be established through Constitution as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar. The government of all times, and the present government is no exception, which always try to divide the nation to hold on to political power by any means through the route of divisive caste and religion, reservation and minority issues, mandir-masjid issue and thereby filing review petitions in Supreme Court knowing SC will not accept as per constitutional rules.
Another side of political democracy is loud bragging by our leaders and propaganda through their blind bhagats. The government proudly declared our economy is now come up to number 6. But we never talk about our rankings of BPL and hunger. 29.8% of India's 1.21 billion people live below the poverty line, which means around 360 million people currently live in poverty. India has been ranked at the 103rd position among 119 countries on the Global Hunger Index. Zero is the best score and a reading above 100 is the worst.
Our political community is so prosperous that our political leaders rank 2nd in the world in wealth and riches. The imbalance in income of around 11 crore employed in public, about 14 crore in private sectors and 45 crore in unorganized sector in comparison to the income of our political leaders is mind boggling. What our employed lot earns by 60 years of retirement age a political leader earns in 5 years.
The democracy suffers in the event of political power becoming supreme objective of the political leaders. The Constitution changes every 5 years with the arrival of new government with their manifesto as constitution.
The political leaders come to power with the sole intention to loot and amass money in first 2 years of term to recover what was spent during campaign, 3rd year of the term is spent of seeing what is to be done, big announcements are made to gain political mileage, 4th year is spent in managing the false promises, justifying U-turns, creating and offering lollipops and the 5th year is again used for planning next election.
So how to fight the situation? No bhakti and be business like. We ask for another piece if one button is missing in a shirt we choose to buy. So why can't we be so careful to choose virusless political candidate? Do we ever do our homework to assess the full background of the candidate before we decide to vote? Do we communicate with each other among us to create an atmosphere of questioning the government with reason, logic and data than condemning each other without point by point analysis? This is very much lacking among us. We are in indecent haste to condemn than argue and debate. Bhakti is blind towards intelligent voice of dissent. This makes the government complacent. So it is the time to create and share our own narrative in our areas and localities so as to encourage communication. We must have the courage to say the politicians visiting our locality BEWARE - POLITICIANS AND WASTRELS NOT ALLOWED.
Assume the status of a Sphinx to allow entry of a politician in your locality after your questions are answered - SATISFACTORILY.
Are you in the position to do that?????
But I am. I do.
Freedom is a very vital component of democracy. In 2011-12 corporates had the audacity to write letters signed by top 20 corporates headed by Adi Godrej to tell Manmohan Singh that his government has failed in all departments of governance. Today the same corporates bemoan the trampling of freedom in democracy saying they couldn't imagine of such a day when freedom from democracy will so dictatorially trampled. Imagine the feeling of threat to freedom in democracy is there even among the corporates funding the political parties. So whatsoever, intimidation is the cause of threat to freedom provided in democracy now-a- days.
Ruling parties in all times had their reservations with freedom in media. They always suggested media editors to find ways not to damage the image of the government while reporting its performance and outcome of scheme implementation. Before 2014 the PMO never used to pressurise or convey her unwritten advisories to the media owners to show the doors to the “erring” editors or journalists. Even during emergency imposed by Mrs Indira Gandhi, I still remember, RN Goenka the owner of The Indian Express, RK Karanjia owner of Blitz and there were many who allowed their journalists to write and oppose emergency. Kuldip Nayar and Khushwant Singh opposed emergency in their own inimitable style in newspaper columns, that too during emergency. So it is a matter of concern if media houses, the fourth estate of democracy are dictated as what to write and what not to especially when the government claims of providing real freedom now than before - yes the definition of freedom has changed though to freedom of mob lynching, allowing vandalism by Shiv Sainiks, Bajrang Dal and Karni Sena, communal love jihad by Hindu Yuva Vahini and freedom to goons to go berserk to vandalize public property on the issues of reservation, communal and caste divide.
In 2014 election Rs 1352 crore was spent on election ads by political parties as per data released by Election Commission based on official figures submitted by political parties to the Commission. Let us not go into unofficial figure than on data released by Election Watch and Association for Democratic Rights (ADR) which reveals that BJP alone spent around Rs 781 crore in its 2014 election ad campaign, Congress which was in power that time spent Rs 571 crore and rest by the small parties that makes total of Rs 1352 crore.
After going through the trends of earlier elections of 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2009 it is Interesting enough to note that political parties in opposition never spent more than the party in power. Almost twice the amount collected from the corporates and spent in 2014 election in comparison to total amount collected and spent in the last 4 elections together. So who was giving money? It was the corporates. Why the corporates investing so heavily on opposition party? True, Manmohan Singh led Congress gave enough reasons for disappointment and hopelessness due to which Congress had lost mass appeal. The situation was such that victory of BJP was sure even without Modi. Subsequently the confidence of corporates in Congress was also shaking. Was this the only reason the corporates funded more to the party in opposition? What was its expectations? How this money was going to be utilized by the party or the government? Where the government will spend?
During 2004 to 2012 total corporate funding was only Rs 460 crore 83 lakh and during 2013 to 2016 Rs 956 crore 77 lakh - almost double. BJP alone got Rs 705 crore out of Rs 956.77 crore.
Normally people know that Indian Railways is the biggest job providers.Today it is a myth. It is not the railway sector but the political sector which is the biggest job provider. The biggest job providers are political parties. About 10 crore unemployed youth get employment due to nationwide state and Parliament elections. BJP has a force of 6 crore unemployed youth as per official data. India has around 30 crore BPL population earning daily wages between Rs 28 to Rs 33 as per Tendulkar Committee Report, Election Watch and Association for Democratic Rights (ADR). On an average Rs 500 a day per person is paid during 40 days of a election period ever since 2014. It is a huge amount if calculated Rs 500x40x6 crore.
Hence a huge money is splurged in our country during elections. Ironically speaking any developed country will stand by us if the impression of economy of 40 days is spread over to 365 days. So this is how the money is spent.
Vijay Mallya came to Rajya Sabha after elected in 2002 and also in 2010. In 2002 Congress government of Karnataka chose Vijay Mallya for RS through 46 MLAs - each was paid Rs 25 crore. Mind boggling amount of Rs 25 crore X46!!! Rs 1150 crore. Government changed in 2004. BJP came to power. Aviation minister, Praful Patel brought Vijay into Parliamentary Standing Committee which was attached to Aviation Ministry. Now Vijay had full liberty to influence policy to run his Kingfisher Airlines and interfere in framing policy for aviation industry benefiting Kingfisher Airlines.
Again in 2010 Vijay Mallya bargained for his RS seat, now with BJP government in Karnataka, for Rs.50 crore per MLA. The case in discussion of Vijay Mallya is deliberate here so as to show how the institution of democracy has become money spinning hub and how the corporates take advantage of their investment.
So through Vijay Mallya let us further take a guided tour of parliament the temple of democracy to see how democracy works in our country. On 1st March, 2016 Vijay meets Arun Jaitley in the corridors of parliament around 3.30 & 4 pm and they talk for long. On 2nd March the next day Vijay runs away from the country in Jet Airways to London with 11 suitcases taking advantage of his special category status. Any common man would have been grilled by the investigating team if any such meeting had taken place a day before with a criminal running away from the country the next day. This is the kind of democracy we have in our country where the vigilance team do not question the politicians in power.
Let us go further into the temple. On 5th March, 2016 five days after his leaving the country 17 banks filed petition against Mallya in Supreme Court for financial fraud of Rs 9091 crore taken as loan and made great escape.
On 13th March, 2016 Hyderabad High Court issues non-bailable warrant against Mallya for cheque issued to GMR at Hyderabad International Airport bounced.
On 24th April, 2016 Ethics Committee of RS declares Mallya a fraud decides to expel Mallya from RS on 3rd May, 2016. On the night of 1st May - a day before his expulsion Hamid Ansari receives a fax from Mallya pleading innocence and tenders his resignation saying, “as Ethics Committee has decided for my expulsion and I, being one of the members of Ethics Committee, tender my resignation”. And on 3rd May Mallya is expelled from Rajya Sabha.
Country's investigative agencies like IB, CBI, Income Tax, ED etc now came out of slumber after expulsion and cancelled his passport. ED suggested and got accepted ban on Mallya's foreign travel. Mallya's arrogance was a slap on the government when he said he doesn't require a passport while smoking an expensive cigar and enjoying his walk on the street of London.
This is the picture of political democracy that we have in India. This democracy is not that democracy which was supposed to be established through Constitution as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar. The government of all times, and the present government is no exception, which always try to divide the nation to hold on to political power by any means through the route of divisive caste and religion, reservation and minority issues, mandir-masjid issue and thereby filing review petitions in Supreme Court knowing SC will not accept as per constitutional rules.
Another side of political democracy is loud bragging by our leaders and propaganda through their blind bhagats. The government proudly declared our economy is now come up to number 6. But we never talk about our rankings of BPL and hunger. 29.8% of India's 1.21 billion people live below the poverty line, which means around 360 million people currently live in poverty. India has been ranked at the 103rd position among 119 countries on the Global Hunger Index. Zero is the best score and a reading above 100 is the worst.
Our political community is so prosperous that our political leaders rank 2nd in the world in wealth and riches. The imbalance in income of around 11 crore employed in public, about 14 crore in private sectors and 45 crore in unorganized sector in comparison to the income of our political leaders is mind boggling. What our employed lot earns by 60 years of retirement age a political leader earns in 5 years.
The democracy suffers in the event of political power becoming supreme objective of the political leaders. The Constitution changes every 5 years with the arrival of new government with their manifesto as constitution.
The political leaders come to power with the sole intention to loot and amass money in first 2 years of term to recover what was spent during campaign, 3rd year of the term is spent of seeing what is to be done, big announcements are made to gain political mileage, 4th year is spent in managing the false promises, justifying U-turns, creating and offering lollipops and the 5th year is again used for planning next election.
So how to fight the situation? No bhakti and be business like. We ask for another piece if one button is missing in a shirt we choose to buy. So why can't we be so careful to choose virusless political candidate? Do we ever do our homework to assess the full background of the candidate before we decide to vote? Do we communicate with each other among us to create an atmosphere of questioning the government with reason, logic and data than condemning each other without point by point analysis? This is very much lacking among us. We are in indecent haste to condemn than argue and debate. Bhakti is blind towards intelligent voice of dissent. This makes the government complacent. So it is the time to create and share our own narrative in our areas and localities so as to encourage communication. We must have the courage to say the politicians visiting our locality BEWARE - POLITICIANS AND WASTRELS NOT ALLOWED.
Assume the status of a Sphinx to allow entry of a politician in your locality after your questions are answered - SATISFACTORILY.
Are you in the position to do that?????
But I am. I do.
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