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POLITICALLY
CORRECT
Order In The House
Setting fixed terms for our leaders could get
us out of the chaos of bad governance
By
P. Chidambaram
 Of
the three branches of the State, the judiciary alone is a closed shop.
Only law graduates can become lawyers and only lawyers can become judges.
The executive and the legislative branches are very different in this
respect. Anyone can become a legislator, as long as he or she is 25 years
of age and is registered as a voter. Anyone? Yes, anyone, and if you open
your eyes wide and look around the truth will hit you like a sledgehammer.
History-sheeters, accused, undertrials, convicted persons and even prisoners
can-and have-become legislators and parliamentarians. Not by sleight of
hand or cheating the law, but by romping home at elections. So much for
our parties' commitment to clean politics.
 Anyone
can become a minister too. The executive branch boasts of ministers who
are well-known mafia dons and murderers. At the lower levels of the executive-corporations,
municipalities and panchayat samitis-anyone can become chairperson. In
Porbandar, Mahatma Gandhi's birthplace, a woman mafia don ran the municipality
for many years. Mercifully, in a few cases, the President and state governors
have required convicted persons to resign from the council of ministers.
Indian democracy
is celebrating our diversity. Our diversity embraces not only our races,
religions, languages and castes, but also our morals or lack of them.
The absence of guiding principles and values is the bane of India's political
parties. And because most parties have abandoned all defining principles,
there is a mushrooming of parties revolving around one religion or caste
or sub-caste.
Every caste
group is straining at the leash to become a political party. In the past
two months alone, at least three political parties were "born"
in Tamil Nadu, each centred on one caste. Indian politics is now a prisoner
of caste. In most states, political parties are genuflecting before caste-based
parties. Next only to Bihar, and perhaps Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu is
the playground for caste groups. This, in the land of Periyar, Kamaraj
and Anna.
Another
sorry consequence of the devaluation of politics is the person-centric
party. The party is cast, or recast, in the image of the leader. Often,
the leader includes his family. There are only three political parties
which are exceptions to this rule: CPI, CPI(M) and the BJP (of today).
Historically, the Congress had set the benchmarks for inner party democracy,
but in recent years it has chosen to follow the rule rather than be an
exception. The DMK, AIADMK, PMK, and MDMK in Tamil Nadu are person, or
family-controlled parties. So are the Shiv Sena, TDP, Trinamool Congress,
Samajwadi Party, RJD, AGP and HVP.
Given this
depressing state, how can we expect effective governance? Governance is
hostage to the caprice of caste leaders masquerading as leaders of political
parties. Like in any endogamous tribe, the basic instincts of these parties
are the preservation of the leader, the perpetuation of his control over
the party and the advancement of the caste which provides the core support
for the party.
Parliamentary
democracy based on single-member territorial constituencies has strengthened
these retrograde trends. A caste leader needs only to choose a "safe"
constituency populated by members of his caste and also get a good number
of his candidates elected from safe caste backyards. This will give him
enough bargaining power in any dispensation. Slowly, he will manoeuvre
to enlarge his party's political space through alliances or seat adjustments.
His party may even win a few berths in the Central or state government.
Witness the phenomenal rise of the Vanniyar-dominated PMK or the Yadav-dominated
Samajwadi Party.
If there
is still some measure of governance, and if there is some hope for reform,
no thanks are due to our political parties. It is because we have the
rule of law and because we have, from time to time, a few committed individuals
among ministers and civil servants who know how to work the system and
get things done. This, however, is a perilous course for a billion-strong
nation. We cannot allow good economics to remain hostage to bad politics.
Is there
a way out? Parliamentary democracy is too entrenched in India, and cannot
be altered easily. In fact, there is no need to alter democracy's basic
structure. Let single-member territorial constituencies continue to elect
members to the legislatures and Parliament. But we should consider the
idea of electing the chief ministers and the prime minister for a fixed
term, in a one-person-one-vote direct election. Let the chief ministers
and the prime minister choose one half of their ministers from members
of the legislatures or Parliament and the other half from outside. To
prevent dictatorial tendencies, let us throw in a two-term limit for the
chief minister and prime minister.
I know I
am thinking out of the box. That is because my prime concern is how to
rescue governance from the chaos created by our political parties.
(The author is a former Indian finance minister and
a TMC leader)
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The
Government should encash at least a part of its stake in LIC and GIC before
its too late, suggests INDIA TODAY associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar
in 
