Stooping for power & glory

At the commencement of the 16th century, people of Goa were burning with rage witnessing hitherto never seen avarice and desire amongst the ruling classes. Fonseca in his 'Historical Sketch of Goa' states “society was almost rotten to the core, nor was the public administration less tainted. The civic virtues were supplanted by corruption and venality, justice was bought, public offices were put up for sale, and the martial spirit degenerated into effeminacy, sloth and indolence, as in the last days of the Roman Empire.”

Does one see a replay of the same now ?

When media aired Revanth Reddy's episode no one was stunned, perhaps, except for his own party men. Because it has become common now-a-days,for the people of high stations, occupying positions of great trust, getting involved in accepting illegal gratuity or offer the same for any banal purpose. The reason for this indifference could be because we have seen several of such persona celebrating their guilt brazenly in the recent times, while walking in and out of jails, having played stellar roles in displaying their lust for wealth.

All those scams and the politicians involved in them don't seem to the ashamed of it either, as they have their rivals to conveniently blame. But, after the recent case of Jayalalithaa, the scepticism has only increased among the people that those in positions of power would get away except in a miniscule of cases. These episodes –including the present one – make us wonder whether we require the philosophical mind of John Stuart Mill or the legal acumen of Lord Halsbury to define or discriminate where public obligation ceases and private interest might legitimately be pursued.

It is not just in these select cases, but whenever a highly publicised one involving celebrities and politicians comes up, commoners keep wondering thus. Revanth Reddy or his party leaders are not alone in their achievements. Their counterparts exist in the TRS, the YSRCP and all those parties that we come across these days. As J R B Jeejebhoy while recording studiously the historical account of bribery and corruption in Bombay among the high and mighty, in the early 50s, felt “such deviations from rectitude are beyond the action of legal remedy owing to the consequential influence, resourcefulness and the rank and magnitude of the highly posted delinquents.”

Jeejebhoy then wondered thus "by the law of hydrostatistics bodies are prevented from sinking beyond a certain depth, but in the ocean of bribery and corruption the deeper one gets, the easier the sinking, the more gratifying the sensation. When the fire of greed once kindles within the human heart, the blush of virtue fades before its glare and the lust for money fans the infernal conflagration. The Goddess of Avarice is eternally thirsty.” Do we differ with him? After all, more than 2000 years ago Ovid wrote “bribes buy both gods and men” and the same maxim was supported centuries later by Sir Robert Walpole when he said "all those men have their price.”

His Prime Ministership was remarkable in many ways and Charles Oman writing about him said "he was always prepared to buy any member or group of members by open bribery, and the taint of corruption dating from the times of Charles II was still so strong in English politics that he seldom failed to secure the prize.” Even George Washington, the apostle of Truth, believed that "few men have virtues to withstand the highest bidder.” Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of India, once made up his mind to buy up the three members of his Council, with whom he had constant squabbles, for Rs10 lakh apiece.

If today's Chief Ministers of the two Telugu States believe so, they certainly are not setting any precedent. They could be, if any, accused of keeping up the hoary traditions of the past political masters. That's about the conduct. Rather, about the misconduct of the rulers. Will such derelictions and deviations be punished by the God of Justice? Take for example the case of former Union Minister P Chidambaram and also that of the present External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. Both have been facing cases over the legality of their elections on grounds of corrupt electoral practices since 2009.

In fact, the Supreme Court has recently ruled that it could not fast-track criminal cases against MPs and Ministers alone as it creates a distinct category compared to other pending criminal cases. What happens then to the cases filed against the politicians? Some politicians like Kanimozhi, A Raja, Lalu, Y S Jaganmohan Reddy have already been to jail and have been enlarged on bail. How long do the cases take and whether justice would be done is an unknown factor. There are near about 275 vacant judicial positions in 24 HCs in the country. The lower judiciary witnesses 4,300 vacancies of judges, statistics tell us.

The data further states that up to 2013, 44.5 lakh cases are pending in the courts. While 34 lakhs of these are civil cases, more than 10 lakh are criminal ones. Allahabad High Court had maximum pendency of civil and criminal cases of about 10. 5 lakh cases. The minimum was in Sikkim with just 120 cases. The statistics compiled by the Association of Democratic Reforms show us that nearly one-third of the politicians have criminal cases pending against them. Their last study shows us that in all 186 of our law makers are facing cases compared to the 158 in 2009.

The party-wise break-up given by the organisation shows us that 98 of the elected MPs are from the BJP, eight are from the Congress (out of 44), six from the AIADMK (out of 37), 15 out of 18 of Shiv Sena and seven out of 34 from the Trinamool Congress. The irony is that 66 per cent of those accused are acquitted due to lack of evidence !. Well, all that remains is the crime. Even in Salman Khan case, if tomorrow he is acquitted and given a clean chit, it is only the victims and the crime that remain. That is it.

There is a Confucius maxim that says "More men stumble over mole-hills than over mountains. We talk about smart cities and developed societies. Ever talk about a smart and developed judicial system? Swachh Bharat will not be possible unless the judiciary is strengthened because, there is no dearth of politicians dirtying the country. "We need to build a consensus on how to prevent individuals with a criminal record from contesting elections." These pearls of wisdom belonged to Sonia Gandhi when her government was in power.

By some calculations, politicians with a criminal record are more likely to be elected than those with a clean slate - because, says the ADR, they have more illicit funds with which to buy votes. Sometime back a BBC report recorded "the world's largest democracy is not alone in allowing so many questionable people to run it. Fellow BRICS member Brazil has similar numbers of alleged criminals running the country. The difference though is that in Brazil, brazen political abuses have provoked major protest.”

In an interview to it, MP Baijayant Panda said "this is a phase all democracies have gone through - look at the US. Voters will start to demand change. This is the last era of brazenness.” ‘India Against Corruption’ movement catapulted Aam Aadmi Party to power in Delhi and yet there is no proof that corruption is wiped out. As Panda hoped could this be the last era of brazenness and, if so, how long does it last?