[Assam] Tavleen Singh /from the Sentinel

[Chan Mahanta]

>Democracy is not an aim in itself, it is a means. The aim is 
>electing governments that work.

*** Where did we hear this before?

*** Yours truly made exactly some of the same arguments years back, 
right here in Assamnet. Perhaps Shourie has been listening :-)!


cm

Highlights mine.











Change the System
ON THE SPOT
Tavleen Singh
On a rainy evening in Mumbai last week, I attended the Business 
Standard newspaper's annual awards ceremony for the best in Indian 
business. Whenever I am invited to events that celebrate the 
successes of private enterprise in India, I make it a point to go 
because it is here that you see how much India has changed and meet 
the men responsible for India growing at such an impressive clip, 
that after China we are today the fastest growing economy in the 
world. As someone who grew up in the days when India was a socialist 
basket case and our economic policies seemed designed to distribute 
poverty among ordinary Indians, while making politicians and 
bureaucrats rich, it gladdens my heart to see the might of Indian 
business today. Keep in mind that these are the same men who in 
socialist times would be fined if they produced more than their quota 
of scooters or light bulbs or whatever. They have not just survived 
those times but come a long way since, and they deserve all the 
appreciation they get.
The chief guest at this year's ceremony was the head of the Planning 
Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and after beginning with the 
optimistic statement that the ''economy is in very good shape'' he 
pointed out that there are still major weaknesses that could become a 
huge problem if not dealt with urgently. Agriculture is in the 
doldrums, and health and education are areas in which there are 
serious problems that cannot be overcome with public funding alone. 
If these problems persist then there will remain a huge section of 
Indians who will not have benefited at all from high economic growth 
rates.
The next morning as I took my morning walk from Nariman Point to the 
Oval Maidan, I saw the reality of what he meant on every pavement I 
passed. It had rained at night so the streets were wet and slushy, 
but those who live on Mumbai's pavements slept without covering on 
soggy, cardboard mattresses made of Aquafina packing cases. A gaggle 
of small children had crept on to an ice cream trolley and sheltered 
from the rain under its meagre roof. Raju from Patna had just arrived 
in the city and slept on the pavement opposite the glittering glass 
facade of the CR2 shopping mall. He looked worn-out and scared, and 
seemed not to know what to do or where to go. These are ordinary, 
everyday stories of Indians who have not got close to benefiting from 
economic growth, and my personal view is that the reason why we have 
failed to provide the average Indian with his most basic needs is 
because the political system has failed us.
This is what makes Arun Shourie's new book The Parliamentary System 
timely and important. Having been a member of the Rajya Sabha and a 
Cabinet minister in Atal Behari Vajpayee's government, Shourie has 
seen the rot from the inside and provided us with a devastating 
critique of Indian democracy and solutions we need to think seriously 
about. Shourie recommends that we consider the possibilities of a 
Presidential system who has a fixed term and the right to contest 
only two terms. A directly elected leader, instead of one chosen by 
the party with the largest number of seats in the Lok Sabha, makes 
him more accountable to the people.
It would make good governance more attainable because a directly 
elected President would be able to appoint people in his Cabinet who 
would not necessarily be elected representatives of the people. In 
the present system we set huge store by Parliament being sovereign 
because it represents the will of the people of India, but Shourie 
points out that this is a chimera. ''In a word, 99 per cent of the 
members got into the Lok Sabha by getting less than half the electors 
to vote for them. Almost 60 per cent got in with the endorsement of 
less than 30 per cent of electors in their constituencies. Even if we 
consider only the electors who actually turned out to vote, 60 per 
cent of the members got in on a minority vote. The 
unrepresentativeness of governments and legislators in the states is 
even greater.''
To find out how this happens, read the book. Democracy is not an aim 
in itself, it is a means. The aim is electing governments that work. 
This is no longer happening in India for various reasons of which the 
most important is that the wrong kind of people are getting elected. 
Criminals, heirs and semiliterate peasants are hardly the stuff of 
good governance or lawmaking, and we are unfortunately getting more 
and more of this kind of politician.
If things are bad at the Central Government level, they are much, 
much worse at the State level, and the result is lawlessness and 
dangerous decay of the authority of the State concerned. In his book, 
Shourie quotes a report by a former Director General of the BSF 
(Border Security Force) that says this: "At least eight districts in 
eastern UP and four contiguous districts of Bihar are today 
completely under the grip of the mafia. The rule of law exists only 
on paper. District magistrates and superintendents of police kowtow 
before the mafia dons and take orders from them on critical matters.''
Time to find a new system or what?
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