Anti-corruption – whose movement is it anyway ?

At the height of the anti-corruption movement during 2011, there were at least some commentators in the media who, apart from expressing serious doubts about the form of the movement and the remedy it suggested to curb corruption (in the form of an all-powerful, extra-governmental institution like Lokpal) also questioned the relevance of the movement to the toiling masses who form the majority of the electorate. The essence of the latter part of the argument was that while it was undeniable that the people at the lower economic rungs of the society pay a disproportionately large price for getting any service from the government machinery that was rightfully theirs, in their cruel daily grind to somehow survive (if necessary by paying a little bribe or speed money) they could not possibly accord a large priority to a high-minded protest agitation to eliminate corruption in the entire government machinery or the establishment, an impractical and utopian goal. A suggestion that the movement was elitist was probably implied.

The jury is still out as to the positive and definitive effect of the current mood of intolerance about corruption in the national capital, big cities and urban centers, among the educated, the intelligentsia, media and specifically that of the Anna Hazare led movement on the electoral outcomes in the assembly elections held since 2011. The results as always in the recent years had been dramatic in terms of biting the dust by the incumbent governments, but it might be disappointing to look for a clear indication of a countrywide uniform anti-corruption mood tilting the electoral choices. Although DMK’s decimation in Tamil Nadu may be ascribed to an extent to the culpability of A Raza (and others in the party) in the 2G scam having occupied both the national center stage and in the state adding to the general perception of DMK as a party full of corrupt politicians, it may not be fair to single out this cause for their fall, especially as governance wise DMK did reasonably well during their tenure. In Tamil Nadu emotive issues like the atrocities against the Sri Lankan Tamils and the perfection of the alliance arithmetic by Jayalalitha might have played equally or more important role. In Goa, a much smaller state, with a more focused political issue around a huge mining scam under the Digambar Kamat government, one might be more justified to flag the corruption as a major issue.

In UP and earlier in West Bengal the issue of regime change was probably the central one. Though the recognized left leadership in West Bengal may have been largely untouched by personal corruption it can not be anybody’s case that the left rule, especially during its last one or two stints had not spawned corrupt local satraps at the district and the block levels. The public anger at Lalgarh in demolishing the CPM’s party office and the opulent residence of the local party leader bore testimony to the popular disgust at their disproportionate wealth while the people they were supposed to serve were utterly impoverished. Still what was at stake in West Bengal in May 2011 was the possibility of ending a long-standing left rule in the state, ushering in what was euphemistically called ‘Poribartan’ (the change). Similarly, notwithstanding the latest indictment of several ministers in her government under corruption charges including Babu Singh Khuswaha earlier in the health mission scam, corruption in Mayawati led BSP government during its five year rule from 2007 was not the dominant issue in the 2012 UP assembly election nor the reason for her downfall.

Congress may be claiming that the spectacular downturn for the BJP in the recent Karnataka election is a vote against a corrupt government run in major part by Yeddyurappa whom the state Lokayukta indicted and the scams and loot, at the state’s connivance, by the mining lobby led by the Reddy brothers. But if corruption happened to be at the top of their mind the Karnataka electorate certainly could not have ignored the humongous record of financial scams and corruption notched by the Congress led UPA-2 government at the Center for the past four years. The election results do not seem to demonstrate such evenhandedness. Similarly, a little earlier, Virbhadra Singh who had to resign (or persuaded to do so by the Congress party) as a minister from the union cabinet under mounting corruption charges against him in his native Himachal Pradesh led, contrary to expectations in some quarters, the Congress party to victory in the state assembly election late last year and triumphantly became the chief minister yet again.

Thus the recent election results do not appear to provide any evidence of the heightened intolerance of the mass of Indian electorate (at least those who actively participate in the elections) about corruption as a priority issue. The commonplace and the cynical view is that for the broad electorate the caste or the religious identity (associated with the magnified assertion of a group’s self-worth, ‘asmita’ or pride), prospects of self-preservation (including physical safety in the face of hostile groups and communities, economic interests but not leaving out preservation of specific socio-cultural practices), and election-time monetary and other largess matter more. Chetan Bhagat in a recent OP-ED article in Times of India (18 May 2013) mentioned these issues as ones possibly overriding the concern of the Indian electorate regarding corruption.

Bhagat in his article suggested (without exploring it beyond it) an interesting angle to view this apparent disconnect between the progressive aspirations of the educated, enlightened, upwardly mobile middle classes and the stodgy and sheepish acquiescence of those occupying the lower depths to the corruption in high places. Ironically, according to him, this may be characterized as a sort of indirect revenge of the masses of the downtrodden on those miniscule sections of the Indian society who have always moved way ahead of them in terms of material prosperity. If anything the liberalization process underway over the last two decades has accentuated this inequity. Wages for the progress and the privileges cornered by these classes due to advantages of birth, education, rich inheritance, networking of classes or groups of higher economic and social standing, are being paid today to the less fortunate Indians for whom a morally spic and span society is possibly less of a priority than an equitable one. That is why they would elect a candidate promising them caste reservation in education and employment (hence making possible an improvement in their economic upliftment) or protection of minority religious rights (often an existential concern for many) despite allegations of financial corruption or criminal charges against him or her.

Ashis Nandy’s somewhat outlandish comments during a seminar within Jaipur literature festival earlier this year highlighted this same dichotomy. This school of thought shared by sections of the avant-garde Indian elite seems to believe that the increase in corruption indulged by the so-called ‘backward’ classes (SC/ST/dalit etc) is to be justified as a historical readjustment wherein the normatively ‘oppressed’ classes are finding ways to turn the tables on their erstwhile oppressors by learning and becoming more adept at the same game of corruption. It follows therefore, derived from this view point, that a principled opposition against corruption by the rich and powerful, especially those involved in the political governance of this country, is not only a distraction, but may eventually prove to be a stumbling block for the natural readjustment that the vigorous capitalism freshly unleashed by recent policies of liberalization. Dalit capitalism, according to these thinkers, is the way forward for ending the caste apartheid in India. And who does not know a little primitive accumulation of capital would serve this cause very well. One need not be squeamish about corruption if it helps this process.

Rise of the middle India (...contd.)

The importance of the growing middle class both as a beneficiary and therefore as the intellectual champion of the robust growth of the pro-market economy under the post 1991 liberalized regime has always been recognized and was welcomed by ruling parties and their backers both in India and abroad. But this was a conveniently wishful view of the role of an emergent constituent of the Indian polity, the youthful face of our democracy. The latter was testified not only by the progressively dipping average age of the people but by the rapidly increasing number of young electorates exercising their franchise during 2009 parliament election and many of the assembly elections thereafter. The influence of these young (many first time) voters in helping other disenchanted sections to seal the fate of the incumbent left front government in West Bengal during May 2011 election has been noted in published statistical analysis.

It has been an euphemism resorted to by most established political parties that these youthful voters everywhere voted for ‘change’ and ‘development’. It is conveniently forgotten that under the glow of the same youthful idealism (innocence if you like) they also expected the operation of the rule of law, an in-your-face honesty both in political and non-political spheres of our social life. They did not expect to see scandals and financial scams tumbling out every other day from within the immaculate corridors of power. They also expected an end to the endemic small micro-level corruption at almost every interface of the public with the government. Anti-corruption movement in 2011 thus found a ready constituency in the educated middle class, students, young professionals, entrepreneurs, etc. It gradually dawned on the ruling classes, going by the turn out in Anna’s meetings at Delhi and in rallies taken out on his call on the streets of metro and other smaller cities, the Indian middle classes mattered no longer just as consumers of pricey, sleek goodies in the malls. That enlightened public opinion against corruption started to matter in the election was writ large on the defeats of the congress party in Goa and the congress supported DMK in Tamil Nadu assembly elections earlier last year.

Apart from the electronic media in this anti-corruption crusade, the emerging technology of the social media and electronic networking was lapped up by the young middle class India and used, probably as never before in a totally public cause, to inform, interact, agitate and mobilize the minds of such a large number of people with relative ease, eloquence and speed that the cacophony in the cyberspace almost resembled and paralleled the slogan-shouting and roaring crowd in the Ram Lila Maidan in Delhi. New means to go with a new movement for achieving a cleaner, more transparent and accountable democratic functioning of the government. Indian middle class thus has acquired a public-spirited voice and a means to make itself heard and be counted. Even numerically it is no longer a push over.     

The unspeakably brutal assault on a young girl (leading to her eventual death) on a cold December night in Delhi was probably like the straw on the camel’s back. Delhi residents, women, young and old, needed no more persuation to say ‘enough’ and hit the streets. Hundreds of young women and yes, young men as well, students from universities, colleges, even school children, women activists, older citizens, congregated from daybreak till night every day at India Gate and an impromptu tableau of collective grief, anguish and anger swelled and brimmed over the majestic path more used to a staged annual display of state power and a cavalcade of phony inclusiveness. Except on that appointed date and time the government found it difficult to be seen to go to the India Gate, and meet the citizens to assuage their grief, to find words of assurance that it understood the real meaning of their ‘we want justice’ outcry which would have carried conviction to the protesters. It was not easy bridging the gulf of trust deficit built up over years of misgovernance and inaction against the gangrenous organs of the state machinery, which has cumulatively over a long period of time created this atmosphere of impunity in which the criminals and their apprentices seem to feel at home and be emboldened.

 

In time all roads to the India Gate were sanitized with canisters of gas and cannons full of water, some young skulls broken in ‘unfortunate’ collateral damages.  But the sound of their footfalls on the empty streets may yet start to sound menacing like Banquo’s visitations in the strategy and plan meetings within stony august buildings reminiscent of raj.

Movement for ensuring dignity and justice for women last year as much as the anti-corruption movement a year ago might be signs of the rising middle India. All power to them.

(concluded)

The new Indian ‘animal spirit’

As a part of his opening remarks made by the prime minister at the interaction with selected newspaper editor on June 29, 2011 he said :

“… frankly speaking in our country this constant sniping between government and opposition or if an atmosphere of cynicism is created all round I think the growth impulses, the entrepreneurial impulses of our people will not flourish and that is what worries me. We must do all that we can to revive the animal spirits of our businesses (our emphasis)”.

What the PM implied was that he was worried that the animal spirit of entrepreneurship of Indians unleashed by him in 1991 might get bottled up in the wake of the corruption controversies, media’s zeal to unearth more scams within government, industry (including proponents and beneficiaries of what has come to be known as crony capitalism), bureaucracy and of course the politicians. Clearly he did not think what he minimally described as “businessmen cutting corners” anything more serious than a weakness in our regulatory system. For him fixing loopholes in the regulatory system is all that is required to address and remedy the clear wrongdoings by parts of bureaucracy, politicians and the beneficiaries in the industry which were pointed out by the CAG, a constitutional body, essentially part of the government. For him too much criticism of the ‘elected government’ would make the bureaucracy hamstrung and lead to impeding or curtailing of the liberalizing economic reforms, affecting the enthusiasm of the entrepreneurs, industry captains and investors. Reviving this ‘animal spirits’, for him, was, has been and is a priority rather than chasing issues of corruption, ‘cutting corners’ by the spirited animals of a new India. 

It may be true that this animal spirit that has helped to drive India’s GDP growth over better part of the last two decades and provided the new-found confidence of Indians in industry, business (especially service sector) and in advertisement, entertainment, fashion and sports. However, one suspects the misplaced spiritedness also having had a hand in the rising rowdiness/arrogance of a certain section of the population highlighted by increasing number of cases of road rage and drunken driving (leading to death and disability to pavement dwellers), kidnapping for ransom, rape, acid attack and other kinds of violence against women, and finally murder for flimsy reasons. The final denouement in the Aravind Adiga novel ‘Last man in tower’ about unsheathed greed goading ordinary people to enact a chilling Macbeth like scenario does not probably appear too contrived in the backdrop of swelling testosterone of animal spirits in a new and almost unfamiliar India.

Though road rage per se is not a cognizable offence under Indian penal code (though often leading to severe assault and death which then becomes one), nor even recorded as a traffic violation, it is probably a very sensitive barometer relating gratuitous violence to apparent economic propsperity (at least to some sections of the population). Roughly 10 million cars, buses, trucks, scooters and motorbikes crowd New Delhi's roads every day, causing long traffic jams and frayed tempers. The city's roads have not kept up with the growth in traffic. While the number of vehicles has grown by over 200 percent over the past two decades, the number of kilometers of road has grown only about 15 percent, as per the transport department. People are on the road for a longer period, and everyone has become impatient. The result is a situation in which even a small verbal confrontation might soon escalate to a physical fight. Vehicles especially new spanky cars, being often a powerful symbol of a newly acquired wealth of a person, if someone on the road even inadvertently scrapes it and leaves a scratch this may feel like an assault on a person's status which is considered unacceptable and a fight ensues. [The above statistics and conditions on the Delhi roads adapted from a write up entitled “Road rage in India growing along with economy” (NDTV.COM ,December 28, 2010)]

There are enough statistics to nail the myth of the benefit of economic growth percolating to poor doing the rounds of government departments, planning commission and their appologists in the press and television. Assuming, however, it is only percolating and not exactly flooding the BPL India with food and fuel, the penetration of the TV and particularly mobile phones, on the other hand, among the Indians in the far corners of the country has been much more noteworthy. Unwittingly for the ruling classes, while these new communication media whetted the economic and social aspirations in the rural hinterland it had also brought home to them the undeniable inequality among ‘us’ and ‘them’ and the growing disparity of incomes. Nor has the growth of employment over these two decades of liberalized economy regime been anything but tardy despite the prime minister’s protestations and promise. Incidences of scams, swindling by the crony capitalists, on the other hand, grew. There has been, in recent years, a rise in the death of whistleblowers, RTI activists (anybody who resists/question cronies and criminals who usurp the spoils of the so-called liberalized economy). And of course the statistics on drunken driving, road rage, rape, kidnapping and murder show an upswing. Whether or not the famed ‘animal spirit’ of the Indian entrepreneurs is in evidence or not the animals in India, including the WHITE TIGERS, are growling. Be advised.

Angst of Bharat in India

Despite outlawing of the prenatal sex-selection tests and voiceferous campaigns by the liberal and the enlightened, the son fetish among the Indian families dies hard. This is a part of the mindset consciously propagated through usual utterances within families (and sometimes publicly) as a piece of conventional (therefore automatically valid) wisdom, and sometimes more insidiously inculcated via suggestions, idioms, mythological stories, legends culled from family, village, ethnic wellspring during childhood and even later, from mothers to children, especially, daughters. The confounding thing (for the social scientists and probably for everybody else who have to deal with the fall out of this home brewed poison) is that despite the wave of modernization, liberalization and even globalization sweeping India this preference is not on the way out. The growing skewed female-to-male ratio in most of the major Indian states is a grim indicator of this trend.

The pervasive son fetish of the Indian families does two things at one stroke. Firstly, discrimination against the girl child is almost hardwired into the family’s evolutionary gene, perpetuating an institutionalized differentiation between the son and the daughter; the practical steps deciding allocation on food, nutrition, medical attention and education then follow. Even in more well off urban and modern families where such brutal daily discrimination is not evident it exists in subtle forms. This also includes the discrimination about norms of good behaviour – girl-like for some or as befitting a boy for others.

Secondly, the girl child, whenever present on the scene, being neither in the scheme of things temporal like property ownership (this has now been somewhat rectified legally) or maintaining family line, nor eligible to perform exit rites for the parents’ other wordly peregrination, becomes like a temporary deposit (the exact synonym for the Hindi word ‘Amanat’ which is how she is conceived in the family and described in common parlance) only to be handed over in marriage to the son and heir to another suitable family in future, sooner rather than later. Till that time the girl has to be raised in due tradition, taught the patriarchal values, often symbolically deified and most importantly, her honour (narrowly conceived as her sexual virginity) is to be protected from being sullied.

Interestingly the burden of protectionism with all its trappings falls to the lot of the girl. There are edicts, explicit and implicit in every Indian family with obvious social sanction, as to what would be the appropriate dress for her, where all she can go, whom she could move with, how she should conduct herself and speak in public, etc. The geometrical space the traverse of so many ‘laksman rekha’s would create, one would imagine, leave very little room for breathing let alone freedom for the ‘precious’ girl child guaranteed by the Indian constitution to everybody including the boys from the same family who suffer little impediment In the end this prescription of gender-appropriate behaviour seems like a big charade whereby even the family and the society (and that includes policemen, everybody knows which society they come from, can one blame them ?) are surreptitiously passing the responsibility of security and protection of the girl to herself, making it conditional to her abiding by the arbitrary and unfair barriers to the exercise of her freedom.

Since the wind of liberalization and attempted globalization of Indian economy started blowing a couple of decades ago the mindset in respect of girls have come under a challenge because of the obvious mobility of both boys and girls from traditional families from villages, semi-rural areas, small towns to metropolitan cities in response to the inescapable urge for economic benefits and aspiration to make it big in the cities. It is becoming practically difficult to manage to keep the girls, who are also earning good incomes and often standing the families in good stead as much as or sometimes better than the boys, within those rekhas in urban centers, offices, public spaces, streets swarming with other fortune seekers and predators imbibing the ‘animal spirit’ of a nation obsessed with economic growth. 

A ghastly rape of such a role model of a girl of new India in a metro city has made the bulwarks of patriarchy, heads of cultural and religious organizations, god-men (whatever that may mean) and last but not the least the politicians cringe more about this loss of control, about becoming irrelevant and prompted them to make such openly ridiculous statements that even many of their followers and supporters feel ashamed about.