Daily Fix
Honour Among Thieves
T. SHER SINGH
The following story is an easy one to understand. It is not complicated. It is not disputed. It is well documented.
However, what I have a lot of difficulty in comprehending is: How can it happen? How does it happen? Why?
Today? In the 21st Century? Under the name of ‘democracy’?
Here are the facts:
A majority of the members of parliament, both federal and provincial, representing every political party in India, are criminals. Yes, many actually have criminal records. Some of them, of multiple offences.
Including members and decision makers and power-brokers and power-wielders of the ruling parties. That is, those governing the country and each state and region.
Including cabinet ministers. Even some premiers.
The circle widens to the point that it covers almost the whole bunch of politicos in the country, if you look beyond actual convictions, and include those charged, and/or awaiting trial and other judicial proceedings.
And those who are publicly accused of serious crimes, with clear and unequivocal evidence to support the allegations, but have managed to always stay a step or two ahead of the law because they have the right connections in the corridors of power -- OR, they themselves are already firmly ensconced in the corridors of power.
In the Lok Sabha -- India’s ‘House of Commons’ in New Delhi -- the ‘Times of India’ reports that “as many as 163 Members of Parliament … nearly a third of the total strength -- face criminal charges, though none have been convicted.”
My concern is not over petty crimes. Or what many may shrug off -- not that I agree with their dismissal -- as ‘white-collar’ crimes. I am talking about really serious stuff: evidence of robbery (especially armed), rape, torture, kidnapping, murder. If you add mass-murder and genocide, it still won’t raise an eye-brow.
In many cases, the allegations -- the serious ones, backed by impeccable documentation and credible witnesses -- never get a public airing. The government, the bureaucrats, the police, all co-operate in shielding the criminals as long as they, the latter, are in a position to call the shots. Or pay, in some form or the other, for the privilege of being treated ABOVE the law.
The situation has steadily deteriorated since the creation of India 66 years ago … today, it is worse than ever before.
And soon, the country will be embroiled in a national election which will help choose the new rulers of country … between two groups of politicians, both of which have been involved in the mass-murders and genocide of tens of thousands of innocent citizens -- men, women and children -- in recent years alone.
With this as a general background, the news earlier this month, prima facie, sounded nothing short of a miracle: the Supreme Court of India had issued a judgement in a case “mandating the immediate disqualification of lawmakers convicted for a criminal offence punishable with a jail term of more than two years.”
H-mm-mm-n. Thank God for little mercies.
It’s a good start, though it doesn’t go very far, does it?
So, you can be under-trial for multiple murders and yet have the power to change the law in your favour?
And criminals who have finagled jail-terms of less than two years can remain, or become, lawmakers?
Hey, I agree. Let’s not get finicky.
Yes, it’s a good start. Sure, the Court is stating only the obvious -- surely, the law couldn’t possibly have permitted until now what it is purporting to abolish today! -- but still, it’s moving in the right direction. It’s a beginning … baby steps, and all that.
Some of us had barely uncorked a bottle of fizzy mango juice to celebrate, when the bombshell dropped.
India’s federal government cabinet has hurriedly enacted in the past week what they, the Indians, call an ’ordinance” -- a law, that is -- which will, essentially over-ride the Supreme Court of India, the highest law of the land, by introducing little twists and loopholes so as to tie up the implementation of the Court’s directive. In effect, the Supreme Court's ruling will change nothing.
The Court had ruled, declaring: you lawmakers shouldn’t and can’t go on like this.
So, how do the lawmakers respond? By changing the law!
It gets even more interesting.
Other than the obligatory humming and haa-ing that goes on all the time in pre-election politics, none of the opposition parties are taking up the matter by saying, "Hey, wait a minute! Is this kosher?" Instead, the ‘ordinance’ is being rushed through with unseemly haste … strangely, with the co-operation of the BJP and the others.
Surprised?
If the law as stated by the Supreme Court of India is allowed to take its course, and given the teeth it deserves, then each political party will have to let go many of its key members … nay, key leaders! How can they possibly let it happen?
Just you watch! The Court judgement will get all tied up in knots before you even light a single diva for Diwali! There’ll be committees struck and analyses by pundits galore, then endless court-challenges -- that’ll take care of things for a few years, at least.
It’s already happening.
The Congress party is going through the motions of a semblance of a debate, projecting a possible difference of opinion on the issue between some of its higher-ups. The opposition parties, including the BJP, are clucking away over calculated inanities.
It’s called ‘honour among thieves’.
They are thieves, all, having stolen from the lives of the country’s citizens and from the coffers of the land. But they do have honour. Thieves’ honour. And they show it unabashedly in making sure they protect each other.
This is one reason why it has become necessary for some activists to start court proceedings in other lands -- such as the United States, for example. What other choice do they have?
And dutifully, apologists for every political party in India are protesting this ‘brazen’ behaviour of ‘extremists’ living ‘abroad’ who have the audacity to question the ‘integrity of India’s leaders’. Yes, all the parties have joined the chorus.
Are you surprised? After all, it does throw a small wrench into their works!
But, in the meantime, back in India, it's the same old, same old …
September 30, 2013
Conversation about this article
1: Baljit Singh Pelia (Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.), September 30, 2013, 11:52 AM.
Thieves will thrive so long as the masses turn a blind eye to their stealing their rights, prosperity and aspirations. But, what if the masses are blind in both their eyes? Blinded in one eye by a paganistic, idol-worshipping religion and in the other eye by the blinding flash of acquisition of material wealth by dubious means, instead of earning it.
2: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), September 30, 2013, 4:46 PM.
Each time I visit India, again and again I'm reminded by someone that in that land there is No Religion, No God, No Morality, No Ethics and No Shame! ... Lying, cheating and stealing alongside violence are the rule rather than the exception here! Here lies each and every problem you could ever wish a society not to have!
3: Raj (Canada), September 30, 2013, 10:18 PM.
Just in: Indian politician Lalu Yadav was just convicted in 6.6 billion rupees fraud in fodder scheme for poultry. "Fodder scheme for poultry?", yes it is. In India poultry eats fodder. Indian politician Sukhbir Badal claims to be the richest Punjabi ever. Need any more evidence?
4: Ajay Singh (Rockville, Maryland, USA), October 01, 2013, 7:53 AM.
I was ready to accuse Sardar Sahib of naivete but decided to read the whole article before rushing to judgment. Small steps indeed!
5: H. Kaur (Canada), October 02, 2013, 5:57 AM.
I read an article that appeared last week on BBC about a third of Indian politicians being charged with crimes. The article also said Brazil is another place where a lot of criminals run the place. However, it pointed out that in Brazil there are massive protests against the government when members do illicit stuff while in India the masses don't protest but just accept it. Apparently, it was acknowledged it is actually easier for criminals to run politically for they have more money to bribe people to vote for them. Someone who was interviewed, a politician, basically said criminals running the country is a natural stage that democracies pass through and pointed to America as an example of that. Great attempt to try to get people to stop even thinking it is wrong for so many criminals to be running the show.
6: Kanwarjeet Singh (USA), October 03, 2013, 1:29 AM.
There is water in their veins, not blood. It took a tenth of this kin of misery to have a revolution in France (or even USA / Iran / Russia); but not in India. It has been 3000 years but the only spark of revolution was for 300 odd years when Sikhi was alive. What else can you expect in a country that reverses the likes of Gandhi - yep, the same one who made sure the Brits stayed a few more decades. I say let them suffer - they have brought it on themselves.
7: Vikas Barua (New Delhi, India), October 04, 2013, 10:32 AM.
One journalist here asks today: "Why did Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, BJP's prime ministerial candidate, not say anything on immediate disqualification of convicted legislators?" And then provides the answer: "The reason is simple. Some of Modi's aides and too many BJP legislators in Gujarat face the same fate as Lalu Prasad of the RJD and Rasheed Masood of the Congress ... 'Of the 182 candidates who got elected in the Gujarat assembly in 2012, 31% or 57 MLAs have criminal cases against them,' said Jagdeep Chhokar of Gujarat Election Watch." He goes on to add that 24 of them have "very serious charges." The author is absolutely correct: all we are being given as a choice in the next election is between one band of goondas and another!