After the British, the Gandhis ,The great loot of India continu

By Varun Gupta

I often wonder who has looted India more – The British before Independence or our politicians (mostly the Congress / Nehru-Gandhi family) after independence.

The British, despite all their horrible acts during the Raj, unified India into a country from what used to be continent of warring factions. They set up the railroad system which continues to be the heartbeat of India. They left us with a functioning civil services structure that effected nothing short of a miracle in managing the land reforms, the partition and exemplified all that India could stand for in the future. Most importantly, of all the British gave us, the gift of the English language that continues to be the only language uniting Indians across regions and is largely responsible for the explosive growth of our knowledge economy.

Don’t get me wrong — this list of achievements is in no way meant to patch over the horrible sins of the British. I was in Amritsar a couple of weeks ago during my annual trip to India and I could not gather the courage to enter Jalianwala Bagh. The very thought of the massacre gave me goosebumps and filled me with rage strong enough to punch the light outs of a nearby Britisher. I therefore decided to sit out and reflect over what they did to India and what we have done to our country in the last 67 years. As you may imagine, my anger for the British subsided.

I try hard not to be blinded by partisan politics but somehow I can’t separate whatever has happened to our country from the Congress and the Gandhis. They have, after all, been in power for 57 out 67 years at the Centre and have ruled most of the States for most of the time.

What the Gandhis have give us is a dysfunctional democracy despite all the right intentions on part of Nehru. Despite being a democracy, we are a country where one dynasty sees India as its rightful inheritance. That dynasty has transformed an otherwise functional Civil Services structure into a corrupt-to-the-core and deeply inefficient Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Appeasement policies pursued to win elections have led to India becoming a fractured country at the core that continues to get more disparate as politicians try to increase and further carve out quotas for new sections. We live in abysmal conditions even in the political and financial capital as we boast of having the worst infrastructure and social indicators among comparable countries. We have ceded territory to Pakistan and China due to ideological and tactical deficiencies that plague policy-making and alienated some of our loyal allies like Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in pursuit of winning petty regional alliances to keep power at the Centre.

I would also like to point out that this situation has gradually built since independence. Last 9 years, while clearly one of the worst periods in our history, are not an aberration. As far back as 1939, Mahatma Gandhi said “I would go to the length of giving the whole Congress a decent burial, rather than put up with the corruption that is rampant.” in response to the widespread corruption in Congress ministries formed under 1935 Act in six states in 1937. In 1964, coincidentally the year our first Prime Minister died and thus relinquished office, the Santhanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption reported “there is widespread impression that failure of integrity is not uncommon among Ministers and that some Ministers who have held office during the last 16 years have enriched themselves illegitimately.” The process of institutionalising corruption started under Nehru and has perhaps been completed under the current Government.

Politicians now indulge in corrupt practices openly and with increasingly greater vigor. Mayawati’s ‘declared’ assets went up from Rs.1 crore to Rs.112 crore between 2003-2012. This staggering increase stands as a testament to the inefficiency of our bureaucracy (first the tax department and second the CBI) and rampant corruption. It is no secret how CBI was ridiculed by the Supreme Court for their incompetent investigation into Mayawati’s disproportionate assets case. The incompetence was imposed by the ruling Congress to generate outside support and keep Parliamentary majority. Mayawati is not alone. Politicians openly throw lavish weddings, spend on luxury unheard of and we, the subjects, turn a blind eye.

Things have become so bad in the last nine years that I am now not even sure what needs to be done to reverse this all-pervasive corruption culture.

Police reforms are needed but who would initiate it ? The Supreme Court tried and gave detailed directives for reforms but those responsible for implementation chose to ignore these directives.

Agreed, that we need the CBI, the Judiciary and other watchdogs to be free of political interference. But we also know that politicians are not going to do it. Supreme Court wants to do it but cannot, as their power is limited to issuing directives based on existing legislative literature. They tried to do away with the ‘single directive’ which required prior permission from the state before a preliminary inquiry into charges of corruption is launched. The same was promptly rendered useless by an amendment to the ‘Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946′, still the CBI’s charter. The Supreme Court’s boundaries reach as far as protecting the basic structure of the Constitution.

We need election reforms to check the use of illegitimate money in elections. But those currently benefiting from the system would not do it. TN Sheshan tried to do what he could within his powers to make the Election Commission the watchdog its supposed to be. That office is now occupied by Navin Chawla, a tainted Gandhi family loyalist who was ruled unfit to hold any public office by an independent commission.

A grassroots level campaign to root out corruption has been very effectively neutralised by those in power. Schemes like farm loan waiver, rural employment guarantee scheme, subsidy on fuels, public distribution system, Government procurement of agricultural produce and still widespread public sector ownership of businesses have democratised corruption meaning everyone shares in the pie. Success of politically affiliated businesses and reward for corrupt behavior in political hierarchy encourages further corrupt behavior among the rank and file of aspiring businessmen and politicians.

I am very curious to see if the democratisation and institutionalisation of corruption is complete in 2014. If the current Government comes back to power, we know its all over for the India, we all once thought of.