From Garibi Hatao to Tandoor Murder: the Crime Story of Indian Politics

(Originally appeared in the 1990s in the Times of India, as published in M. D. Nalapat's book "Indutva", Har-Anand Publications, 1999)

Those were the days. Garibi hatao was the new mantra. A

brilliant young politician named Pranab Mukherjee was finance

minister of India. He presided over some of the highest income-

tax rates in Indian fiscal history. Indeed, if one excludes the

'primitive accumulation' of socialist capital in 1919-21 Russia

(where those having more than 10 roubles had to surrender the

difference or get shot), India probably had the highest marginal

tax rates in history, at one time touching 97.25 per cent of income.

However, despite such revolutionary zeal, restaurants were full

of big spenders, and marriage halls were crowded. Quite

obviously, 2.75 per cent of income went a long way.

It was not just through confiscatory taxation that the evil rich

were crushed. The Industries (Development & Regulation) Act

laid down stringent penalties for producing "beyond capacity":

efficiency was penalised. And few were efficient, at least on

record. They could not afford to be. As for taxpayers, obviously

they were honest. They must have been, seeing that only two or

three individuals went to jail each year for tax evasion.

Revolution was in the air, and a worker — Venkata Giri

Varaha Giri - was elected President of India, defeating the

nominee of the capitalists. Though we were only college students,

we wanted to participate in the ferment, We called on Mohan

Dharia, a devotee of proletarian internationalism, who was

staying in that symbol of village life, Bombay's Ambassador

Hotel. In a cavernous air-conditioned suite, waiters flitted about

with food and drink. We were not offered refreshments, nor

asked to sit. Social revolutionaries must learn to be tough. And

thick—skinned: Dharia and half a dozen other netas shooed us

away, saying they were going to the AICC in the Air-India

building.

As we trudged to the venue, we were passed by the netas

zipping there in air-conditioned limousines. Dharia took the

floor speaking for nearly an hour on the need for Gandhian

simplicity and revolutionary zeal. Snacks were served to those

on the dais, while our stomachs growled. Fleets of limousines

waited outside. Servitors were everywhere.

It is a fair guess that few of the bills for the facilities one saw

at the session were paid for by cheque. Today, 26 years later, the

situation is no different. Political leaders jet from city to city,

hotel to hotel, convention to meeting. Expensive banners float in

the air, posters cover the walls...And a pecking order gets

established. Junior cadres eat at roadside stalls, netas in five-star

luxury. Restaurants in the most expensive hotels are full of netas,

fresh from speechifying about "social justice". One such crusader

has been abroad eight times this year. No one asks at whose

expense.

But we should ask. We should demand that all expenses of

political leaders and their families, whether on travel or hotels

or major purchases, be made public. That all the assets bought

by them and their sons and daughters be similarly open to

scrutiny. The expenses of the typical "socialist" crusader would

tot up to several lakhs of rupees a month. Going to New York

or Paris — naturally in the defence of working-class interests —

does not come cheap.

There are two reasons why crime and politics have become

inseparable in India, The first is the fact that few political parties

have inner-party democracy. The rank and file have virtually no

say in who the office-bearers should be, So the Sushil Sharmas

— the procurers of ’services’ for netas — dominate. In such a

culture, promotion depends on attending the durbar of leaders,

gifts in tow, rather than on grassroots work. Unless a system is

introduced whereby the rank and file elect their leaders — as the

primary system ensures in the US — and have a say in who the

candidate should be, criminals will continue to infest Indian

politics.

Apart from introducing inner-party democracy, we need to

reduce the power of the state in decision-making. Just as high 

taxes breed evaders, needless regulation generate corruption.

Though considerable progress has been made during the current

dispensation in loosening the stranglehold of government - and,

by implication, politicians - much more needs to be done before

commonsense rather than suitcases determine the direction of

policy. Just as those who have black money are not dismayed by

high taxes, those auctioning decisions vehemently defend the

powers of the state to intrude into most areas of our economic

life. The tandoor murder episode has a long genesis, having been

spawned by the lifestyles of our leaders, the lack of accountability

to those who elected them, and the grip of government over our

lives.

We need to put away not just an indicted individual but the 

entire guilty system.