By M D Nalapat
Boundary into overreach may have been crossed, not by BJP, but by ECI.
Politics
in India is a saga of unintended consequences, and so it may turn out
to be for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). In 2014, its supremo Arvind
Kejriwal seems to have been given more than the normal dose of flattery
by his followers, as he believed that he could emerge as the national
alternative to Narendra Modi during the year’s Lok Sabha polls. Hence,
his high-decibel verbal assaults on Modi, together with the electoral
challenge posed to the next Prime Minister in Varanasi. Given the
nonexistent possibility of a repeat of its earlier successes in Assembly
polls, it was wise of the Congress Party to silently withdraw from the
2015 Delhi Assembly contest, thereby enabling the AAP to demolish the
BJP just months after the latter party had swept the Lok Sabha polls in
the national capital. The victory should have served as the signal for
Kejriwal to focus on Delhi and showcase to the nation his administrative
skills. Instead, he continued an obsessive negative focus on (now)
Prime Minister Modi, behaving more as the (by then non-existent) Leader
of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha than as the Chief Minister of the
National Capital Territory of Delhi. Even more incongruously, Kejriwal,
in full view of television cameras, would switch from Chief Minister to
Chief Agitator at ten minutes’ notice, in the process converting an
attempt at pathos into farce. Kejriwal’s neglect of urban India’s
mindset through a focus on rural problems was another error. The AAP
seemed to regard themselves as a 21st century version of Charu
Mazumdar’s change agents in Naxalbari, rather than as the city-centric
force they are best equipped to be.
The Jan Sangh began and thrived as an
urban party, and to this day, the BJP relies on a Lok Sabha sweep of the
cities to ensure power. Potentially, it is the AAP that can offer the
stiffest challenge to the BJP in the cities and towns of India, a factor
that has presumably motivated the high-voltage counterattack on AAP and
its leaders by the BJP. If we look at FIRs filed against political
leaders, it is almost as though there is only the AAP, so prolific has
been the filing of cases against its functionaries. Given the electoral
math, Kejriwal’s party is far more a long-term threat to the BJP than it
is to any other party.
The problem with going after an opponent
is that you may be too successful for the good of your cause, and this
is what seems to be taking place vis-à-vis Kejriwal and the BJP. The
boundary into overreach may have been crossed, not by the BJP but the
Election Commission of India (ECI), which has disqualified 20 AAP MLAs
for “holding an office of profit”. Legislators are elected by the
people, and a wholly unelected body such as the ECI ought to think
multiple times before reducing the choice of the voters to a nullity
before their term is over. Indeed, a case exists for holding elections
to the ECI, so that the commissioners are chosen directly by the people,
rather than by the government of the day. Such a system would also
ensure that India’s Election Commissioners have more familiarity with
the practical mechanics of the electoral system than is indicated by
some of their decisions.
To those such as this columnist who are
not intelligent enough to understand the nuances of the “office of
profit” controversy, it seems a tad unfair to disqualify elected
legislators simply because they have been given an office. Legislators
countrywide are provided accommodation, and this obviously costs money.
So is such housing also to be regarded as “profit”? As for office staff,
every legislator (and MP) should be given office space as well as staff
so as to look after constituents, the way the US does. Also, previous
governments, including in Delhi, appear to have appointed Parliamentary
Secretaries. Why is it that the ECI had not questioned these? Is it the
contention of the present commissioners that their predecessors were
remiss in their duties? There are Parliamentary Secretaries in other
states in India. Whatever the limits placed on the functioning of its
elected executive, Delhi was made a National Capital Territory. Is the
ECI gaze confined only to the city in which commissioners have their
office and residences? India has an asylum full of laws, and if
technicalities get used to disqualify the elected, it would be possible
for zealous individuals in authority to zero in on some technicality or
the other to ensure that legislatures (and Parliament) get drained of
much of its members otherwise than through elections. Of course,
although the AAP is blaming the Narendra Modi government for the action
of the ECI, the reality is that each of the commissioners is above the
age of consent, and hence they have to be regarded as fully responsible
for their own actions.
Anna Hazare became a national hero in
2011 courtesy arrest by Home Minister P. Chidambaram. Despite its public
stance at the time, the BJP was obviously delighted with the
development, as it has given the Home Ministry official, through whom
the arrest was made, an MP and now a Minister of State. The BJP
leadership was clearly aware that the arrest of the venerable Hazare
would further damage Congress prospects, which perhaps explains its
reward for the then Union Home Secretary. Should the Congress Party
return to power in 2019 courtesy the errors of the BJP, hopefully it
will similarly remember the service done to it by Chief Election
Commissioner A.K. Joti, the man responsible for the AAP legislators’
disqualification, and make him an MP and an MoS (Independent Charge).
Joti’s move has created an aura of vindictiveness around the BJP that is
undeserved because it is wholly the ECI and not at all the Modi
government that is responsible. This blow could give the AAP several
more votes in each of the 28 Bangalore Assembly segments of the
Karnataka electoral map where it will set up a candidate. The temporary
loss of 20 MLAs pales before the gain in goodwill that AAP has got
across India as a consequence of CEC Joti regarding an office as
“profit”.
No comments:
Post a Comment