UPA and Democratic Institutions

After writing on Modi coronation and AAP I thought now I will write something about ruling party, “The Mighty Congress”. There is lots of material already written over how responsible they are while mismanaging economy, corruption and lack of leadership. But one issue which have remained out of sight from general public is their complete disdain towards democratic institutions. It is irony that they call their opponent undemocratic and autocratic while they themselves have left no stone unturned to subjugate constitutional institutions to a level unseen since 1975. It is also sad that 4th pillar of democracy has remained ignorant towards systematic death of institutions which act as foundation stone for our democratic system (No doubt so many people refer them as paid media). I have compiled a list of several institutions which have faced attack from the Govt. during last last nine years.

1. Governors- We all know that Office of Governor have long been treated as retirement home for old politicians and previous NDA regime also placed old warhorses like Madan Lal Khurana and Vishnu Kant Shastri in governors office. (In my opinion Governor and speaker both should be impartial, read here)But Manmohan Singh’s Govt. have used them as a substitute to Article 356 to seek vedanta on opposition led state Govt. It all started at the very inception. They asked several Governors to resign because they were not from congress in first month in office. After that hell broke loose, as Governors acted like active politicians to defy the public mandate and push Congress led Govt. in various states. Cases of Goa, Bihar and Jharkhand were particularly serious. For Bihar, later Supreme court held, dissolution of Bihar assembly by Governor Buta Singh as illegal. This Judgement could have had far bigger impact on national politics had President Kalam not listened to PM and resigned from his post after this Judgement as he intended to (He elaborated this incident in detail in his book). After this decision we have not seen such blatant attack on opposition led state Govt but similar acts of immorality by Governors continued example being Karnataka where center have to reject recommendation of Hansraj Bhardwaj to impose president's rule and Gujarat where Governor’s act was criticised and found to be not in conformity with constitution by SC. I have not seen any other Govt. at the center closely as I was too young during Vajpayee’s time so not sure weather Governors have been acting like this even before but such blatant display of partisan behavior by Governors need public scrutiny.

2. PAC and JPC- JPC and PAC are committees privileged committees of parliament which have special responsibilities. PAC is responsible for examining reports published by CAG and presenting before the houses while JPC is constituted by the parliament for a specific purpose like current one is to examine and investigate allocation of 2G spectrum. In both these committees, MP’s belonging UPA are in majority owing to majority enjoyed by UPA in parliament. At various instances these members have displayed majoritism to not let any criticism of Govt. passed through. (I have written a satirical piece earlier over here). It have been 3 years both these committees have not been able to reach any conclusion because of this absolutist approach by ruling party MP’s(opposition MP’s are also responsible to some extent). They prepare report and then quash it on technical grounds. They are not allowing key suspects to appear before JPC( A Raja and MM Singh being case in point). Now they are adamant on filling seats vacated by DMK MP’s by having Congress MP’s on board so that they can pass a report which will absolve current PM and indict A Raja of all wrongdoings. (The report they are trying to push through have several comments criticizing Vajpayee Govt). No doubt, It will go long way in ensuring credibility of the report and JPC as institution.

3. CVC- Another incidence when central Govt. didn’t listened to opposition and have to face SC ire for it. They appointed a tainted man P J Thomas despite strong opposition from Sushma Swaraj using what else, majority (Selection committee comprises of PM, HM and LoP Lok Sabha). In the end have to facepalm as supreme court held this appointment as illegal. As expected our PM came with an excuse that he wasn’t aware (Dude, are you kidding? MoM’s of selection committee cites that LoP raised the same concerns). Even if we assume PM were not aware than it meant he was being misled by someone in Home Ministry.If someone can misled PM in this country with such ease and impunity (We never heard of any action against anybody for misleading PM) than God save this country.

4. CBI- After SC’s cage parrot remark I do not feel I need to write anything about it.

5. ECI- There was a case when Govt. appointed a person Navin Chawla (He was found to be unfit to hold a public office by a former CJI report for his acts during Emergency, that report was rejected by Indira Gandhi (who else), read Wiki Page) as election commissioner, CEC (N Gopalswami) of that time raised flag of disapproval and recommended his removal. Govt was able to save him due to legal technicalities. But Govt failed to understand that legal technicality does not mean morality and this incident had left a taint on the Election Commision of India.

6. CAG- Who doesn't know about CAG and former incumbent Vinod Rai. He is the man who brought major scams (2G, CWG and coalgate)to public scrutiny. He also have to pay for his honesty. Although Govt. couldn’t remove him because of strong systems which prevent Govt from doing witch hunt against honest bureaucrats, they criticized him at every possible opportunity. Now when he have retired, they have appointed Shashi Kant Sharma ( Bingo!! He is also tainted) as CAG. His appointment is controversial and is in courts. (Probably we will hear, I wasn’t aware statement in few days/months)

7. RBI- Strong systems meant Govt. can’t do much. But if FM wants to exhort (as we have seen him doing multiple times) RBI governor to follow Govt. dictate on monetary policy, what's the need for having independent regulator. I am sure Finance Ministry can create a mess of Monetary policy as they have done with Fiscal Policy.

8. Chief of Army- Former Chief of Army VK Singh also had many controversies including his DoB, his letter to PM for shortage of ammunition and his letter of Defence minister when he received an offer for bribe. Most of the matters are under investigation so won’t comment on them but so many controversies during tenure of a single officer generates some amount of suspicion especially when he shares dais with opposition politician after retirement and Govt. starts investigation against him just after that.

9. Office of President- Isn’t electing Pratibha Patil as President enough? Also, They once forced APJ Kamal to sign a bill related to Office of profit retrospectively while he wasn't willing. Another case is one I have described above when People’s President almost quit because of a partisan Governor

10. National Human Rights Commision, Press Council of India- Govt. appointed tainted(K.G. Balakrishnan, his son-in law is congress leader) and partisan(Justice Katju) ex. Judges to head these institutions and hence brought disrepute to them.

11. Office of PM and Union Cabinet- These two offices are perhaps biggest casualty of this Govt. Our PM doesn’t speak and even when he do, nobody listen to him. Powers of PM are being enjoyed by Sonia Gandhi and his cabinet by her NAC.