Would Ram approve?

A closer look at the controversy reveals a tale of institutionalised graft, opaque funding and the erosion of democratic principles

The inauguration of the Ram temple has allegedly ushered in Ram Rajya. As evidence of this, and in pursuance of the slogan, ‘Na khaoonga, na khane doonga’, the populace is led to believe that strict actions to root out corruption are underway. Thus, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his associates in the Aam Admi Party have been arrested and incarcerated for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 100 crore in the supposed liquor licence scam. However, according to experts, there is no proven money trail linking AAP to the supposed bribe.

In contrast, institutionalised corruption of mind-boggling proportions has been revealed through electoral bonds (EBs). Critics have labelled it India’s biggest scam since Independence. (In fact, more than Rs 8,000 crore have been received by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) through these bonds). But this is hardly eliciting any shock and horror among the populace. Ask a common man on the street and he is likely to say that he doesn’t even know what an electoral bond is. The common man believes that nothing needs to be questioned since Ram Rajya has been established already.

As per reports, Kejriwal was allegedly arrested on the single evidence of an approver’s statement — no other evidence. Here comes the rub: once he turned approver and gave Rs 60 crore worth of electoral bonds to the party in power, he was let off by the Enforcement Directorate, but Kejriwal was arrested! But what of the Rs 60 crore received by the BJP? Who is being arrested for this ‘Extortion Bond?’ Why is sauce for the goose not sauce for the gander? So, it seems that it is not corruption to give funds to political parties through electoral bonds to receive favours, but it is corruption if funds are given by other means to an opposition party. One wonders what the ‘Nyay Purush’ Ram would say about this.

Also, look at the varied forms of corruption spawned through electoral bonds by several other ruling parties in the states. Seven pharmaceutical firms that received notices for failed drug quality tests gave money to political parties through these bonds. Though repeated quality-related failures could lead to the suspension of a company’s manufacturing licence, several state drug regulators did not take any action against these defaulting pharmaceutical companies after they bought electoral bonds. So, is it okay to endanger the lives of the entire populace with low-quality drugs to win elections and stay in power? 

There are also reports of companies donating five to 100 times their annual profit via electoral bonds, and some companies donating even when they were running losses. A firm donated Rs 195 crore despite reporting a profit of only Rs 12.24 lakh in one year. So, weren’t these fit cases for the ED, the CBI or the I-T department to investigate the source of these funds, if they could go to the extent of freezing the bank accounts of the Congress just before the general elections for a delay of a few days in filing returns many years ago?

Civil society activists who challenged the electoral bonds scheme in the Supreme Court have claimed that 41 companies facing a probe by the CBI, the ED and the I-T department gave Rs 2,471 crore to the BJP through electoral bonds, and Rs 1,698 crore of it was donated after raids by these agencies. At least 30 shell companies purchased electoral bonds worth over Rs 143 crore. Thirty-three groups which have got 172 major contracts and projects approved from the government also made donations through electoral bonds. “They have got a total of Rs 3.7 lakh crore in projects and contracts, in exchange for Rs 1,751 crore electoral bond donations to the BJP,” the petitioners have alleged.

The petitioners in the electoral bonds case in the apex court have alleged that four categories of corruption were done through these bonds. The first is ‘chanda do, dhanda lo’ (give donation and get business), the second is ‘hafta-vasuli’ (extortion), the third is ‘theka lo, rishwat do’ (bag contract, give bribe), and ‘farzi’ company (fake company). Would the ‘Maryada Purush’ Ram have approved of these wheelings and dealings?

How is history going to judge the institutions and the actors who have brought our democracy to this pass? If the electoral bonds were unconstitutional, how can the unconstitutional actions committed through the electoral bonds over the last six years, including the bringing down of lawfully elected governments through horse-trading of MLAs, be undone? How are the actors who performed these unconstitutional acts to be held accountable? Does it not mean that we have been a lawless country for the last six years?

Media reports of a press meet by an Opposition leader say that another route through which at least Rs 12,700 crore non-transparent funds came into the hands of the party-in-power, was through large donations from corporations to the PM-CARES fund, which is not overseen by the CAG and is exempt from the RTI Act, because it did not receive fund support from the government. However, at least 38 government-owned PSUs and their
employees, have donated up to Rs 2,105 crore and Rs 150 crore respectively to the PM-CARES fund. The question remains how a body run by ex-officio members of government and receiving government funds can be termed a private trust exempt from transparency laws.

Wags are saying that there is a need to rewrite the slogans with which the populace has been made to believe that the government of the last 10 years was pure as snow and has brought in ‘development’. They are saying that there is a need to rewrite the slogan “Na khaoonga, na khane doonga” without the two ‘na’s; and rewrite the slogan ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ that has made the nation believe that they are on the path of development to “Sabka saath, sabka vinash”.

While the party in power criticises massively the supposed appeasement of minorities by Opposition parties, what can one say of the massive ‘majority appeasement’ done by the party in power, by creating a sense of victimhood and generating a sense of triumphalism in them, through the cynical exploitation of the gullible public’s faith, to lay the road to electoral victories and political power? 

Above all, one wonders what Mahatma Gandhi’s Ram, who abdicated his throne and all power and pelf, and who sent his pregnant wife to the forest to maintain ‘Raj Dharma’ would have to say about all this. 

(The writer is a Karnataka State Representative of National Election Watch set up by the Association for Democratic Reforms)