Monday, June 27, 2011

Nixon, Indira and Lokpal Bill

Indians should know about Watergate Scandal, because it is an interesting story, with lot of lessons to be learnt.  It is a story of a country and its people which fought to defend its democratic institutions from various encroachers; sometimes the encroacher was the President of the country. 

Richard Nixon

In the early 1970s, United States of America was rocked by Watergate Scandal.  On 17 June 1972, few men were arrested for breaking into Democratic Party’s office in Watergate Complex. These men were there to plant bugs in the opposition party’s office with the consent of President of United States,
Richard Nixon. These men were later convicted for attempted interception of telephone and other communications against wiretapping laws.

When the complicity of the President of United States was discovered and published by sagacious and committed journalists of Washington Post and New York Times, the people of United States, who were educated to value and defend their democratic institutions rose up in genuine anger.  Nixon tried to stall the proceedings by invoking special privileges of a President.  The court ordered Nixon to hand over the tapes which established his involvement.  The eventual prosecution and hearings found Nixon guilty of obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress.  When the House of Representatives started formal procedures to impeach Nixon, he resigned.  His political career was over.  That’s how Nixon paid the price for subverting the much cherished institutions of United States of America.  He remained a disgraced President (though later day historians feebly attempted to resurrect his former image). 

During his time, Nixon was quite a popular leader.  He resolved the Vietnam conflict and withdrew US troops from Indochina.  Many of his foreign policy initiatives were quite successful.  He opened up diplomatic relationship between United States and China, and signed a historic Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Soviet Union. At the home front, he introduced reforms to protect the environment and desegregated schools in the South.  However, as was evident from the Watergate Scandal, he had not lived up to the ideals set forth by the founding fathers of the United States who emphasized that the power should be held by the sheep, not the rulers, because rulers turn into wolves and therefore could not be trusted.  Thomas Jefferson said:

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers alone.  The people themselves therefore are its only safe depositories.  And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved.

Thomas Jefferson was aware of the danger where people are easily misled.  For the various institutions of the democracy to work it was ‘essential for the people to understand the risks and benefits of government, to educate themselves, and to involve themselves in the political process…  Without that the wolves will take over’.

Therefore, it became important for ordinary American citizens to take the responsibility of educating themselves the ways of the government and also take active part in country politics.  US Supreme Court Justice, Robert Jackson said in 1950:

It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.

Indira Gandhi

Interestingly, Nixon met Indira Gandhi when she visited USA in November 1971, just few weeks before Pakistan and India went to war over Bangladesh.  President Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, were pro-Pakistan and hated the guts and arrogance of Indira Gandhi.  Nixon called Indira an ‘old witch’ and a ‘bitch’.  What Indira Gandhi called Nixon, we will never know, but they didn’t get along very well and hated each other.  

Without receiving any support from United States, but backed by Soviet Union, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi went onto win the war against Pakistan, which was a swift military victory.   Indira Gandhi rose up high in the eyes of Indians who had earlier doubted her decisiveness because she was a woman.  Opposition party member AB Vajpayee described Indira as Goddess Durga.   Indira Gandhi was riding absolute power and started to become a wolf. 

A High Court in India found her guilty of misusing government machinery for her electoral campaign thereby making the election void.  This sparked off nationwide protests against her.  Instead of facing up the charges, she imposed a nationwide Emergency on 25 June 1975 for a period of 21 months, giving herself the power to rule by decree, suspending elections and the constitutional rights of all Indians.  She put most of her political opponents in jail, and did all kinds of things which dictators do in dictatorships.  In her own words, she brought Indian democracy to a ‘grounding halt’.

Indira Gandhi rewrote the laws of the nation using the two-thirds majority in the Parliament that she enjoyed, and where necessary she bypassed even the Parliament to pass “extraordinary laws” using the dummy President.  She dismissed states governments where opposition parties ruled, to declare President's Rule.

What Indira did to Indian democracy must be hundred times worse compared to what Nixon did to American democracy.  Unfortunately, the Indians were not adequately educated in protecting their democracy.   The middle class of India, instead of learning the ways of how the government works and participating in it, was actually on a war-footing exercise to distance itself completely from it.  A hodgepodge group of politicians rose on occasion and defeated Indira Gandhi in elections, formed a new government but could not use the political institutions of India to make Indira pay for the crimes. 

Janata Party headed by Morarji Desai as the Prime Minister constituted a one-man commission under former Supreme Court Justice JC Shah to inquire into ‘subversion of lawful processes and well-established conventions, administrative procedures and practices, abuse of authority, misuse of powers, excesses and malpractices committed during’ the Emergency.

Shah-Commission hearings began in New Delhi on 29 September 1977 and concluded with third volume of the Shah Commission Report on 7 August 1978.  Indira Gandhi successfully managed to evade the hearings for several months, though hundreds of people testified.   She argued that the Commission was ‘unconstitutional and illegal’.  On 11 January 1978, Indira faced JC Shah but ‘persisted in her non-cooperation’.  She declined to make a statement and added that that she is bound by her ‘oath of secrecy not to make any statement’.  She repeated that she is not ‘legally bound’ or ‘constitutionally bound’.

Exasperated with her non-cooperation, when JC Shah stepped up to lodge a complaint with a magistrate, she brought up an extraneous issue.  She pointed out to him that when she nationalized Indian banks in 1969, many judges signed a petition against such a move.  She reminded him that she did not disclose the names of the petitioners to ‘uphold the dignity of the judiciary’.  With those veiled threats, she put JC Shah on the defensive and walked out without being interrogated further.

Janata Party could not muster up enough strength or courage to take on Indira Gandhi’s highhandedness.  They were having their own problems.  They could not keep their party united and fell apart resulting in loss of power at the center.  In the 1980 Lok Sabha elections, people of India who were inadequately trained to value their democracy voted Indira Gandhi back to power.  She went onto make more mistakes, like trying to meddle with Sikhs in Punjab resulting in Operation Blue Star where the Golden Temple was bombarded with tanks and artillery guns, killing everyone holed up in there to cover up the mess that she created.  Those actions of hers resulted in death of thousands of Sikhs in Punjab who fought for a separate country in the subsequent years.   The people of this country paid the price for their inaction by coming close to breaking up the nation, becoming responsible for death of thousands, sowing seeds of hatred and antagonizing a religious group for a long time to come, and most important of all, weakening the democracy and its institutions forever.

Lokpal Bill

The draft version of Janlokpal Bill promoted by the ‘civil society’ members includes Prime Minister of India under its ambit.  But the Congress Government has decided not to include the Prime Minister under the purview of Lokpal.  The question that we have is: Should a Prime Minister be held accountable? 

Prime Minister is considered to be the ‘first among the equals’ in the cabinet.  The cabinet with the Prime Minister along with the President of India forms the executive.  Therefore, if any cabinet minister falls under the Lokpal Bill, so should the Prime Minister.

Though the Constitution of India does not give special constitutional and legal privileges to the Indian Prime Minister than those of any cabinet minister, it is well-known that Prime Minister is considered the leader of this nation.  We attach a great symbolic value to the position of Prime Minister and our expectations on leadership, integrity and accountability are (or should be) quite high.  We look towards the Prime Minister for guidance, for setting examples, and expect him/her to answer tough questions, take charge, and execute on the vision. 

If, with some constitutional changes, we confer more privileges and power to Prime Minister, making him closer to the President, should we then excuse him from all accountability?  Not really.  Because it is clear that Prime Minister then would become the supreme wolf and therefore the highest standards need to be set, making him/her accountable to his/her actions.   The way President Clinton was prosecuted for ‘lying under oath’ and was impeached by the House of Representatives on the charges of ‘perjury and obstruction of justice’ (though acquitted by Senate), we should be in a position to hold our Prime Minister accountable if he/she does something similar.

Now, take a look at how Indira Gandhi did not comply with legal procedures of this country.  Do you want to see something like that happen in this country ever again?  Ambedkar, recognizing that democracy did not come natural to Indians, said:

Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment.  It has to be cultivated.  We must realize that our people have yet to learn it.

It’s time we learnt our lessons, and as sheep, we should educate ourselves on why we need to value our democracy and why we should take up the responsibility of a citizen.  And that responsibility includes prosecuting our supreme wolf when he/she oversteps to subvert this democracy.

References: Indira: The life of Indira Nehru Gandhi by Katherine Frank

14 comments:

  1. Hi Sujai,

    Excellent post.

    Thoughts:

    1.It is the Congress that is opposing to include PM in the ambit of Lok Pal.The rest of the political parties should come together and drive Parliament to enact the bill, including the PM under the purview.But I guess when it comes to voting on the bill, the NDA/BJP, with its typical short-sightedness or lack of political imagination (or may be they have an underhand deal with Congress) - will make it sound as if it is a No Confidence motion on Manmohan Singh's govt.The Cong would welcome the situation so that they can, showing the demon of mid-term elections, can rally together its allies, and sundry MPs available for sale.This issue needs to be separated from the 'safety of tenure' of the Govt, for any chance of success in the Parliament.

    2.Congress spokespersons are saying that they won't let unelected, unelectable civil society to write the bill.This is an exercise in diversion because any one can draft a bill, but it is the Parliament that will have to pass it.Come to think of it, the PM himself is unelected, and probably unelectable even.And the UPA chairperson heads the NAC which again is a civil society body.

    3.Why did India vote Indira Gandhi back to power?I think a lot of events during the Janata Party rule were orchestrated by foreign intelligence agencies, which had politicians from across the political spectrum on their payrolls.

    Further, the impact of emergency was not felt much in South India, compared to the North.For the South, it was basically anti-incumbency towards Janata party and in the North, people were tired of the instability, and the splintered nature of the opposition.

    More importantly, the very public nature of the prosecution against Indira Gandhi and she portraying herself as a wronged woman etc. may have shaped public consciousness about her.

    Your larger argument about the middle class is right.What is sad however, is that even today's middle class may not still care.And the poor can't be blamed for selling their votes on caste/communal lines, and for a few populist measures.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your larger argument about the middle class is right.What is sad however, is that even today's middle class may not still care.

    It is very much true. Middle class hardly cares.
    Ever since various scams broke, I tried to ascertain views of some middle class people, most of them employed, around me on these scams. Almost everybody agreed that there are scams. But Interestingly when it came to PM's role and responsiblity in them they say "he is helpless". I asked them "if he cannot handle corruption he should step down" they come back "what is the alternative?".

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  3. It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.

    Sujai,

    In one of ur Telangana posts I quoted teachings of 'Guru Ramdoss' to 'Chatrapati sivaji'.
    I repeat the essence of the same here.
    R: Subjects should obey the rule of Kings
    S: what if king is autocratic?
    R: people must revolt, it is duty of the people to prevent king from taking wrong path.

    It is rather funny that we educated Indians fail to understand our own system but quote a big shot from a big country.

    BTW, one more inconsistency from you. Maybe time to review why Telangana voters did not keep their leaders from falling?

    A little bit skewed analysis of US Justice's quote
    It is rather a knee-jerk response. Whatever is the form of governance, there is mutual responsibility of state and people about each other.

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  4. I haven't gone through the proposed Lokpal bill, but does it cover abuse of power, such as the example of Indira Gandhi imposing Emergency? I thought it was primarily a bill covering corruption. Correct me if I am wrong.

    Also, the current PM is a puppet anyway. The real power behind him is the Party President Soniaji. Political bigwigs (such as Karunanidhi) might use proxy ministers (such as A. Raja) who may later be sacrificed as in his example. So the fountainhead of corruption lies elsewhere in many cases.

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  5. "Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated. We must realize that our people have yet to learn it."

    Ambedkar couldn't have been more clearer. Unfortunately, even today most 'educated' Indians think democracy starts and end s with the vote in the booth.

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  6. "even today's middle class may not still care"

    yes, you're bang on! Middle class care only about issues which directly affect them-inflation, corruption, terrorism etc. What makes me sick is middle class is totally indifferent towards HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION- Irom Sharmila, Telangana, female foeticide, 47% of kids malnutritioned, 37% indian adults having BMI less than 18- these never become front page news.

    @Ledzius

    Dyarchy is a feature of Indian politics. I don't think Sonia has given Manmohan complete freedom. RSS controls BJP. Praksh Karat controlled CPM CMs. Even strong leaders like Buddhadeb, Jyoti basu had to kneel before Karat. Those who didn't, like Somnath Chatterjee were expelled

    In India Raja had to listen to Rajgurus. The tradition continues:(

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  7. I dont know any Countrys leader who is so aloof from People as Manmohan. Even Monarchs and autocrats give regular interviews on their Media, But our elusive Primeminster makes appearences on Press so rarely that i sometimes wonder he is subject to some Pardah System.

    Any way iam a daily reader of WP an NYT and i find both Papers excessively towing the American govts line and dont think their editors are courageous crusadors u made them to be.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Any way iam a daily reader of WP an NYT and i find both Papers excessively towing the American govts line and dont think their editors are courageous crusadors u made them to be.
    Good one.

    American Media helped Bush a lot in spreading WMD scare. Now they do not have an answer for that.
    About 2 years ago chief editor of NYT (or maybe Times) simply said we should had verified with our own sources of information.

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  9. Wow, I was watching Hazaaro Kwahishein Aisee last week and was thinking about the period of emergency and the atrocities of Congress Govt. under IG. And now I see this article and am surprised that you have come up with this article. A surprising coincidence.

    I do not know if the 39th Amendment (enacted by IG govt few years before Emergency) to the constitution is still in force or diluted later but she was right in her own legal sense that she as PM was not liable for prosecution as a PM. But as an ex PM she was. Indians need to learn a lot about the functioning of democracy.
    The hindu tradition of idol worship might have been translating into such a worship of living people with out any diligence on character. IG wudn't possibly have done that with out her popular support from indian illiterate audience who simply believed in the projection of IG by the media as goddess.
    Indians have to grow up and mature because similar situation is still possible.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dear Sri editors,

    Here i am expressing my solution to the problems like Eradication of corruption, Control of Fake currency, Hawala transactions, Inflation, Financial Crimes, Thefts, Goondaism, Bringing back our Indian depositors currency from Swiss Bank
    (govt estimated currency declared in press RS 1,45,000 CRORES in Swiss Bank),and improvement in circulation of currency in the country.
    SOLUTION;-( DEMONETIZE) CANCELLATION OF THE PRESENT SERIES OF CURRENCY AND LEGALISE THE BLOCK MONEY BY LEGISLATURE AND PARLIAMENT.
    AND ALOW ALL INDIANS ,NRI S ,TO GET BACK BLOCK MONEY OR ANY TYPE LIKE HAWALA ACCOUNTS ETC, WITHOUT PUNISHING ANYBODY OR PUBLICISING OR PENALISING OR DISCLOSING NAMES OF SWISS BANK HOLDERS, OR ANY OTHERS , LEGALISE AS ONE TIME SETTLEMENT.
    AND FURTHER RS 10,000/-PER MONTH PER INDIVIDUAL ONLY ALLOWED TO TRANSACT BY
    CASH. AND BELOW RS1000/- VALUED ITEMS ONLY BY CASH ALL OTHER TRANSACTIONS THROUGH BANK CHEQUES OR CREDIT,DEBIT, CARDS ONLY.
    Our country s population as per 2011 cences 1250 crores. if the government deposit on individual account of every citizen as social security deposit,the amount of RS 2 crores each, total deposit equals to RS2500 crores.
    On this individual deposit gets RS 2 lacks per month as interest. that amount can be spent as individuals Free education, life health, insurance coverage,old age pension ,unemployment Aid,corps insurance, etc.
    Please think and ask our MPs,econamissts and all intellectuals to raise the issue to debate.
    MSPrasad 9494863353 mspjublee@gmail.com.

    ReplyDelete
  11. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cabinet-approves-draft-of-Lokpal-Bill-PM-judiciary-kept-out/articleshow/9394983.cms

    ReplyDelete
  12. It is a very sordid affair that so called prudent leaders of the ruling govt did not bother to hear the awaz of the public for strong lokpal bill.They have done what they had been saying all throughout from the inception of drafting process of the bill.The govt side of the members have drafted the bill as suited and benefitted to them and put up to their own cabinet for approval.It is still high time for the other members of the parliament to ensure that a strong lokpal bill is passed in the parliament.

    ReplyDelete
  13. brillant piece of information, I had come to know about your web-page from my friend hardkik, chennai,i have read atleast 9 posts of yours by now, and let me tell you, your webpage gives the best and the most interesting information. This is just the kind of information that i had been looking for, i'm already your rss reader now and i would regularly watch out for the new posts, once again hats off to you! Thanx a million once again, Regards, lokpal bill

    ReplyDelete
  14. Is only congress opposing the bill or all the political parties? Infact Congress was the first one to introduce a Lokpal bill in the house. The post of PM attracts a lot of detractors and enemies and that is why giving anyone the power to harass the prime minister is really not a wise idea during his term for the opposition will just make a mockery out this accountability check.

    I really dont want to type more here, because you have described your opinion right in the description of your blog. But in case you are interested to opening up to another view point : http://alternativelyindia.blogspot.com/2011/08/proud-of-our-democracy.html

    ReplyDelete

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