The 2G spectrum scandal had a tumultuous day thanks to the Supreme Court opining on a number of policy questions. There is no denying the egg on UPA’s face compounded by shameless defiance of the Communications Minister Kapil Sibal who’s attempt at spin would have embarrassed even Joseph Goebbels.
There is understandable political euphoria on the UPA being put in the dock on its dubious conduct that paved the way of allegedly criminal actions of the then Communications Minister A. Raja and others. While the criminality is a matter to be settled by the lower Trial Court, one needs to be wary of this Supreme Court Judgement without getting too carried away by the partisan euphoria of the moment.
The full text of the judgement can be found here. (Increasingly impressed with Spread Law’s coverage of Court matters in the social media).
Having read through the judgement a couple of times, extremely wary on 3 points:
#1 – How the Court makes a leap from arguments of larger public good and violation of abstract constitutional principles to make a specific conclusion of “illegality” – common sense would suggest that for something to be deemed illegal it should be crystal clear which law was broken by who, when and where
#2 – Limits to Judicial Review of Policy Making by the Executive – judgement on good and bad policy making must occur in the political realm through elections and parliamentary interventions. Courts have a role in determining the Constitutionality of a Policy but invoking an “abstract larger public good” sets a precedent that can be interpreted in a ideologically motivated manner in the future. We dont have to look far for what such ideological motivations might be and who their next target might be.
#3 – Invoking the Doctrine of Equality to make very specific prescriptions on the kind of policy that must be adopted is troubling while also raising several questions, after all Telecom is hardly a level playing field with the Government being both a service provider and regulator. There are no Constitutional Guarantees on equality of outcomes. What if a future auction elicits little interest and even less revenue to the exchequer ?
While savoring the egg on the UPA’s face thoughts also go out to the many jobs that will be impacted and the chain reaction to the economy on account of impact of businesses that depended on new Enterprises who’s licenses have been cancelled. It would have been better if the Court while calling out the arbitrariness and lack of transparency in Policy Making had left it to the Regulator to make amends through appropriate remedies short of a blanket cancellation of licenses.
It just as may be well that this verdict be challenged to drive clarity on the above issues.
The bottom-line however is India does not need a Telecom Ministry, India needs an effective Regulatory Regime with teeth that is accountable to Parliament. We need politics that gets us to that eventual end state.
The doctrine of equality also means equal opportunity, can we extend it demand freer open markets, no role for Government run Enterprises and an end to Quota based Reverse Discrimination ?
Filed under: Offstumped, UPA-II Critical Appraisal
Hi,
I wrote another blog today. Just a tangential view, slightly contradictory on short-term, but ‘ALL IS WELL’ in the long term
http://umeshdas.blogspot.in/2012/02/2g-case-dampner-to-foreign-investment.html
We don’t want cronies to flourish in the name of freedom.Courts and our legal system should always be available for corrections like this.Why should someone who canbribe a minister and his cronies should have a business advantage over other businessmen? That is what happened.
Thanks to this judgement,in the long run,we will have only those businessmen committed to honesty and fairplay.No room for cronies like Shahid Balwa!
It is sad when a maverick economist-politician turned eternal litigant who happens to be an unguided missile that can target anyone at any time is considered as the sole representative of the Hindu-right weltanschauung! The BJP must introspect as to why it has given up the opposition right-wing space to such fantastic characters who seek profligacy by making a virtue out of their conspiratorial shenanigans. It is also equally a scathing remark on RSS that such entities are being “cultivated” to present their ideological doctrine in the television studios while real heroes like Arun Shourie have been left to fend for themselves. This is the true dilemma of India’s right, that they can neither rise beyond the Advani concept of “Ram Janm Bhoomi-rath yatra” type of agitational politics nor fall into the centrist trap of left-liberal “adjustment” practice.
No matter how much we can fall in love with the ideological doctrines of a “Virat-Hindu” school of thought, the fact remains that K. N. Govindacharya’s and S Gurmurthy’s are historical aberrations in Indian polity. At best it is the political manifestations of such tenets, like an Uma Bharati, who can achieve some mainstream acceptance occasionally. India as a nation has grown beyond our wildest dreams in the 90′s and there is seemingly no scope for such “cultural nationalism” as envisaged in the past; Hindu-nationalism needs to be re-invented.
These crusaders have served one purpose though – they have altered the political discourse of the Indian mind-share from “anti-communal” (read Hindu bashing) to “anti-corruption”, so much so that one can hear soundbites on national television accusing the first family of corrupt practices, which was hitherto impossible.
P.S: Let us concentrate on the matter at hand, the assembly polls in UP, which are getting curiouser and curiouser with each passing day. Conventional wisdom is all going for a toss, media reports are not worth the paper they are written on (surprisingly, even the local “Hindi” newspapers are silly), opinion polls are way off the mark and the political class is absolutely confounded by all the newer realignments that are happening on the ground. It is indeed a psephologists nightmare and a political pundits wet dream. We are trying the more difficult constituency-wise analysis… hope to report to offstumped pretty soon.
the comment here is not about 2G scam.i’m a huge supporter of modi so i would like to draw the attention of writers and supporters to this article by an eminent writer http://swaminomics.org/?p=241.i could not find a better forum to share it among more suppoerters. PLEASE DO DISCUSS AND SHARE IT
AIF, not sure if you are being completely fair to Swamy here. Sure he is a maverick, but that does not mean he has not proven his facts in court. 2 of his 3 cases have been decided in his facour, hardly the sign of an unguided missile. The third one is very curious in its decision. If the judge says Raja and chidambaram made the 2G decisions jointly how come one guy is in jail and the other not to be prosecuted? Lets not underestimate SS. I dont think there is only one shade of right wing activism and frankly I dont know how the BJP can be considered right wing? Most of them are leftists and the only guy to the right is NaMo. I dont think it is wrong to include varous shades of right as conventionally defined.
“a maverick economist-politician turned eternal litigant who happens to be an unguided missile that can target anyone at any time”
Take away “economist” and I can affix this label with immensely more justice on any number who strut on the Indian firmament.
Singling out this one person only exposes the visceral resentment of the author.
And any submission that is loaded with partisanship and personal resentment tends to be a waste of the reader’s limited time.
Please do better. You certainly appear to have the language
Those who control EVM control the result, no need for brain wracking analysis
Re: albatrossinflight
You correctly describe the situation when you say this about Swamy: “…is considered as the sole representative of the Hindu-right weltanschauung.” But, he is considered as such by whom? You would say – the general public. Fine, but who is influencing the general public as such. The answer: Media. Well, let me welcome you to the new world of free lancers and unguided missiles – and, my dear friend, there is no going back.
The real problem always has been a media which is hostile to BJP, a media where BJP does not have much leverage. BJP must do two things: 1) Come up with an alternate media network where it has some leverage. 2) Resist the hostile media politically. Treat NDTV, CNN-IBN and others as political players and discredit them. The first item will take some time. Second one must be done now – before BJP completely loses the plot and surrenders substantial political space to ‘the unguided missiles’.
@Agastya
Brilliant points. I completely second you.
Regarding Arun Shourie, BJP or no BJP, it was his own responsibility to keep focus on himself. Swamy has earned what he is getting today, which some envy, i.e., prime time media coverage. He is on his own in all manners. It’s one’s own choice to either sulk in a corner or carry the fight on. In any case, Arun Shourie did most of his brilliant work outside BJP (and he is even younger than Swamy).
Virat Hindu thing may be a great step backward to many, and even rightly so, but then you have to fight an idea with a better idea. And it is your own responsibility to convert the people.
Similarly, Ambedker may be several things to several people (Arun Shourie has a different take on him) but we all remember him for creating something which gave a character to our democracy. What should we call Ambedker?
We all know that the contribution of these mavericks (??) is larger than confining them into small intellectual ghettos.
You either find a platform or create one, as done by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee once.