Offstumped – Commentary on Indian Politics

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Politics and Public Policy in India

February 15, 2011 • 11:22 pm 24

A Proposal on Electoral Reforms

The Constituent Assembly debates throw a fascinating light into the considerations that drove Nehru to argue against a Presidential form of government. While at  the state level the Constituent Assembly initially opted for a directly elected Governor even that proposition was subsequently diluted in favor of a parliamentary democracy in the state legislatures.

The current draft of the Constitution is quite clear that the President shall appoint as Chief Minister or Prime Minister he or she who enjoys the confidence of the House and is elected Leader of the House.

Given that the Supreme Court has ruled on multiple occassions that the basic structure of the Constitution cannot be altered we are stuck with little choice but to suffer a paralysed Governance and  frequent elections on account of fragmented Legislatures. Artificial solutions and undemocratic laws like the Anti-defection bill, the extra-constitutional interventions by partisan Speakers have not helped.

Here is a proposal from Offstumped which may help get around this problem while preserving the basic structure of the Constitution:

  • Let us add a single non-voting seat to every state legislative assembly and to the Lok Sabha
  • Let this single non-voting seat have for its constituency all eligible voters within that state or all of India which ever the case maybe
  • Let this seat go to polls like all the other Legsilative and Parliamentary constituencies
  • Let the person who gets elected to this seat be automatically considered the Leader of the House as he or she would be reflecting the collective will of all the voters of that Legislature
  • Since the seat is non-voting addition of this seat does not change the balance of power in the Legislature
  • Since the person elected to this seat is the Leader of the House, the Governor or the President will have to appoint that person as the Chief Minister or Prime Minister
  • Irrespective of whether a party or a combination of parties has a Legislative majority the Chief Minister or Prime Minister will have fixed term no different from the term of the Legislature
  • Removal of the Chief Minister of Prime Minister could now require a higher Legislative bar similar to a Presidential impeachment
  • The Constitution could then also be ammended to eliminate the anti-defection law as there is no question of defection to form an alternate government
  • The Chief Minister or Prime Minister could then have the freedom to appoint members to his Cabinet from outside the Legislature
  • The Legislature could then be solely focused on its twin responsibilities of Law making and keeping a Check on the Executive
  • Overall we could move towards a culture where the Executive is focused on Law enforcement and the Legislature on law making while both keep the Judiciary out of either responsibility thus reverting the original intent of the Constitution

Some would argue how is this proposal different from the current situation:

  • Legislative instability will not lead to an automatic fall of government. Impeachment would have a high bar
  • Legislators can no longer be induced by promise of power. In fact the Legislature will eventually return to is origjnal responsibility of law making.
  • A fragmented legislature could lead to gridlock. But then in the absence of anti-defection laws, a cultural shift could be effected where in Legislators can come together to propose bi-partisan Bills
  • The Executive will be free to function without worrying about Legislative instability for its survival.
  • A culture of direct accountability will be reinforced instead of this current disturbing trend by which Manmohan Singh, Nitish Kumar, Mayawati amongst others have taken the indirect route to holding Executive Office

No solution is perfect. But status quo is unacceptable. We cannot afford legislative instability and frequent elections, setting us back by paralyzing Governance.

We need Constitutional Reform and now is the time to force the issue.

In National Interest both the Congress and BJP should make common cause to push for this reform for it is in their interest more than the interest of Regional Parties to insulate their Governments from fragmented legislatures.

Filed under: Assembly Polls 2009, betrayal of aam admi, Constituent Assembly, Karnataka Polls 2008, Narendra Modi, Nitin Gadkari, Uncategorized, UPA-II Critical Appraisal

January 29, 2011 • 12:28 pm 7

Of Twitter Crusaders and Internet Anarchists

India’s foremost Counter Terror Analyst and a former head of one of India’ Intelligence Agencies B. Raman had this to say on his blog 

I can block them, but how can I ignore them? How can I refrain from drawing the attention of the Indian public to this pernicious phenomenon of misuse of the Twitter world by the Hindutva Storm-troopers for a campaign of defamation and criminal intimidation against those whom they do not like?

How can I fail in my duty of sounding a wake-up call to alert our people to the emergence of battalions of electronic Hindutva Storm-Troopers to intimidate people they don’t like?

How can I refrain from drawing the attention of Shri Mohan Bhagwat, the head of the RSS, and Shri Ram Madhav, the RSS leader who has been my friend since 2003, to the worrisome direction in which the Hindutva movement has been drifting?

The intolerance of critics and the willingness to destroy them and their personality by any means demonstrated by the Storm-Troopers are dangerous not only to you and me, my dear co-citizens, but to the country as a whole.

Mr. Raman’s frustration with the anarchy of opinion on Twitter is understandable given his age, health and given what is evidently his unfamiliarity with the technical interface.

What is however incomprehensible is this obsessive compulsive digital behavior to counter argue on every idiosyncratic disagreement. The tenacity with Twitter Crusaders engage in arguments makes one wonder if they have divined upon themselves a religious obligation to counter argue.

Every one has the freedom and right to their idiosyncracies and obsessive compulsive behavior on Twitter. The anarchic medium that it is, wisdom lies in exercising discretion in engagement and in ignoring the noise even if it gets abusive on ocassion.

But the optics of an eminent senior citizen and a patriot being frustrated by a raucuous group of voices in an anarchic medium reflects less on the merits of that Senior Citizen’s arguments and more on that which identifies this raucuous group.

What we are increasingly seeing is that in trying to make sense of the Anarchy on the Internet and the cacophony voices on a medium Twitter one looks for the least common denominator. Dogmatic ideologies and Agenda based Digital Activism make ideal candidates for such a least common denominator. They lend themselves easily to negative stereotypes and sweeping generalization. What is worse their dogmatic stubborness not only reinforces the negative stereotype but also gets amplified disproportionately given the cacophony of voices and the anarchic frequency at which they make themselves heard.

There are perhaps less than a handful of extremist voices of the Hindutva persuasion on Twitter. But as Mr. Raman’s frustration exemplifies, the dogmatic stubborness to counter argue with him and the multiplier effect of those counter arguments across time zones has created an impression where the Ideology and the Agenda become the casualty while the Crusaders and the Anarchists fade away into the background thanks to Internet anonymity.

This is hurts the Ideological Right more than the Ideological Left and not the least because the Left are less dogmatic about their ideology or less activist about their agenda. The Right hurts more purely because of the perceived sensitivity deficit.

When the Right are stubborn on dogma it is because they are arguing on an ideological principle (rightly or wrongly) unlike the Left who more likely than not are arguing on a human condition (real or imagined) which inherently carries with it emotion and sentiment. There in lies the sensitivity differential between the Left and the Right.

As a communications channel the digital medium is unemotional. Arguments on principle are more likely to come across as cold and harsh when using a terse and chaotic medium like Twitter. Arguments on human conditions on the other hand, thanks to the inherent emotion and sentiment are more likely to come across as sensitive and understanding despite the nature of the digital medium.

Perhaps Mr. Raman could have been more tolerant of the chaos and anarchy and more savy on effectively using the medium. Perhaps those who felt obliged to counter argue with him could have been more sensitive to his situation and less combative. But in the final analysis the casualty is the broad ideological movement labeled Hindutva and thus by association the BJP and the RSS for no direct fault of theirs.

As the digital entropy on the Internet increases over time the challenge for the BJP and the RSS will only get worse unless a clear line is drawn in their own self interest.

Filed under: Digital Citizen, Flat World Hindutva, Internet Hindus, Offstumped, Social Media Reflections, Uncategorized

January 14, 2011 • 8:54 pm 4

Vibrant Gujarat – Putting your money where your mouth is

The indisputable topic for this festive season across media outlets is Gujarat’s Vibrancy. It is not that this season is without the usual whining and intellectual skullduggery. Nevertheless a distinctively different tone is visible in the op-ed columns – case in point this one in the Financial Express and this in Wall Street Journal.

The rest of us Political junkies can go on endlessly on whether or not amends have been made for 2002 but Gujarat has moved on for its own sake leaving us far behind with our hair splitting arguments and burdened conscience.

When I say moved on, let me be clear and specific Gujarat has moved on far ahead of the rest of India.

Here is why:

#1 – The debate in Gujarat is no longer about how to provide 24×7 electricity but on how to make it clean, sustainable and green.

#2 – The debate in Gujarat is no longer about achieving the least common denominator in public education but on how to make it accountable and performant.

#3 – The debate in Gujarat is no longer about talk of eliminating corruption in governance but on how to make the processes of governance responsive, citizen centric with a firm focus on service delivery.

#4 – The debate in Gujarat is no longer about clearing the backlog of cases but on how to further the innovations in Justice delivery making them more sensitive and efficient.

#5 - The debate on Gujarat is no longer in Gujarat but elsewhere as conventional wisdom is being challenged and complacency in Governance is being questioned. 

In the final analysis hair splitting arguments over Narendra Modi’s viability nationally have become irrelevant. The process of Justice on 2002 must and will take its course. But Gujarat’s bounty has created the environment for socio-political healing.

Gujarat has demonstrated how to turn the corner, create opportunity for everyone thus providing a template to the rest of India on looking to the future with positive aspirations rather than be dragged down by the negative emotions of the past.

Perhaps all those who swear by economic freedom should consider putting their money where their mouth is on the one state where the Spirit of Enterprise has decisively defeated the Culture of Entitlement.

I for one am seriously contemplating living in one of India’s best managed Cities come 2012.

Filed under: Ambedkarite Constitutionalism, economic freedom, Gujarat Polls 2007, jeetega-bharat, Local Governance, Narendra Modi, Nitin Gadkari, Shveta Chhatra, socio-economic engineering, Two Indias, Uncategorized

January 12, 2011 • 8:21 pm 4

Two Indias series – Entitlements in Tamil Nadu

A guest post by long time Offstumped reader NR. This was originally posted on his blog here and was titled “The case of a Farmer who’s self respect was hurt by the selft respect movement.”

Last week came across this report of a brave farmer who took on the might of DMK government’s freebie policy and pointed out why it was a wrong policy and what was actually the duty of the government towards betterment of the quality of life of its subjects.

Upon digging, was told by my friend that this incident which happened on November 23 was reported in Tamil daily Dinamalar around late November-early December. It’s around mid December that this particular news item seems to have become a well shared and discussed topic over the Tamil blogosphere and mailing groups. Before proceeding further here is a brief translation of the report.

A farmer Vijayakumar belonging to Kothamangalam village of Pudukottai dist., upon receiving the free tv, he not only returned it but gave an accompanying note. In it he went on to raise salient points.

1.A TV is not a necessity and is only an entertainment tool. There is no need for a tv when in every aspect, life has become miserable

2.When the 88 departments of TN govt haven’t achieved self sufficiency especially the power department, crucial to lives of farmers where is the need for wasting money on free television sets, when the money could be spent resourcefully for better administrative purposes like developing power and other infrastructure needs of a backward dist. ( TN has been hit by poor power supply for over two years with regular power cuts. The power situation has been worrisome and unreliable)

3.He makes the point that its quality education, healthcare, assured power supply, creation of suitable environment for job opportunities that’s need of hour and not freebies. Interestingly he does not call for free power but assured power supply. He seems to be in the wrong state.

4.if these are provided by the government the people can themselves put in their effort and earn the TV and also their other necessities and achieve self sufficiency in their lives.

5.He brings out the dreaming Indian in him by asking the govt and its staff to perform their duties which would be enough to make India a superpower

In the interview to the daily following this incident, he mentions that power cuts have made farming unsustainable forcing farmers to sell their land to real estate sharks and settle in cities for casual labour and hotel jobs. In what looks like a dig at nrega, he mentions that people have become lazy and uninterested in work and only worried about alcohol and content with the rupee 1 rice.

With the daily keeping up the heat and calling freebies as bribe from money looted, the criticism across internet and sms, Karunanidhi took a potshot at the daily for writing against freebies and remarked freebies will remain as long as poor remain. The opposition leader who till then wasn’t gung ho on attacking freebies attacked the statement of Karunanidhi.

As a citizen, one salutes the farmer who has hit the nail on head and forced the discussion on the subject. This free tv has been a farce and even those with tv have been allotted one and not many have bothered to return it due to the procedures and possible police case as returned tv finds way to other states.

Jayalalitha had in 2006 tried to counter this freebie by instead proposing free computers to students. But she did not question the freebies as such and had her own set of innovative schemes to bribe people. Given the scale and ridiculous power situation would have been better if she had proposed more computers at schools or establishing computer centres in taluks/local libraries that will go a long way in securing the future of young generation. Vijayakanth on other hand started organizing job fairs for the young with whatever his might allowed. A shaken Karunanidhi immediately got DMK to launch job fairs. With Vijayakanth not able to sustain his scheme against the powers that be, the scheme petered out on both sides over time. Yesterday though Karunanidhi opened a job fair and vocational training organized by Kanimozhi. One only hopes these are not eyewashes. But the disappointment from this episode was Vijayakanth refused to come out with manifestos or any plans claiming Karunanidhi would copy them and take credit and would implement his schemes upon coming to power thereby denying the people an opportunity to gauge him. He had initially forced the debate. Its sad that Jayalalitha had failed to sieze the opportunity then and is even now vacillating and not forceful. It was heartening to see the points made by the farmer more or less mirroring in Jayalalitha’s statement.

Interacting with my friends who had spoken to a few villagers recently threw up some interesting points. And what came out was no use of rice at rs1 if other necessary items cannot even be imagined by them. Some of them even wanted essential commodities prices maintenance act. This brings us to the UPA’s so called food security act. What use is wheat or rice at low price if prices of other essentials cannot be controlled ?

Issue of freebies is being given less weight due to the fear of being seen as anti poor while in reality it would harm the poor in long run and keep them as poor.

Tamilnadu government has been able to sustain on the power of tasmac revenue and central funding of many visible infrastructure schemes. Its poor power situation is again because of depending on central power schemes which have failed to take off and not doing its part in power addition. With the central government looking to allocate less on schemes like jnnurm for better off states like Tamilnadu, the next government will find it hard-pressed to finance infra and social sector projects. The administrators need to understand that the criticism is for such wasteful schemes and not schemes like the insurance. This is precisely the point that the farmer makes. Now insurance scheme is limited to an annual income of 75000, the ambit could be widened and primary healthcare centres strengthened and expanded with the money spent on good for nothing self serving schemes. It’s an irony considering it was TN that was the forerunner for some innovative schemes like noon meal, the now much touted cycle for girl students, and for the girl child.

One only hopes the clarity of thought and farsightedness of the farmer dawns on every citizen of TN as well as India and if that occurs, government will be forced to perform as these votes catching nautankis will be of no avail. But this wasn’t the first time such thoughts had been expressed. It had been expressed in 2006 too, but these points raised by a farmer while refusing the freebie could well capture the imagination only if politicians stung by the freebies tap into it. The farmer has clearly sent out the message- this aint any self respect movement but one that destroys self respect. Rajaji would be proud of the farmer who raised his voice against schemes that are mere social justice eyewashes and don’t facilitate individual interest and individual enterprise.

P.S: 2 days after this post was written comes the response of govt. to the farmer. 10 lakh more tv’s sanctioned to add to the 1.52 cr tv’s delivered already. And to rub salt in the wound comes the report of famers suicide in TN being pegged at 3737 between 05-09 recording a jump to 1060 in 09 from 512 in 08 by the National crime record bureau. The state though inisits only 3 farmer suicides took place between 05-09 and 0 in 09. It is so insensitive that it totally denies the fact and not even try to wriggle out Sibal style by attributing suicides to other causes than agrarian distress. The NCRB report can be found here. After this think its time the people of state stand by the humble, brave farmer and reject freebies and the associated condescending attitude of those who dish it out, in a clear,overwhelming manner. Its not just about freebies anymore, its the belief that even a corruption scandal of unimaginable proportions can be overcome by biscuits. Gujarat,Chhatishgarh, and Bihar have shown the way forward, its time people of TN join in the act and prevent the application of reverse gear. Your decision can have a cascading effect either way.

Filed under: Assembly elections 2011, Tamil Nadu elections 2011, Two Indias, Uncategorized, UPA-II Critical Appraisal

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Opinions expressed on this site using the alias Offstumped are the blogger's personal opinions and do not in any way reflect the views of the blogger's Employers.