I Received an email from a senior friend in Assam. ‘Can we get the courts to intervene to stop the annual flood caused by floods?’ He wrote with some hesitation, uncertain about the stage and the likely outcome. Others, who approach me almost every other day, have no such hesitation or doubt. He is sure that the country will survive if only Prashant Bhushan can approach the court with a petition against the Agneepath scheme, wheat exports or ban on its exports, or what have you. Most of the reasons are dear to my heart, but it is not clear to me why they think that the problem or solution lies in the law. That’s the price you pay to be friends with Prashant Bhushan, I tell myself, because I send him a few requests every week.
I have seen a special category of these requests. These are my friends who want to reform the politics of India through legal intervention. In the 1960s to the 80s, this used to be an argument for shifting from the current first-past-the-post system to an electoral system of proportional representation. As electoral reforms took center stage, thanks to the intensification of these voices by the Election Commission under the leadership of TN Seshan, the demands also grew: Let us discourage ‘non-serious candidates’ from entering the electoral fray, Let us stop the fragmentation of judgment, let us stop criminals and corrupt politicians from being elected. Something new gets added to this list from time to time: let us ban any caste or communal appeals in elections, make campaign promises legally binding, and so on.
Whenever I hear such an offer, I remember a joke that the man is searching for his lost keys under the lamp-post. When asked ‘Where did you drop the keys?’ He points to a distant place in the dark. ‘But then why are you looking for it here, under the lamp?’. ‘Because here’s the light,’ he replies innocently. Those who seek legal, judicial or institutional solutions to the evils of politics are often as ignorant as the man. Or worse, because many of these interventions seek to privilege the concerns of the elite over the needs and aspirations of the common people in a democracy.
Long ago in 1996, I wrote a dirty article on thinking about electoral reforms “beyond the imaginations of the middle class” (seminar, No. 440, April 1996). Nothing changed, except that I lost the sympathy of a few friends. later i wrote A more sober and longer version is trying to explain the what, why and how of political reforms. But one or the other legal solution to all the political evils of the country has not dampened the enthusiasm of those seeking a final solution.
We are a nation in search of a magic potion. We are in such a hurry that we don’t have time to see if there is a disease and if it needs the kind of treatment we are looking for. We are so desperate that we can’t afford to waste time looking for a healer or a drug test. We like Pucca Solution, here and now.
Read also: Pandemic slows down Tamil Nadu’s economic growth, now poll may spoil freebie culture
Worse cure than disease?
The latest in this saga is the plea to appeal to the Supreme Court stop political parties Promising or distributing “irrational free gifts” during election campaigns. Otherwise the Election Commission should remove his election symbol. We need not withhold here the quality of the petition and the character of the petitioner. Suffice it to say that Ashwini Upadhyay, a lawyer and a small-time BJP leader, has been in the news for many wrong reasons, including allegations. spreading communal hatred, Let us not even dwell on the Supreme Court’s oddity, which has not got the time Electoral bond issue directly related to political reforms, are spending their precious time on such petition. According to news reports, a bench headed by CJI NV Ramana Asked The central government has set the next hearing for August 3 to “take a stand” on whether the freebies should continue or not.
Let’s say, for a moment, that there is a widespread political disease called “freedom”. If so, anyone concerned should ask the following question: How serious is this disease? Should it be at the top of my priority list? Is it curable and is it cheap? Or should I learn to live with it, if the cure is more expensive than the disease? If it must be fixed, who is the right doctor? And what is the right medicine?
Now, even a minute’s reflection will tell you that to deprive political parties of their symbols, and thus any chance of electoral success, is a worse medicine than a disease. No one should use such ax in a democracy, because that person or institution will become more powerful than the people. Such powers should never be given to the Election Commission of India, if we do not want it to lose its credibility more than ever. The Election Commission’s affidavit in the Supreme Court is absolutely correct to say that this is “a question that the electorate has to decide”.
News reports say that the CJI-led bench considered whether the Finance Commission could be entrusted with this responsibility. The truth is that no institution can ever use such power in a non-arbitrary manner. We must not forget that one of the most common ways to destroy democracy is to disqualify political opponents from contesting elections on one pretext or the other. There is no such window in our country. It should never be opened.
Is a ‘freebie’ a disease?
Then how can the disease be cured? Before we delve further into this question and look for another cure, let us have a thought: in a democracy, politics should be an autonomous activity. You can save democracy from external threats, from momentary lapses, from personal whims, from majoritarian excesses. But you cannot protect democracy from the people.
If “free gifts” attract people, you can educate them. You can mandate higher disclosure requirements to expose the hollowness of these promises. You can empower the media to question these parties and leaders who make impossible promises. But if the majority of people choose to take action for the long term, there is nothing you can do about it, without shutting down democracy.
Finally, a thought about the ‘disease’ itself. Why do we think giving ‘free gifts’ is a problem? On top of that, these policies are irresponsible, and lead to wasteful use of national economic resources. One thing I agree with is that free electricity is a bad policy. But it also makes me wonder why do we only think of economic policies that give irresponsible gifts to the common people? Why don’t we worry about huge schemes that offer tax cuts, windfall benefits and loan waivers to the super rich?
Could it be that the poor voters who fall for these ‘irrational’ promises of freebies are not so irrational? Perhaps they understand the logic of democracy and the impossibility of engaging economics better than the experts. Perhaps they have realized that the normal functioning of ‘rational’ policies will not benefit them much anyway, that they will get only what they can grab here and now. Since some direct and tangible stuff, ‘free’, is everything they can realistically get and vote for. Could it be that the people who care about freebies are the same economist Amartya Sen? described As in “rational idiot”?
Yogendra Yadav is one of the founders of Jai Kisan Andolan and Swaraj India. He tweeted @_YogendraYadav. Thoughts are personal.
(edited by Prashant)