Going by what the Supreme Court said on Monday, it turns out Buta Singh may have less of a leg to stand on in Delhi as well as Patna. “Throw him out” exhorted the court, scanning the list of VVIPs who have illegally occupied government accommodation in the capital. But while Bihar’s controversial governor draws instant outrage, he is not the only one in the dock. The list of usurpers is diverse and long. What is common to the names on it — of artists, former ministers, dancers, musicians, politicians and maestros — is a refusal to get off the colossal gravy train having once gained a foothold.There is a reason why polite reminders to vacate government premises may have gone unheeded in as many as 465 cases. The culture of state patronage that prevails in Delhi is habitually as opaque as it is gargantuan. The criteria that exist on paper are routinely tweaked by the government of the day to favour its own with complete impunity. Now that the apex court has made a welcome attempt to reinstate a sense of scandal in the process, it is an opportunity to bring in some long overdue reform in the government’s allotment of perks at public expense.We may have travelled very far from the Gandhian restraint embedded in his injunction to ministers in Congress governments in the provinces after the 1946 elections: to “.reduce the whole scale (of salary and allowances) in accordance with requirements. drawing what his conscience thinks just for himself and his family.” We may also take long years to get to the point where the government gives a housing allowance, rigorously estimated by an independent agency, to MPs, ministers and officials, instead of a free run over prime property in the heart of the capital. But what we can realistically press for is this: one, more transparency about the criteria for allocation of government accommodation and other perks and greater watchfulness against misuse. Two, the list of beneficiaries should be pared down. Why should artists, intellectuals and journalists, for instance, become candidates for domestication by the government of the day? This must be done urgently if public cynicism about the government and its working is not to grow any deeper.
