Private eyes

Another clue to the secrecy in which the BSP participates came this week from Uttar Pradesh8217;s public works department minister, Nasimuddin Siddiqui, indicating a network of spies to check on every party member of note.

Siddiqui told The Indian Express this week that the BSP has a well-evolved way of contesting elections, part of which is to set spies upon not just its candidates but every other important party8217;s. The spies write up daily reports for the reading pleasure of the BSP chief and UP chief minister, Mayawati. This, he explained, keeps the party disciplined. Collecting human intelligence in politics as elsewhere is not something about which one can be reflexively moral. To be in the know is important to every organisation, as long as laws are not being broken in the process. But the kind of oversight Siddiqui hints at borders on paranoia: five persons per BSP candidate in Delhi. And even he himself, he shrugs, knows he is being watched, with a daily report duly filed on his activities.

This raises questions not just about inner-party democracy but also, by extension, about the quality of engagement politicians bring to the legislatures and to government. Individuals like Mayawati represent in a very substantial way the deepening of democracy in India. She is the embodiment of India8217;s success in using democracy to open access to the majority of Indians that has traditionally been kept out of power structures. But revelations like these chip away at her success. Now if only someone could file that in her daily report.