The marauding Few

Forty-five years ago, when I was doing a course at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, we (the British, Indian and Pakistani student officer...

Forty-five years ago, when I was doing a course at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, we (the British, Indian and Pakistani student officers) were taken round the British Parliament, sometimes referred to as the Queen of Parliaments. Our guide was a World War II decorated sergeant of the elite Royal Marine Corps, a wizened veteran. In his commentary, he had included in his wry fashion an observation which I vividly recall. “Guy Fawkes”, he said, “was the only man to enter Parliament with honest intentions.” Guy Fawkes, as we know, tried to blow up the King and Parliament by hiding barrels of gunpowder in the cellars under the House of Lords. Dynamite had not yet been invented when the Tudors of Divine Right fame ruled over the British Isles.

With a slight variation, we could say that many of our legislators both at the Centre and in the states also enter the portals of our legislatures with honest intentions but entirely conditioned by single-minded self-service. They do not plot to blow up buildingsbut soon after their entry, confound the nation by emerging as a resurrected tribe of potentates, who also believe that not only can they do no wrong but are unpunishable for any offence. And very soon we see for ourselves the participation and, indeed, involvement of these potentates in mini, midi or maxi scandals of all hues. No messiah in the power game has thought it fit to organize a Jan Jagran, Nyaya Yudh or Rath Yatra to focus attention on these scandals. They are contemptuous of the VOI (Very Ordinary Indian) who appears to be a helpless onlooker, continuing to be manipulated for ever and ever.

For quite a few years now we have witnessed swipes by our netas at discretionary quotas, pay and perks and much, much more. Even a glance at the Antulay Committee’s Joint Parliamentary Report of less then five years ago exposes a virtual plunder of the state’s scarce resources, ignoring the law, rules, established practice, morality and ethics. To sum it up after the manner of Churchill, never was so muchappropriated by so few to the exclusion of so many in so short a time! Then again on March 12 and 13, 1992 when the ninth Lok Sabha was literally gasping for breath, they allowed for themselves hefty perks, pay and pension increases etc. The manner in which the item was smuggled into the agenda and the indecent haste with which it was passed shows the enormity, the `motivation’ and and `honest’ intentions of our lawmakers. Only one brave dissenter, A. K. Roy representing Dhanbad, single-mindedly fought the House with every weapon in his armour. He was outraged by the proposed measure and expressed his deep anguish at this `unholy consensus’ of his tribe. He particularly berated the likes of Advani and Dandavate and the righteous Leftists. He said, “We will have to face the people and they will ask us as to what we have done. Instead of doing anything for the people, we have only enhanced our facilities. We have done a total disservice to the nation…”

On the subject of discretionary quotas of telephonesand gas connections and the like, again demanded recently by our lawmakers in true marauding fashion, let me quote what Lord Weatherill, Speaker of the House of Commons for nine years and a former soldier in the Indian Army, said when I enquired from him four years ago, whether they had anything like discretionary quotas for their MPs. He laughed and said, “Nothing of the sort”. He did however, quote the case of a member of the Asian community in the UK — he did not remember whether it was an Indian or a Pakistani — who sought his assistance in an out-of-turn allotment of a county council flat. But when told that he was rich and the criteria for such an allotment could only be a genuine need, the reply was: “What was the use of joining your party, then?” Honest intentions!

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