Opinion The war of the birth certificate

The news that our defence forces may be weak and obsolete does not worry me so much. After all,Chiefs of Staff when they want extra funds,say the same thing everywhere. India is the largest buyer of foreign armaments,and,if,after relentless buying for several years,it is still true as the Chief of Staff alleges,he should definitely be sacked for having done such a lousy job of ordering—he and,along with him,the entire top echelon of armed forces who have been in charge of ordering.

If our defence forces are weak,our enemies and even our allies will already be aware of the situation. There can however be no surprise that there is corruption in the purchase of army equipment. India has a long history of this beginning with Krishna Menon and the jeep scandal,Bofors,the Tehelka exposure of the NDA scandal and now of course the latest episode. I have one or two arms dealers in my list of friends and none has been less than a multimillionaire. Arms selling and buying is one of the most corrupt businesses precisely because it has to be kept secret and no questions of economy can be posed. After all,national security is priceless and hence amenable to fat mark-ups. And not just India. UK had to suspend all inquiries about a huge aircraft order for Saudi Arabia which was known to be corrupt since the crucial witness was a high Prince of the Saudi Royal family who could not be summoned before a UK court.

The most worrisome thing is that leaks like these only happen when the government in charge has lost the confidence of its civil service. Rats know when a ship is sinking before the rest of us find out. Ever since Obama left India in November 2010,there has been a steady drip-drip of scandals and scams which have undermined UPA-II. The only answer the Congress/UPA has is that the BJP/NDA was bad too,which however,is not the answer to anything but a confession of guilt. India’s tragedy is that neither of the two national parties is adequate to the task of honest government. The smaller parties are morally worse except perhaps for the Left parties who are irrelevant and unpopular.

The dreadful prospect is that whoever wins in the next election,whenever it is held,will constitute a weak coalition unable to tackle any of the urgent problems of governance—control of corruption,raising of standards of delivery,fiscal profligacy,weakening growth,and desperate situation of malnutrition and poverty. We may debate who will be the prime minister yet none will be such as to solve any of the problems which the country faces.

It is a pity the Constitution does not allow for President’s Rule at the Centre. The major defect of the Westminster Constitution is the ceremonial Head of State who cedes all power to the elected Prime Minister. But India has an elected Head of State not a hereditary one. Yet the steady weakening of central governments since 1989 poses new challenges for India’s governance. Even the BJP/NDA with 180 seats for the principal party and UPA-II with 206 seats did not ease the problem of governance. It is not a matter of personnel but of the system.

Whoever is the President after July 2012 may need to be more than a ceremonial President.