The escalating war of words between the Congress and the BJP is further evidence that our political class is digging itself into a deeper hole. Adversarial politics is bound to be vicious; effective attacks by parties on each other can be an instrument of accountability. But these attacks ought to measure up to the challenges at hand,not exacerbate them. The real crisis at the moment is not simply the fact of corruption. There are deeper aspects to the crisis. First,there is a deep disillusionment with the political class. Politics is in a bad equilibrium. Parties are content to prove themselves to be a marginally more palatable alternative than their rivals; all you have to show to earn power is that you are slightly better. But this game is now being played in a context where there is a race to the bottom,so that even slightly better looks bad. We can take some solace in the fact that we still get to choose. But the menu looks increasingly bad and limited. Part of our challenge is to demonstrate that politics is genuinely concerned with the public good,not simply about beating a rival. The credibility of politics is at stake.
The second element to the crisis is subtler. It is that the ability of institutions to be able to project a credibility that is grounded in truth is increasingly being questioned. A symptom of a genuine moral anarchy is not that many people are doing the wrong thing. It is that it becomes even more complicated to sort out the distinction between truth and falsehood,right and wrong,between the virtuous and the wicked. All of these distinctions get smothered in a smog of argument,evasion and mendacity. The Indian state has been facing this crisis of credibility for a while. While it has had successes,it is often difficult to judge the credibility of its claims. State investigative agencies are not able to credibly project the fact that they pursue the truth whether it is arrests in terrorism cases,or investigations of politicians. This credibility remains an issue now,even in courts. Although public clamour has led to a number of politicians being put in jail,there are still serious question marks over how credibly matters will be pursued. If there is wrongdoing,will all the relevant actors in politics and business be pursued and punished? Or,is there now an elaborate game to protect the highest powers that be,whether in politics or in business? Is this all about sacrificing a few mid-range characters like Raja and Shahid Balwa,while exempting others? Are the CBI and the courts going to pursue matters to their logical conclusion or are they simply going to satiate our desire that someone be punished? We dont know the answer to these questions. For all we know,even many of the current accused may be innocent,and several others may be not. But that is the point. Institutions still do not project enough credibility to quell these doubts.
The third issue is this. As the RBIs stance on inflation shows,the country is now in the midst of a serious economic challenge. The subtle legislative and governance gridlock,which we have seen for more than a year,is partly to blame for this crisis. In addition,a whole range of other key economic decisions,like the land acquisition bill,have been pending for unconscionably long. If our growth story is to remain intact,and if the gains of growth are to be leveraged for the lasting well-being of all,this gridlock will have to be broken. In short,political parties will now have to find a way of cooperating,amidst their adversarial obsessions.
The harm the current round of sniping is doing must be seen in this larger context. Take the example of P. Chidambaram. The home ministers insinuation that the BJP was targeting him in the 2G scam because he had acted against Hindutva terror groups does enormous damage to the state. His insinuation may very well have merit,but at this juncture it is beside the point for three reasons. First,the government is so obsessed with the opposition that it forgets that there is a larger public looking to it to come clean. The simple fact is that a lot of citizens who carry no brief for the BJP feel that it is still not clear what exactly high officials from the finance minister to the prime minister did or did not know. And it is even less clear why they acted the way they did. Attacking the opposition is not the same thing as coming clean on the issue. Second,the Indian states ability to project credibility in terror investigations is limited; just think of the number of Muslim youths who have been unfairly targeted. Right-wing Hindu terror needs to be investigated. It is a politically sensitive issue and the state needs to be credible. But at one stroke,Chidambarams insinuation will open the state up to the charge that it is pursuing many of those investigations in part to deflect attention from corruption. The issue is not whether this charge is true or not. The issue is that Chidambaram has legitimised the plausibility of this charge. And,third,it probably kills whatever small hope there may have been for cross-party cooperation in the coming Parliament session. It says something about our times when our best and most capable politicians lose a sense of judgment.
The BJP,for its part,is not contributing much to public clarity. Of course,the opposition needs to be adversarial. But endless calls for resignation of so-and-so,based on yet uncorroborated statements of an accused in court,are neither here nor there. It should also not jump to conclusions in terror investigations in ways that undermine the credibility of the system. Confusing presentation of facts,with very little attempt to project your own credibility on issues of corruption and an almost total lack of imagination on policy matters,makes most people wonder whether there is now genuinely a race to the bottom. There is a Parliament session coming up. But there is a sinking feeling that this session will produce neither the dignified clarity on issues of corruption,nor serious legislative achievement. The crisis of legitimacy will only deepen.
Politics has a serious leadership vacuum. Leadership is largely about appearing to be trustworthy and credible. But at the moment politics presents a spectacle of a bunch of attack dogs on the loose,indiscriminately tearing into whoever crosses their path. Truth be damned.
The writer is president,Centre for Policy Research,Delhi; express@expressindia.com
