Authors: R. SREERAM
For many chief ministers and other, lesser members of the Cabinet, the announcement on their official television sets was punctuated by the well-coordinated arrival of the presidential decrees dismissing their respective governments. Attempts to reach their respective leaderships had failed, for an unseen power had blocked certain numbers at the right time, and now the focus of each and every one was to find a legal way to combat the order.
For President Timothy Jackson, the singular expletive of ‘Shit’ as the screen faded to a commercial break contained his entire feeling on the matter. Andrea Simps agreed with him for once.
For Alan Carter and Sir Harold Holmes, the forty-two inch television set in the former’s office was more than enough to beam GK’s face into their presence. The British Prime Minister sighed heavily, knowing that he would again be pulled in one direction by the Americans and in the other by his own electorate. Sir Harold lit a cigar and savoured the familiar flavours that swirled inside his mouth, ignoring the doctors’ warnings inside his head with the rebellious thought that he would be damned if he had to give up on his few remaining pleasures just so that he could deal with tin-pot dictators and banana republics, even if they were former British colonies.
For Mrs Pandit, the betrayal was not lessened by the small size of the screen in front of her. Even as her flight chewed up the miles across the ocean towards Dubai, she was re-assessing her options and computing the minimum time she would be required to be offshore to lend credence to the idea of a medical emergency. She was not worried about the logic – or lack thereof – of flying to Dubai instead of checking herself into one of the first-rate hospitals in India, for that’s what she had hired spin doctors for. Her biggest concern was Jojo and his proclivity for showing up at the wrong place at the wrong time uttering the wrong things. To think the fate of her dynasty came down to one individual . . . but she could not worry about that now. The first item on her agenda was to re-establish the power centres around her. For that, she needed the resources of Powerhouse.
Dubai would be a good place to reach out to them.
14
There is no doubt that our immediate future will be difficult. Vested interests will try to protect their domains and disrupt our plans; there will be conflicts of interest; even you and I might find it difficult to change the way we have always done things. But the ends justify the means, and the troubles we face now should be viewed like a pilgrimage to our holiest of lands. Our sons and daughters, our grandchildren and their future generations will look back at this period and thank us for the sacrifices we start making from today.
Look at America. Look at Singapore. Look at China. Japan. Germany. They have all had tumultuous histories. They have had the same problems we face now, problems that led to civil wars and hundreds of thousands of deaths; and then they put their foot down and said, ‘Enough is enough!’ They wanted change, and they did not care if they were further inconvenienced. They fought for their future – what we see today – and they won it. That should be our precedent. That should be our focus.
Winston Churchill once remarked that democracy was not the perfect solution, but it was the best solution given the alternatives . . . but that no longer applies to us. The rot in our systems is more than skin-deep – it requires us to clean it inside-out, top-to-bottom. We have to change the way our blood thinks; no longer should we accept mediocrity, never in others nor within ourselves.
Our return to democracy will be slow, but structured. Our Constitution will be rewritten to adhere to the spirit with which it was originally formed.
Before the last day of 2014, we shall have our first stage of our return to democracy, with the reconstitution of grass-roots bodies at the panchayat, municipal and city corporation levels.
By June 2016, we will have completed elections to each and every state government, and the devolution of power from the centre back to the states will be initiated.
On January 21st, 2018, the elections to the 16th Lok Sabha will be held across all constituencies. From January 26th to August 14th, the elected representatives will work under the supervision and review of the President.
On August 15, 2018, if your elected representatives have proven themselves competent and able to run the government for you, the Emergency will be lifted and India will return to its fully-democratic existence.
Until such time, however, each and every one of these bodies stands dissolved.
‘Did he just dismiss twenty-eight state governments in one go?’ asked a newscaster to her equally-incredulous colleague.
‘Not to mention 181 municipal corporations and about two and a half lakh village panchayats,’ interjected the political analyst cheerfully. Developments such as these worked wonders for an analyst’s career.
Of course, change will not happen merely by pushing one set of people out and electing another set in – if we do not set out our expectations clearly. And that is why we will be working with the Election Commission in bringing in these rules for future elections:
Domicile. No candidate can appear for an election from a location where he/she has resided for less than a year in the last two years, and has not been outside for more than fifteen percent of the six months preceding the day of the election.
Qualification. When we want qualified brides and grooms for our children, why should we exempt our politicians? In addition to a basic qualification – a Bachelor’s, or at least a diploma – the candidate must have also attended and cleared a local governance test. This examination will test their knowledge of local issues, laws and processes, crisis management and geography. We will be setting up a national governance preparation board under the Election Commission to administer the training and testing at each and every level.
‘I have an MLA from Chennai on line 3,’ said Front Desk. ‘Can’t pronounce the name. He’s threatening to immolate himself if GK does not withdraw the Emergency.’
The editor harrumphed. ‘Tell him to make good on his threat,’ he said, trying to follow the subtitles that were flashing across his screen. ‘Then we can talk about giving him some air time.’
Experience. In addition to clearing the local governance exam, from the MLA rank upwards, every candidate must have spent at least one-and-a-half terms in a representative role at a preceding level – that is, you cannot become an MLA unless you have won a corporator’s seat or a panchayat membership twice. If you want to be an MP, you should at least be a two-time MLA.
‘Too bad he’s said nothing about two-timing MLAs,’ whispered a Page-3 name to his golfing buddy. He grinned at his own joke.
Expectations. Fifteen days before any election, the governance preparation board will release a list of performance objectives for candidates. This list would have been compiled based on inputs from local residents, offices both public and private, as well as from NGOs, and would cover local aspirations – such as a new bridge or buses, widening or laying of new roads, establishment of schools and hospitals, garbage segregation and disposal, water and local sanitation, parks and other recreational areas, et cetera. The candidates have to announce their top ten goals – selected from this list – ten days before the elections, as well as any other goals outside the list that they do want to take up.
On the eve of the election, there will be a live debate with all the candidates that will be carried by Doordarshan. The debate will be a platform for these candidates to showcase their plans to achieve each of the goals, as well as to discuss why their priorities might be different from their competitors. At the end of the show, each candidate will swear to six goals that he/she will not compromise on achieving, and the half-time milestones that they will achieve.
These half-time milestones will serve as the primary basis for demanding the recall of a candidate. Every elected candidate, no matter how senior or influential, can be recalled if the Election Commission on its own, or the judiciary through a PIL, decides that the milestones have not been achieved when half the term is completed.
The Julius Room at the International Conference Centre
in Gurgaon burst into loud, raucous noises of protest. ‘What the –?’ exclaimed Gurupat Rai, one of the oldest, most ambitious members in attendance. ‘I’ve been in this field for fifty years, and no one’s had the audacity to ask me about any achievements before!’
Ministerial aspirants should declare their portfolios and manifestos at the time of registration itself. The standards that they would be held to would be higher, and the expectations from them understandably more demanding than from a candidate who merely wants to be elected to the Assembly to serve his own constituency. A candidate cannot stand for more than two portfolios. A candidate can become a minister for any portfolio without announcing it before the election – however, that candidate must win at least ten percent votes more than the second-place candidate, and will compulsorily have a recall election at the half-way stage.
‘So even if I win again,’ a just-deposed Kerala minister explained to his wife, ‘and I bargain with the CM for a minister’s post in exchange for my two MLAs’ support, I will still need to have something to show within two years.’ His wife rubbed his arm in a show of solidarity and support, but the worry was apparent on her face, as plainly as it was on his. Life was getting a lot more complicated . . .
And no candidate over the age of sixty-five will be eligible to run for any post.
‘Someone get some water,’ came a shout from within the crowd inside the Julius Room. ‘Raiji has just fainted!’
It is not just in terms of elections that we need reforms, however. As well-intentioned as we can get the legislative to be, every other aspect of the government needs to complement it, to work seamlessly and professionally, and to be as effective as its conscience as it needs to be its executor.
Therefore, both the offices of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India as well as the Central Bureau of Investigation will be insulated from any oversight by the government, and will instead report to the Supreme Court in any case where there is even the slightest conflict – or even confluence – of interest with the government.
One of the union ministers from Uttar Pradesh immediately rang up his mentor. ‘That should bring us back to a level playing field,’ he told the party chief excitedly. ‘Now they can’t threaten us with the CBI every time they want to push something through Parliament.’
‘Arrey,’ came the irritated reply from Lucknow. ‘This makes it worse! At least earlier, we could control the investigation – now, if the CBI is freed from any influence,
all
of us are sunk!’
Accordingly, in order to avoid cross-contamination between the CBI and the state police forces, the government will be forming a new Intelligence officers’ corps in the immediate future. This corps will feed the requirements of the CBI, as well as the state Intelligence bureaus and the Research and Analysis Wing. The National Intelligence Agency, for long a pipe-dream, will be reconstituted to provide a platform to share intelligence between various agencies on terror, economic offences, cybercrime and law and order issues.
‘Why can’t we do something similar?’ The Pakistani premier asked his second-in-command, General Akbar Khadir Khan. ‘Replace the fanatics within ISI with some good, solid, home-grown officers?’
‘Between the Army, the Taliban, the ISI and the jihadis,’ the general replied with a resigned smile, ‘where are we going to find the youth?’
Until the transfer of powers back to the state governments, which will happen before the first of July 2016, all the state police and paramilitary forces will report to me through the office of my home secretary, Mr Nelson Katara. By the time of transfer, however, political patronage and interference in the administration of the police forces will no longer exist. Law and order is too serious a matter to be left to the whims and fancies of politicians, no matter how well-intentioned they may be. We might very well end up having an IPS governing body reporting to the high court.
We are also banning ex-IAS or ex-IPS officers from having links to political parties or standing for elections, at least until ten years have passed since their separation from the services. This is to ensure that there are no favours or obligations earned or discharged by these officers at a time when their allegiance must be solely to the taxpayers and the Indian nation.
‘Sandhya should resume her IAS preparations,’ Krishnamachari, former defence secretary and currently incumbent of the National Rivers Interlinking Committee, remarked to his wife. ‘If even half these measures get implemented, the service will shine the way it was meant to.’ He glanced at his suitcase, packed and ready, and then at the watch. Another half an hour for his flight to Bengaluru for the next sitting of the NRIC.
Without compromising the fabric of our democracy, however, it is also important that we control the bargaining powers and narrow-mindedness of regional parties. Therefore, for elections to the Lok Sabha, only those parties that hold Legislative Assembly seats in at least seven states will be eligible to be called a national party. Only a national party will be allowed to field a ministerial candidate, let alone project a prime minister, and form the Cabinet.
‘The NCCP has called for a nationwide strike tomorrow to protest against the national-party rule,’ said the beat reporter covering the party.
‘What do they have, two seats in Maharashtra and Goa and one in Kerala?’ his editor retorted.
‘We could always add a few sources who claim that NCCP is in talks with other regional parties . . .’
As you all know, it is not just this regionalism that’s held us back but also our obsession with tying our identities to our religion, caste and creed. Why must we depend on an accident of birth to determine that which we should earn by ourselves? Discrimination has been an unfortunate truth of our existence, but the way forward must not be reverse discrimination, but rather the annihilation of that discrimination altogether. There was a time when caste equations were whispered between the leaders during elections – now, we openly discuss them, relegating the choice of our future not to merit but to the faith a person professes to follow.
Unlike the nations of the West, where religion is so private it can be ignored by the governments, ours is a land of public expressions of faith and belief. We cannot shut our temples or mosques or churches away, nor should we – for they are a part of our heritage, our past . . . but to seep religion into governance is a recipe for disaster, as we have repeatedly seen.
‘Look who’s talking,’ commented an old farmer in the president’s constituency, to the barber in whose shop they sat watching the telecast. ‘I can’t remember anyone else who’s used the Yadav name to as much advantage as he has.’
At the same time, we must ask ourselves – does the government have any business to manage these religious institutions? Some state governments have established bodies to manage Hindu temples and religious affairs, but the Christians and the Muslims receive no such support.
The government of India will no longer do this selectively. In the next one year, after due discussions with the religious heads, we will decide whether we leave each individual place of worship to manage itself, or if the government should step in and establish national services for each of the major faiths.
‘At least,’ wrote a popular columnist in his blog, ‘President GK has shied away from placing the blame for everything at the door of the Opposition, as his (former) party has been wont to do these past few years. This could be a new era of politics where party lines are crossed in view of the greater good, and for our sake, I hope this is true.’
It is no secret that the creation of new organizations and services is going to put greater strain on an already-struggling economy, which is why there will be zero tolerance on leakages and corruption going forward. I am announcing a month-long amnesty for all tax defaulters – including the ones with offshore holdings. Clear your taxes within the month and breathe easy; but if you try to cheat the system, the penalties will be far harsher than anything you have saved. We already have all the information we need to take action against defaulters, and on the thirty-first day, these defaulters will face the consequences of not clearing their dues.