THE COMING ELECTIONS
THE COMING ELECTIONS
By: RAM JETHMALANI
The current elections are important. The country is facing international and domestic terrorism, economic depression, price inflation and worst of all; total collapse of the moral backbone of most politicians. If we don’t choose well, the nation will disintegrate. The folly of the next few days will invite severe punishment for many decades. We are being warned and now my humble advice.
Parliamentary system of government unfortunately means the party system. But parties are dangerous too. Parties are to be tolerated only if they live up to the twin dreams of Mahatma Gandhi,
‘ Wipe the tears of sorrow from the eyes of the poor, and
in the comity of nations act as the conscience of the world.’
It is tragic that most political parties are involved in an unseemly scramble for power, its perks and avenues of amassing illegitimate wealth. It is nearly three years ago that the Swiss Banks disclosed that Indians have concealed wealth in Swiss Banks of mind boggling enormity – Fifteen Hundred Trillions of dollars. It is thirteen times our total national debt. If this wealth is seized and repatriated to India, from where it has been stolen, India will be debt free and the interest on the balance can give us a tax free budget for the next quarter century. Distributed amongst the people, every family can get two to three lacs of Indian rupees What has the Government done. This is just one example of failure of governance.
Externally we do not have the courage to tick off government’s which foster and finance dangerous terrorists and China which is not only in occupation of Indian territory but has an evil eye on Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and other parts of Bharat Mata. The Ruling Coalition has cohabited with traitors who are in constant collaboration with our enemies and act as their agents inside the national borders.
Parties are not an end in themselves, they are only a means. We have first to decide the qualifications of a candidate. Ultimately it is the elected representatives who collectively make the face of the Party in action. A candidate for Parliament must have the highest educational and intellectual qualifications. He must be economically independent, so that he has no motive to make politics his source of livelihood or to steal the poor man’s property. He must be able to stand up in Parliament and speak to the nation about his party’s promises and personal pledges to the people. Above all he must be able to stand up to his own party if it deviates from the path of public rectitude or national good. He should be ready to give up political office rather than be a party to betrayal of the nation.
Then comes the selection of the Party. Every party must be able to declare who will lead it if and when it comes to power. Those who cannot do this, cannot be trusted. We cannot take the risk of a rich criminal or a dumb entertainer occupying the serious and responsible position of controlling the destiny of a billion fellow citizens. In addition the Party must have a consistent and conspicuous record of public probity and fulfillment of its pledges.
No political party has during the recent confabulations displayed attachment to any sensible ideology or a set of political principles. Nor has any one even formulated and published a minimum programme of action for the next five years which will be immune from any deviation or dilution just to conjure up a coalition. Every declared manifesto seems subordinated to the paramount need to create a parliamentary majority. No firm agreement on measures of rescuing the country from the current mess is thus in sight. The search for a staunch party is futile. The concentration must essentially be on selecting good candidates in the hope that they will not scatter to the winds the pledges made to the people. At the risk of repeating what I have said more than once, a common minimum programme should consist of the following agenda:-
1. We should make it clear to the whole world that India is committed to constitutional democracy, inalienable Human Rights and independent Judiciary, to uphold the country’s basic law.
2. Judges will be selected not according to the existing procedures but by a broad based national judicial commission. Their rights and obligations should be that of other judges and public servants. The process of selection must be transparent and a full and periodic disclosure of assets will be vigorously enforced. Adequate number of judges should be appointed to put an end to laws proverbial delays which have only created contempt for judges and justice.
3. All vestiges of political non alignment, which in any event has never been sincere or full blooded, must disappear from the conduct of our foreign policy. Democracies and governments based on the rule of law must pool their material and moral resources in the interest of the under privileged and unhappy sections of humanity. Only democratic nations can unitedly face the menance of terrorists. A bold and forthright effort should and will be made to destroy their doctrinal base. Jihad which involves murder of innocent men, women and children to achieve any political or social objective is opposed to the Holy Quran and every other scripture and its practitioners ought to be told in plain terms that God is not maintaining a whore-house for their benefit. The reward of a Jihadi is not paradise but eternal damnation. Since most Jihadis profess Islam, it is the duty of Muslim intellectuals to speak up and cleanse the brains of the Jihadis of the gibberish which has been filled into them by scheming politicians and clerics. Harsh laws are just not the solution. Legislators thereby themselves become terrorists against our constitutional values.
4. Corruption must be treated on par with terrorism. Much of terrorism flourishes because of corruption. Corruption also leads to poverty and unemployment which in turn become a fertile recruiting ground for terrorists and suicide bombers.
5. Urgent attention must be devoted to the purity of our environment. We must stop pumping excessive dozes of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere and switch over to cleaner and safer techniques for production of electricity. Every years we are destroying 44 million acres of forest, we lose 100 million acres of farm land and 24 billion tons of top soil. Similarly we are creating 15 million acres of desert around the world. We are using about 160 billion tons more water each year than is being replenished by rain. Global warming will bring hurricanes, lower crop yields in the worlds poorest countries and in all probability the misery caused will generate religious belligerence and suicidal terrorism. The most frightful scenario is that a nuclear bomb may get into the hands of a terrorist gang. In short, we must speedily institute actions recommended by the Earth Charter Commission (ECC) and observe its principles of sustainable development.
6. Every political party must unhesitatingly and honestly dedicate itself to the creation of a truly secular society. Our secularism has been as counterfeit and insincere as political non-alignment. The true secularism of the Indian Constitution means the subordination of all religious faith and practice to the rule of reason. The freedom of religion has been expressly subordinated by our Constitution to the needs of public order, health and morality. Secularism, without intense secular education is limitless deception. Imparting of any education, inconsistent with true secularism should be prohibited and punished by law.
7. Public pressure must be built up to compel the government to take immediate steps to freeze the stolen wealth lying in foreign Banks and to take every diplomatic and legal action to repatriate the money to India along with the names of the criminals so that Indian legal processes can begin to operate and inflict on them the maximum punishment which they justly deserve.
RAM JETHMALANI