"The presidential form is
not suited for India"

PRESIDENT K. R. Narayanan, while addressing a joint session of Parliament, convened to mark the conclusion of the golden jubilee celebrations of the country’s Independence, echoed the feelings of a majority of Indians. He voiced his concern over the declining standard of decorum and debate in the Lok Sabha.

Holding similar views, for Rabi Rai, a former Speaker of the Lok Sabha, frayed tempers, violence in the Well, and use of unparliamentary language in the Lok Sabha are a logical sequence of the criminalisation of politics.

Rabi Rai believes that the world’s largest democracy is today threatened by the powerful crime syndicates and mafia, who wield a formidable influence over the country’s politicians, bureaucrats and law enforcement agencies. The vacuum created by the disarray in, if not the disintegration of, some of the leading political parties, also threatens the democracy.

The former Speaker was in Solan some time back on an invitation to preside over the "August Kranti Diwas" function, organised by Nivedan, a local voluntary social organisation, engaged in focussing attention on regional and national problems.

Romesh Dutt interviewed him over the issue of parliamentary decorum and current standard of debates in the Lok Sabha. Excerpts:

The public image of an average MP, which was that of a self denying person totally dedicated to the nation till at least the 70s, has taken a beating. What has caused this downward slide?

I will answer that in three words — criminalisation of politics.

This is a strong statement, considering that it concerns the privileged members of the country’s apex democratic institution.

Not at all. As a matter of fact, how can one deny something that has been telecast live a number of times? In any case, I am making a statement about a general trend and not about individual MPs, some of whom can rub shoulders with the world’s greatest parliamentarians anywhere, anytime.

Also, please remember that as per an Election Commission Report, there were 40 MPs facing criminal charges in the last Lok Sabha and 700 such MLAs in the different state legislatures of the country, prior to the last General Election.

But ascribing criminalisation of politics to falling standards...

Well, I get your point. In order to answer your question properly, I will have to outline the "hows and whys" of the process of criminalisation of politics and politicalisation of the criminals. I will refer to the N.N. Vohra Committee Report, which was tabled in the House sometimes after the infamous Naina Sahni murder case.

The Vohra Committee Report recorded the statement of the then Director, CBI, who informed that his agency had prepared a report on the nexus between the Bombay city police and the underworld wayback in 1986, about seven years in advance of the Bombay blasts which were allegedly engineered by underworld dons Dawood Ibrahim and Memmon brothers.

Your reference to the Vohra Committee Report boiled down to an allegation that some of the MPs won their elections leaning over the shoulders of the crime syndicates and the mafia!

I was not alleging, I stated an unpleasant fact in public interest. Who, do you think, could have provided the kind of money needed these days to contest Lok Sabha elections? You must be knowing that the figure these days runs into several crores. Since rules do not permit election expenditure of that scale, "all that money" must be coming from grey/black sources. No?

It was not merely a question of use of mafia money. Contesting and winning of elections was associated with the use of muscle-power. The "muscle-power" used was certainly not that of the police or paramilitary forces. You know it. Everyone knows it.

You have established that a certain nexus existed between the politician and the mafia. How does this affect parliamentary standards?

You see when mafia dons started realising that their money and muscle-power could get even pygmy politicians elected, they themselves decided to either field their fellow-travellers or, in some cases, even themselves. Considering the fact that some of the crime syndicates had international connections, the entry of tainted men in the Lok Sabha and legislatures posed a definite threat to the future of democracy in the country, leave aside the "standards of debate and decorum".

Could the lack of proper education on the part of certain otherwise clean MPs, also be a contributory factor towards the fall in the parliamentary standards?

No, if by education you mean college and university education. You must not forget that one of the greatest parliamentarians ever to adorn the Lok Sabha was Madhu Limaye, who was not even a graduate.

What, in your opinion, are the remedies for the malaise outlined by you?

First and foremost, we must undertake electoral reforms. The ceiling on election expenditure must be realistically fixed and necessary infrastructure should be raised to ensure that no candidate transgresses the prescribed limits with impunity.

Legislation must be enacted to guarantee, in real terms, the people’s right to information. The common man must be empowered to examine all kinds of public documents, particularly those relating to the expenditure of public money. Of course, documents relating to the security of the country could be exempted. At the same time, care must be taken to ensure that this exemption is not misused.

It would be pertinent to recall here that the Official Secrets Act, currently in force in our country, was enacted by the British to keep prying Indian eyes away from their misdeeds involving the loot of our national resources, in 1923.

The need to amend it in the light of present-day requirements, cannot be overemphasised. Any such amendment must be solely aimed at providing the requisite degree of transparency in the working of the government. Such a step would automatically check the mafia’s efforts to promote and establish the nexus between them and persons in power and authority.

It was a well-known fact that the mafia did not invest any money in bribing officials and politicians simply to keep the latter in good humour. After passing on large sums of money as bribes, the mafia expected to multiply their investment manifold, through official patronage.

Empowerment of women through reservation of seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures and other public fora would also play a significant part in curbing the influence of the crime syndicates. Women, by nature, would be less susceptible to the inducements offered by the underworld.

At least, the established political parties should start imparting a comprehensive, holistic education to their cadres. The grassroots worker must be enlightened about the working of various democratic institutions, the history and culture of the country as also about the particular ideology and programme of his party.

This would ensure the emergence of enlightened political cadres, which would be trained to facilitate the smooth functioning of democracy.

You said something about the threat to democracy posed by the disarray in, or disintegration of, some of the political parties.

Successive coalition governments fell after the Indian National Congress lost its premier position.

The coming into power of insecure, coalition or minority governments at the Centre, lead to a belief in certain political quarters that the parliamentary system of democracy had failed in India and the American system of presidential form of democracy was more suitable to our peculiar conditions.

I would like to emphasise the fact that presidential form of government is apt for a country like the USA, as it has a single major religion, and primarily the same ethnic stock and, above all, a population less than that of India.

In a country of over 100 crore people, the rule of a single person could prove to be disastrous. Imagine enforcing the writ of a single man on people so numerous and belonging to different regions, religions, castes and ethnic groups.

Experience has proved that the American system was less accountable to the people directly. Of course, one can impeach a President. But, at what cost and effort! Independent attorney, Kenneth Starr, had to fish out millions of dollars in addition to his valuable time and energy, just to establish that his country’s President indulged in behaviour unbecoming of a person of his stature.

The United Kingdom was rocked by a sex scandal involving the country’s defence minister, Profumo, in the 60s. He resigned virtually overnight after a public hue and cry. The then British Prime Minister knew that members of the House of Commons would tear him apart if he did not press for Profumo’s resignation.

Incidentally, the President of our neighbouring country Pakistan, was also named in that scandal but nothing happened to Ayub Khan, since he was a dictator.

The Profumo example powerfully drove home the merits and demerits of various forms of government — the Presidential, parliamentary and dictatorship.

Those who were advocating replacement of the parliamentary system with the presidential system could, in reality, be for the imposition of a virtual dictatorship in the country under the garb of a presidential form of democratic government. Herein lies the threat that I had talked about at the beginning of the interview.