Thursday, October 25, 2012

Top 10 Unwritten Laws of Indian Politics

1) Law of "BIG" Money 


Most politicians in power and their kith and kin make "BIG" money by
exercising their power and influence to the fullest. Common areas of
involvement include Land deals, Educational Institutions, Power projects,
Coal mining, Cricket associations, etc. Where there is "BIG" money to be
made, expect the involvement of one or more politicians. If you find none,
you can be rest assured that there is an invisible hand. Recently Beni
Prasad Verma of the UPA, rightly pointed this out when he said, " I believe
that Salman Khurshid would never get involved in a scam of Rs 71 lakhs,
because it's a very small amount. Had it been Rs 71 Crores, it would have
been more plausible."

2) Law of Families and Personal Lives 

Families of politicians are off limits when it comes to exposing scams. In other words, the ruling party will not go after the immediate family members of opposition leaders and vice-versa -- a well understood and accepted quid pro quo. Digvijay Singh sincerely refers to this as “political ethics.” Gadkari captures it brilliantly when he says, “Char kaam hum unke karte hain, char kaam woh hamara karte hain.” Personal lives of politicians are also off limits. Multiple wives, extra marital affairs, sexual favors are all ignored. If exposed for some reason, rehabilitation is often just around the corner.

3) Law of Legal Process

Investigations and court cases almost never produce anything of significance because they simply take so long that they become irrelevant. e.g., the Sukh Ram telecom scandal which took over a decade, Lalu Yadav’s fodder scam, Mulayam’s DA scam, the all important Bofors deal, to name a few. Most importantly, people involved in the process of investigations and cases can be bribed, eliminated, or if nothing else, transferred (a la Ashok Khemka). Also, politicians almost never go to jail. The more visible they are , the less likely they are to go to jail, no matter what the case against them might be. " I am open to any investigation, if found guilty, I will quit politics." Not surprisingly, starting with our erstwhile PM, this is the Mantra of INDIAN POLITICS.

4) Law of Enforced Silence

People in power, especially politicians, prefer that you take them to court rather than spew allegations at them in the media. When there are allegations, the standard counter is to say, “If you have enough evidence, why not go to court? Why indulge in a trial by media?” The reality is that if you go to court, then the matter becomes “ sub judice.” A convenient shield that virtually buries the issue for eternity.

5) Law of Counter Allegations

If you have allegations against the ruling party, you are branded as an agent of the Opposition. If you have allegations against the Opposition, you become an agent of the ruling party. If you have allegations against both and you hit the streets because you are frustrated by law 3 and 4 above, you are undermining democracy and promoting mobocracy.

6) Law of Independent Investigation

The concept of an independent investigative agency does not exist. The CBI is a weapon of the ruling party to harass its opponents (a la Jagan Reddy, one of the present-day enemies of the UPA). If your party is in power, enjoy it while it lasts because once you are out of power, the same agency could be after you.

7) Law of Time Limit

Most people get into politics to rake in the moolah rather than to serve the nation. You “loot and scoot” because you never know when you are going to be out of power. Arun Jaitley sympathetically pointed out, “Politicians aren't very well paid. They have to earn a living.”

8) Law of Scam Control

This law involves multiple steps. When caught in a scam: - 
The 1st step is to deny all the charges. 
Step 2 is to question the credibility of the accusers. 
Step 3 is to get your colleagues and well-wishers to defend you. 
Step 4 is to try and split the accusers by finding someone on their team who  will counter-accuse the accusers (a la Y.P Singh, Annie Kohli). 
In Step 5, you agree to a TV interview and chant the mantra outlined in law 3. If the matter does not die down.
Step 6 is to start calling your accusers names, “Megalomaniac, Hitler etc.”

9) Law of the Middle - Class

The middle-class is a fickle, harmless nuisance. They make a lot of noise from time to time and soon they forget about it. Most importantly, they don’t bother to vote or organize themselves into a voting block of significance. As an example, they raised a hue and cry over reservations but eventually, it ran out of steam. 

10) Law of “Aam Aadmi” 

Don't worry about the “aam admi” as long as you coin a nice pro-people slogan once every five years. In the interim, be sure to come up with creative schemes from time to time to dole out some taxpayer money to them in order to secure their votes. The NREGS is a fine example. 


Source: http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/outsideedge/entry/top-ten-unwritten-laws-of-indian-politics  by Pran Kurup

No comments:

Post a Comment