Institutional Rot – A Matter of Concern and Worry

 

Institutional Rot – A Matter of Concern and Worry     

We the people of India are living in a democratic country with the lofty ideals of ‘Liberty Justice, Equality and Fraternity’ as enshrined in the Constitution of India. Our constitution stipulates Rule of Law, Guaranteed Fundamental Rights, Empowerment of the weaker sections of the society through affirmative action, Gender equality, Casteless society among other attributes with matching ‘Checks and Balances’ and necessary institutional backup. Of late, It has been observed that some sort of ‘institutional rot’ has set in which is not only weakening the tenants of good governance but also resulting in very negation of a democratic edifice of the country and also harming the social fabric of the society at large. It is a matter of concern and worry. My spontaneous concern to write about this comes from the role of the National Commission for Women in the recent sordid incidents of barbarism – rape and murder in Manipur. I have no political affiliation and write this as an ordinary citizen with no claim of scholarly or intellectual orientations. The views are personal; one may or may not agree with me; no animosity towards anyone is intended.

National Commission for Women under the stewardship of its Chairperson Rekha Sharma failed in doing the job, as mandated and expected, in taking action on the complaints of brutal sexual assault in Manipur, obviously, with intended bias to save and support the Administration of the State as against the complaints. It is a matter of shame and constitutional fraud with ‘we the people of India’. The Hindustan Times editorial has rightly commented, “The travails of NCW mirror the unfortunate trajectory that many such quasi-judicial bodies set up with the noble intent to serve under-privileged sections of the population have suffered.”

In accordance with the Constitution of India and the relevant statues, a number of quasi-judicial bodies like National Human Rights Commission, National Scheduled Caste Commission, National Scheduled Tribes Commission, National Minorities Commission, National Women Commission, and National Safai Karamchari Commission among others, not only at the Central level but also in various States of India, have been established. The ideas of setting up this institutional mechanism was to safe-guard and protect the interests of the vulnerable sections of the society keeping in mind the traditional graded inequality and caste and gender based discriminate prevailing in the society at large. But it seems that most of these organs have proved to paper-tigers and are fully controlled manipulated by the ruling dispensations. It is a total negation of the letter and spirit of the objectives to set up this paraphernalia. The Hindustan Times has further said, “Despite considerable powers of investigation, review and action bodies to serve SC, ST, Minorities and Women have largely been reduced to effete institutions because of deep politicization of their functions over decades that have rendered them incapable of taking independent decisions in cases of atrocities or violence involving marginalised sections.” These statutory commissions are required to submit their yearly reports to the President of India through the concerned Minister of the Government and in turn these reports are to be submitted to the Parliament as provided in the procedure and process. I don’t think it is being done religiously. I have not heard of any such action or debate on these matters in recent years. I made the Google search on the reports of the NCSC from the official website of the Commission. It was revealed that the last such annual report was issued in 2001-02.  In the given situation, what is the use of having these ‘white elephants’?  In reality, these commissions have become ‘parking lots’ of disgruntled, failed and nuisance-savvy politicians (Chale Hue Kartoos) and faithful bureaucrats (Darbari Ji Hazoors), unfortunately. The fast deteriorating state of affairs in this regard requires immediate rectification before it gets too late. One instant example, off hand, comes to my mind – GOI appointed one politician of Punjab as the Chairman of NCSCs a couple of years ago

to shunt him out from the Council of Ministers. He was made to resign from the coveted position to enable him to contest assembly elections in Punjab in 2021. He could not make it to be an MLA. Soon thereafter, he was reappointed and parked at the NCSC. Now again, last week, he was advised to resign from the post of Chairman of NCSC to utilize his services, as per the media reports, probably,  in the run up to Lok Sabha elections in 2024. One can easily understand the standing and efficacy of the NCSC from these details. I have no intension to find faults with the person involved. He is a politician of standing by his own right. But the whole process speaks of the fact as to how much importance and utility such bodies carry with the respective governments.

Another relevant aspect of the said institutional rot, if we go by the public discourse in the media, involves the so called ‘autonomous’ bodies like the EC, CAG, CBI, IB, ED among others. Of late, every day there are allegations and counter-allegations of use or misuse of these elite institutions by the ruling dispensations to carry forward their ulterior agendas. These organizations are the premier agencies to perform and oversee the democratic functioning of the Government and the State as mandated and stipulated by the Constitution of India. The founding fathers intended to make these statutory organs very strong and effective as one can understand as to what the chief architect of the constitution had said, “B.R. Ambedkar told the Constituent Assembly that he saw the CAG as "probably the most important officer in the Constitution of India". The dictums of ‘Checks and Balances’ both to streamline the functioning of the governments and restrain and reform the society with a view to protect the marginalized sections of the society, stipulated in the Constitution and by creating these institutions as ‘watchdogs’ are very important and essential for the functioning of parliamentary democracy. Any attempt to undermine these constitutional bodies would lead us to the Grammar of Anarchy” as warned by Dr. Ambedkar. It should be understood and the institutional rot must be arrested – the sooner the better.

Masjid to bana di sab phar mein;

Iman ki hararat walon ne,

Man apna purana papi hai;

Barson se namazi ban na saka