Articles
Rulers Corporation Unlimited
Dt: 14/3/16
Rulers Corporation Unlimited
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
Ten out of fifteen TDP MLAs in Telangana had left the party and join the TRS. Nearly as many YSRC MLA’s in Andhra Pradesh joined the TDP in A.P. Many more legislators in the opposition party will move over to the ruling party. There are two reasons. One is that they are not able to deliver on the requests of their electors or the promises they have made to the constituency because the ruling party is withholding funds especially welfare for people in the constituencies of the opposition parties. Therefore they feel will not be re-elected and they are not respected now. The second reason is they had spent huge amounts of money for buying the votes. They have to recoup that amount. It will be possible only if contracts for any work in their constituency are given to the entity recommend by them. The huge welfare spending is channelled through the supporters of the ruling party . It is only when the contracts and welfare disbursements are channeled through the MLA, that he can recoup the amounts spent to buy the votes and win the elections. Since the ruling parties have become cynically selfish and are aggrandising themselves without sharing with the opposition parties, the MLAs of the parties not in power have to necessarily defect and join the ruling party. Governments are reduced to hugely spending corporations with unlimited liability. Much of the spending is going to MLAs and members of the ruling party and the lion’s share to the proprietor of the party. It is unfortunate that Indian democracy is not only feudalised, not only privatised but is proprietorised . This is especially evident in the regional parities. How can we save the nation and the country if the people are purposely corrupted ( purchase of votes and MLAs) by those who are supposed to lead them ?
2. Mergers and Acquisitions are common in the commercial corporate world. Similarly in the Rulers Corporations there are mergers like in 1980 the wholesale merger of Janata Party under the leadership of Bhajanlal in Haryana with Indira Congress; the acquisition of12 of the 15 TDP MLAs and three Congress MLAs by the ruling TRS in Telangana and nine YSR Congress MLAs by the TDP in Andhra Pradesh . Market sharing agreements in the commercial corporate world has its exact parallel in the political markets. Examples are “understanding” ( not in the nature of ”alliance’) between CPM and Congress ( Sonia) in West Bengal and JD (U); RJD and Congress (Sonia) in Bihar. The idea is maximisation of profit ( gain MLAs/MPs; power and wealth for the party President and his family)
3. Rajaji long ago foresaw the decline of morality in the then mighty Congress party. The rot started in Nehru’s time itself and has been accelerated during Indira’s rule . Chanting the mantra of garibi hatao and socialism she introduced party control into every act of governance. She even inducted committed judges into the High Courts and the Supreme Court - committed not to any principle but to her brand of socialism and garibi hatao and her person. Communists like Mohan Kumar Mangalam of the CPI’s Central Committee and some others joined the Indira Congress and implemented Communist Party’s techniques of leveraging government in order to control people and ensure their dependence upon the rulers. As the charisma of Nehru- Indira dynasty waned, regional parties started challenging the Congress. The best method they found was to a grouping of castes and promis much more than what Indira did. That is how welfare spending has been ballooning. In the year 2004 the central government ‘s spend on food subsidies was about Rs. 40,000 cr . Last year it was Rs 1,31,000 cr . 40% of it is, according to government surveys, stolen by business men, people‘s representatives in the ruling party and government officials.
4. So the political parties have become rulers corporations and those who are not shareholders (party members) of these corporations get no dividend that is, loot from welfare spending and contracts for development works like road building schemes like Indira houses ( two crores are reported to have been built in undivided Andhra Pradesh ; the total number of households in undivided A.P was 2 cr and 10 lakhs).
5. The Swatantra Party spearheaded by Rajaji, NG Ranga, K M Munshi and Minoo Masani stood for less government, better governance and preparing the people for self- reliance instead of dependence on government through welfare payments.
6. Today the rulers corporations are enriching themselves. Corruption is rampant. All power is concentrated in the proprietor-rulers. The revolt of the people and the poor is postponed by measures which help the poor to live in painless poverty forever. There is no way that measures like NREGA, which pays out without work; and periodical increases in the salaries of government officials (in fact lords) will ever enable the poor to quit poverty. They are becoming addicts to government payouts.
7. Some Chief Ministers who are acting as the Chief Executive of the Rulers Corporations have acted as follows:
· The cabinet of the Telangana government has decided that the Chief Minister can spend Rs. 5000 cr, and each minister can spend Rs. 5 cr per year to fulfil on the promises they make to the people while on tours. All this is in addition to every MLA, MLC assigning Rs. 2 cr per year for development works in their constituencies. That means all these MLAs and the ministers and the Chief Minister are becoming privileged share holders of Rulers Corporation .
· One Chief Minister of a Telugu state besides having his magnificent Secretariat rooms has two camp offices in that city and another camp office near the new capital that is yet to come up. About Rs. 10 cr are spent on each one of them.
· The same Chief Minister found that his residence in the shared ( with TS) capital is vastu non-compliant. So he is having it broken down and reconstructing it and for his temporary residence he hired private accommodation on which Rs. 10 cr was spent providing security equipments alone.
· The other Chief Minister of the Telugu state is now building Rs. 30 cr resident/office in a five acre site within the greater Hyderabad city. He too is having a camp office besides the Secretariat.
· These new rulers are out- doing the Zamindars and Princes who had been abolished in the first few years of independence because of simple living and noble working were the ideals then. But now for the new rulers work is ignoble and high living is the fashion.
8. In Hinduism there is the concept of daridra is narayana ; that is, the poor are equal to god. So welfare payments are offerings to the gods (the poor). Gods idols do not partake of the offerings of the devotees; only the intermediaries (priests) get the offering. So now what are offered to the daridra narayans by the government are going to the shareholders of the Rulers Corporation Unlimited – unlimited because the debt of state and central governments are increasing without any limit.
9. The population, especially among the poor and vote bank sections is increasing rapidly. For every one job advertised there are between 600 to 1000 applications. More than 50% applicants have degree certificates, especially B.Tech and MBA. The Rulers Corporation Unlimited is going to crash one day. What may survive may not be the Indian state in fact but feuding regional parties dependent on “ minorities”, and heavily indebted states, blaming the Union government for not giving “special status” and packages of money. (1,146 words)
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