DailyPost 2928
ZERO TOLERANCE FOR POLITICAL COMMITMENTS
Government’s commitment and political commitments seem to be one and the same thing in the messy democratic politics of India. The distinction of what is spoken on the behalf of the government and in a political party is completely lost. The ruling party and the government have become one and the same thing, and rest everybody is an outsider in the governance of this country. Political manifestos hang in mid-air and so are the policy announcements and enforcement related tirade of the government. Whatever gets done with no effort or to fulfil vested interests is what we can term as the de-facto governance of the nation and consequently our plight.
What is often quoted to prove the resolve of the government and at times of the political party and many a times interchangeably is much abused, supposedly a governance term, called Zero Tolerance. This term does not exist in the administration lexicon. The legal mandate very clearly indicates that if some acts are committed in contravention of the law, you are bound to take legally dictated action. There is no discretion inbuilt into either the statute or the legally mandated enforcement playbook. The declaration of the Zero Tolerance conversely means it has been broadly been a free for all.
The legal caveat is why Zero Tolerance on the whims and fancies of the political class or the political executive. Can they sit in judgement over the law whether they should act on it and in which manner. It smacks the mindset of illegally self declared custodians of law. On the sidelines, guarantee is also gaining ground and has already become the most circulating democratic currency of the day. Back to Zero Tolerance, the most talked about in recent times have been the issues of corruption, crime against women and terrorism. What progress we have made on these counts, the people bearing the brunt can decide.
Not getting into the accomplishments of the great Zero Tolerance policies, on the contrary, the general premeditated calibrated attempt has been to have a media campaign to prove the same. The political leaders and the supporting bureaucracy will gleefully play ball. This abject failure of the most famous Zero Tolerance drives against corruption and crime against women has reached nowhere. Actually the descent has been sharp. The RG Kar incident and Hema Committee report and action thereupon gives a clear indication on where we stand on our political commitment of Zero Tolerance for crime against women. For the record we hear ghastly news on a regular basis, inclusive of very young girl kids. As far as corruption is concerned, instead of Zero Tolerance corruption seems to have taken over governance; seen in audit reports, electoral bonds, MUDA, liquor policy case, standard commission rates, paper leaks etc have left the country gaping. Terrorism we leave for some other day.
LIP SERVICE AND DEFENDING YOUR OFFENCE IS THE DEMOCRATIC TRADITION WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF BUILDING FOR THE GENNEXT.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.