In what way is Pakistan like India? Well,they are better at cricket no doubt having just wiped England out while India got wiped out by Australia. It also has a functioning Supreme Court which is as good as Indias. Pakistans Supreme Court is engaged in a titanic Constitutional battle which may shape the future of democracy in Pakistan. The Indian Supreme Court seems on the other hand to be mired in sorting out the day-to-day dysfunctioning of the government not just at the Centre but in the States as well.
Indians are rightly proud that India is the largest democracy. It is,almost except for the persecution Muslim creative artists,a liberal place. It has a functioning legal system and an independent Election Commission which tries its best to police the electoral process. Political parties carry on polite and verbose exchanges in Parliament and battle out obscure legal issues. The media is free and by and large fearless.
That is Dr Jekyll India. We saw it again when the turf war between Adhaar and the Home Ministry was settled amicably and quickly by the Prime Minister. We see it in the new broom the PMO has been swept with and the appointment of a new media person for the PM.
On the other hand,every day we see the reality of Mr Hyde behind the pretty facade of Dr Jekyll. The Supreme Court judgment on 2G,even as we try to digest it,tells us that something is profoundly wrong in governance. What is worse is that it is an open secret that DMK or its twin AIADMK have always insisted on securing the ATM ministries as they are called whenever in coalition at the Centre. It was no secret and what A Raja was doing must have been known to anyone who wanted to know. We see it when the Supreme Court indicts the PMO for its laxity in the allocation of licences. We see it in the dispute over the ISRO chief and the Army Chief of Staffs birthday.
Corruption is of course not a monopoly for any one party. The Congress is fortunately for itself not in office in three out of five states where there is an election. Hence it can criticise the incumbent governments about corruption. But the rule is that all incumbent governments are corrupt whatever Party they may belong to. There is hardly anything to choose here. Every party also plays the caste card,selects chargesheeters as candidates on the excuse of winnability factor,welcomes fugitives from other parties who suddenly develop loyalty to their latest host and abuse their previous one. All parties use black money in elections and often are caught by the EC. No party has internal party democracy and the choice of the likely Chief Minister is entirely left to the top leadership.
None of this would matter very much if the world was the old world of the 20th century. India has been a corrupt country for all its years of independence if not since before. Where there is a problem is that now India is judged by the world since it is also a place where people come to do business. The 2G scam attracts attention because of its FDI implications. In the old days it would not have mattered. The Satyam scandal was similarly exposed on the New York Stock Exchange and not by the Andhra government or even any Central institution.
Some will say the problem is the FDI not the local corruption,that it is liberal reforms which have India more corrupt than ever before. But the truth is that liberal reform subject India to a much greater scrutiny than it has had so far. The CWG scandal was exposed by the tax authorities in UK when they received a dodgy claim for VAT exemption by a company whose normal business was not in event management.
Have no doubt that the cancellation of the 121 licences,however,well justified will dent Indias reputation as a place for doing business in. Now it is obvious that crony capitalism was in full swing in granting telecom licences. Says who? The Supreme Court of India.
