“ After retirement my corrupted mind momentarily attracted me to the goldmine of politics. The petty amount I drew as salary (before 6th Pay Commission) was not enough to support the family and in retired life I felt like a sailor pushed out from the deck. I had decided to resume my first career-love, journalism and authoring books.”
by Maloy Krishna Dhar
(April 04, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Indian media are agog with Arabian Night stories of fantastic offers to the voters during the forthcoming state assembly on April 13 for 234 seats in Tamil Nadu. M. Karunanidhi (Abba) and J. Jayalalitha (Amma) have promised giving away freebies worth few hundred millions. This been has been described by the media cynics as peculiar Tamil congenital addiction to bribery. Bribing the electorate for vote and distribution of cash and goodies are said to be a distinguished hallmark of democracy in South India. I am abhorred by such media allegations and nose sneering against the people living south of the Vindhyas. It echoes old Aryan bias against the Dravid people.
Let us see what all have been promised by the Abba and Amma to the voters. Voters in Tamil Nadu are a luckier lot. They live in a democracy where the underlying philosophy is tena tyaktena Bhunjitha (you enjoy after parting with your wealth). It is a different Commonwealth of Freebies. Voters are promised land, house, TV, mixer, grinder, fan, rice, laptop and mineral water – everything for free. It doesn’t matter whom you vote for, whichever principal party comes to power, the electorate is bound to make considerable gains. After the DMK announced a string of freebies in its election manifesto, the archrival AIADMK came out with its own edition of the soap opera.
The DMK’s manifesto reads like a book about freebies. The AIADMK is not lagging behind. In fact, the AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalitha tried to beat her bête noire Karunanidhi at his own game by jumping several steps ahead. Jayalalitha has promised half a sovereign gold to women awaiting marriage apart from a cash assistance of Rs 25,000. Girls who are graduates or hold a diploma will get double the assistance. By dangling gold for the ‘thali’ (mangalsutra), she appears to have marched ahead in the game of enjoying after sacrificing. What a great tyaga dharma that could not even be foreseen by Lord Buddha!
While the DMK had assured a grinder or mixie for every household, the AIADMK has offered both. Jayalalitha, who had derided DMK’s freebie culture in 2006 assembly polls, has decided to give Karunanidhi a measure of his own medicine. To counter Karunanidhi’s offer of laptops to all college students, she has assured to provide every Plus One and Two (Higher Secondary) student a laptop. On the DMK’s part it appears to be an afterthought, as initially the party had promised laptops to only SC/ST and OBC students in government and aided colleges. The offer was expanded by Karunanidhi while launching his election campaign at his native Tiruvarur on Wednesday. But, now it has been left gasping by Jayalalitha’s offer.
Other sops on offer for school students from the AIADMK are four sets of uniform and footwear besides a hike in scholarship up to Rs 5,000 from class 10 onwards to bring down the dropout rate. Each ration card holder would receive free 20 kg rice per month and the BPL families would get 20 liters of mineral water a day. The DMK has promised only 35 kg free rice. For women voters maternity leave has been promised to be increased to six months and pregnancy assistance hiked to 12,000. Women self-help groups have been promised Rs 10 lac as loan with a 25 per cent waiver.
In response to DMK’s assurance of 21 lac concrete houses, the AIADMK has promised 3 cent land to families to construct homes besides offering 300 sq ft houses for the BPL households. The scheme would be expanded to cover the middle class with a subsidy component of Rs 1 lac. The AIADMK also promised to nationalize multi-system operators (MSO) and revive the Arasu Cable (Government Cable Corporation) to provide free cable connection to the poor. The move would end the monopoly of the Maran brothers’ Sun TV Network’s Sumangali Cable Vision (SCV).
However, neither the DMK nor the AIADMK have spelt out the quantum of money to be spent by them in doling out freebies to the voters. A brilliant Tamil mathematician friend had patiently calculated the expenditure involved in freebies alone to the tune of Rs. 3000 crore. He, being a master mathematician, worked out that the two main Tamil parties were likely to spend between them a staggering amount of Rs. 20,000 crore. A dullard in arithmetic, the figure did not enter my head and I failed to accommodate the 0s after the numerical in my pigeon brain. I just cried out the name of yet unseen Lord the God in a secular manifestation: Oh Ishwar, Oh Akal Purakh, Oh Allah, Oh Jesus and finally recited the final requiem to Indian democracy by reciting the famous mantra: Buddhang Sharanam Gacchami. My democratic nirvana spored out of that mantra of nirvana. And I decided that for the rest span of my life I would migrate to some place in El Dorado Tamil Nadu and wait for the doles and freebies from the Abba and the Amma. My meager pension and paltry income from writing would be augmented by Abba-Amma kripa.
These days the WikiLeaks has become a new Veda. Let us see what that Veda sutra has to say about elections in that part of the country. A latest WikiLeaks cable has exposed south Indian politicians’ dependency on unfair means, including the cash-for-votes tactics, during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
The cable has caught politicians in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh admitting that cash for votes was a way of life in the south Indian politics. They have admitted to violating election laws to influence voters during the last parliamentary polls. These leaders have admitted to payments made in the form of cash, goods, or services, according to a revealing cable sent to the state department by Frederick J. Kaplan, acting principal officer of the US consulate general in Chennai.
In a cable sent on May 13, 2009 Kaplan elaborated the role of money in the electoral process: “Bribes from political parties to voters are a regular feature of elections in south India. From paying to dig wells to slipping cash inside the morning newspaper, politicians admitted to violating election rules to influence vote.”
“The money to pay bribes comes from proceeds of fund-raising, which often crosses into political corruption. The precise impact of bribery on voter behavior is hard to measure. But there is no doubt it swings at least some elections. Journalists, politicians, and voters speak of bribes as a commonly accepted fact of the election process,” he said.
Interestingly, the taint does not spare any of the major political parties of south. Karti Chidambaram (Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s son) of the Congress, M. Patturajan (confidant of DMK’s M.K. Alagiri) and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi spoke without inhibition how they and their men made payments to voters during the election campaign. Representatives of an NGO working in a Chennai slum said that the two main political parties in Tamil Nadu — the DMK and the AIADMK — regularly bribe voters.
Ordinary gutless people like me admire the bravery of some of the political leaders who make frank brutish admission about their capability to bribe the electorate. A MP friend from the South snubbed me for calling such action as bribing. In his view Indian democracy is a great festive occasion when the Islamic type zaqat are given out to the less privileged people. It was like a Rajasuya Yagna, when the Maharajas opened their coffers to the subjects. Obviously the Maharaja and the democratic ruler retain to right to plunder his subjects once voted to power. In the political and governing systems money floats like spring-time shedding of leaves. The expert politicians and the Baboo(n)s around them know the tricks of milking the people and the nation and bleed the people white. They are given back few drops of blood on the eve of another Rajasuya Yagna, called elections in a Gangland Democracy.
What has the High Priest of election, the Chief Election Commissioner has to say about these practices in Indian democracy? The Press Trust of India quoted the High Priest S. Y. Quraishi by stating that the promise of providing freebies such as mixies and laptops to the people by political parties in Tamil Nadu was a “disturbing” trend. “We have been hearing news of parties in Tamil Nadu promising mixies and laptops to people in an attempt to impress them … this is a worrying trend and the public has been taking notice of it,” he said addressing a lecture on ‘Sustaining Electoral Process — India’s initiatives.’ Mr. Quraishi said that his office could do little to curb this trend as the parties had chosen the distribution of freebies as their election manifesto but the Election Commission would act if “there was any distortion in the list of expenditure of candidates” at the end of the campaigning process.
Mr. Quraishi dared not spelling out the crying need for amendment to the election laws for preventing the political parties from distributing freebies and encouraging electoral corruption. The major political parties, the media and the intellectuals have so far ignored this distorted equivalency between a democratic election and Rajasuya Yagna. That such election is the Mother of Corruption has not engaged the attention of any well-wisher of the country. A pragmatic Yadunandan friend of mine from Pataliputra ridiculed me by saying that I was treating the national character of free giving and taking (robbing) as corruption. My mind was corrupted by such convoluted thinking. Well a Yadunandan is as wise as Lord Krishna. I have now started digging my mind to find out if my mind itself is not corrupt. Otherwise, why should I see evil in a democratic maha-yagna?
I do not blame the Abba and Amma of Tamil Nadu and other advocates of democratic rajasuya yagna. This is not peculiar of the South. All over India, in every state, money-game plays vital role in wooing, soliciting and purchasing votes. Vote is a costly democratic commodity. Periodically the voters exercise that right and for every form of offering to the election rajasuya the voters expect a price. Prices may include bottles of theka sharab desi, IMFL, sari, dhoti, bindi, bangles, gutka, SIM cards, cell phones, women’s makeup items, popular movie CD/DVD and of course liquid cash. Cash is distributed mostly during door to door campaign just one or two days before the polls.
In my Sonar Bangla, the land Vivekananda, Netaji and Rabindranath, certain additional dimensions have been added to the giving-taking process. Generally after 1967 murder, maiming, rioting, group clashes and gallons of blood offering have augmented the value added quantum of election rajasuya yagna. Unless 100 odd heads are crashed, dozens of lives are lost and innumerable limbs are broken the election process cannot be completed. In the forthcoming poll the fun should be greater, as the muscle and money of the Left has been matched by the muscle and money of the Trinmul Congress. The election wrestling arena should become more vibrant. We eagerly wait to see the wrestling between Didi Mmata’s and Dada Buddhadev’s armed cadres.
In certain other states of the cow belt the process is sanctified by bloodshed+freebies+money+ preventing the Dalits and other underprivileged voters from turning out to the polling booth. In certain cases the villages are surrounded by the soldiers of the upper caste and OBC candidates and the voters are prevented from venturing out of their homes. Besides procuring certain freebies they have to import from Nepal and Bangladesh certain sophisticated weapons and encourage the local gun manufacturers for supplying kattas (local guns) in large numbers. These are used for fighting, intimidating and often killing opponents. Using force against the weaker sections is a common feature. An enlightened foreign degree holder MP from eastern UP told me: these chamars, bhangis and julahas have no right to vote. I appreciated his understanding of the meaning of Indian election (pronounced ilekson) rajasuya yagna.
Way back in 1978-79 I had the temerity of including in a note to the government that certain upper cast voters were preventing the dalits from coming out of their homes and canvass for their candidates. The than PM, a satrap from western UP, had me overhauled and I was made to reprocess myself through the stereotyped consumer-friendly reporting to the higher authorities. They, like Gandhi’s monkeys do not like to see, hear and speak evils. In the scale of the impartiality I would rather like to weigh the freebies of the south equally with the highly democratic practices of skull breaking, village burning and mass-preventing of the voters. I would prefer my skull to remain intact and get a laptop plus gold and money rather than facing the other ingredients that go in making Indian democracy a bazaar commodity.
I had the opportunity of living in the fringe of the political and governing systems of India. I observed the circus and at times my services were used by the bread-givers in the process of subverting the electoral system, formation of governments and donkey-trading; sale and purchase of legislators. Certain episodes were described in my book Open Secrets.
After retirement my corrupted mind momentarily attracted me to the goldmine of politics. The petty amount I drew as salary (before 6th Pay Commission) was not enough to support the family and in retired life I felt like a sailor pushed out from the deck. I had decided to resume my first career-love, journalism and authoring books. In addition I was tempted by the devil of expectation to join a particular political party on request from some close friends. After experiencing the election rajasuya yagna in eastern and northern parts of the country I cannot accuse my southern co-citizen for being political robbers and seducers. I was assigned to be associated with parliamentary election process of a political party over a decade ago. The sin that I committed was prompted by my proximity and once upon a time friendship with a landmark political manager of the party. I was also tempted by the eluding goldmine, though my political tango lasted only for 18 months. I suffered from cerebral indigestion and quit the arena.
I was assigned certain important duties. Seated in a cubicle of the party office I had to first meet the candidate-aspirants and compare their curricula vitae with the data bases fed in the party computer. Moreover, I had to asses (not count) the weight of his briefcase and direct him to meet a higher manager who was authorized to receive the briefcases and suitcases and pass on to the dark chambers of the supremo. I had no idea who managed the dark chamber and where it was located. Some stupid party gossip mongers and some incorrigible media persons dropped into my cubicle and wizened me by repeating that part of the dark chamber was located in Delhi and a sizeable part was located on a foreign soil.
Infidelity was never an ingredient of my life. However, inquisitiveness, that restless squirrel in my mind pushed me to take lessons on the weight and contents of the briefcases and suitcases in the process of forwarding the carrier to the higher echelon of the Kuber Bhandar (store house of the Hindu God of wealth). After strenuous research I reached the conclusion that aspirants visiting with a single briefcase (may contain 20 to 30 lac) had very little chance of getting a Ticket from the party. Some aspirants visited with travelite size carry bags. Such trolley bags often contained 50 lac to 100 lac. Such visitors were honored, offered tea and were cordially forwarded to the ladder above. These visitors did not include aspirants who had established image in the constituency and had solid cast equation with the electorate. They were shortlisted by a panel and they had to pay personal obeisance to the supremo; obviously with appropriate pushpanjali (offering of flower), meaning slightly less weighty briefcases.
I estimated that if the party contested 250 seats in a constituency there should be 2500 candidate-aspirants. Each aspirant has to pay minimum 10 lac to the state unit leader of the party for inclusion of his name in the privileged list of ten. Therefore, at the state level itself the collection (for the party or for private Kuber Bhandar) would be to the tune of 2500 lac. In the capital city the collection would range between 12, 500 lac to 24,000 lac. My arithmetic is poor (barely got 40%). Therefore, the learned readers may work out the minimum figure in a particular state.
I had the onerous task of purchasing/acquiring from various sources (only for the UT of Delhi) several items which were essential in conducting the election ceremony. The items included, briefly speaking, 5000 bottles of theka sharab desi (country liquor), 7000 bottle of IMFL (Indian made foreign liquor) and store these in secret locations to be distributed one or two nights before the polling day. Some were distributed during campaign period as well.
The task included purchase of minimum 150 SIM cards for each constituency for liberal use by the campaign workers. Workers using two or four wheeler vehicles during campaigning were paid Rs. 200 each par day plus Tiffin money of Rs. 500 per team. If there were 30 such teams the expenditure ran into thousands per day.
The list of procurement included hiring hand-held VHF sets (15-20 per constituency) at Rs. 500 per set per day. The sets established networking amongst the campaigners and the control room at the candidate’s HQ and the party HQ.
Besides these items the task included hiring minimum 20 cars for each constituency for facilitating movement of the campaigners. Some 20 wrestlers were hired for each constituency for protecting the candidate in the campaign trail and to prevent hostile elements deployed by the political opponents and even adversaries in the party itself. Each wrestler was paid, a decade ago, Rs. 500 per day plus food expenses. The present expenditure should be higher, especially after our wrestler earned international recognition. They eat like Bhim and shit like elephants.
The most delicate job included choosing and hiring a video maker to make a laudatory video on the candidate, his dedication to the party, loyalty to the supremo and his services to the Aam Aadmi of Bharat. Aam Aadmi did not mean ordinary toiling person.Later I understood that Aam meant mango and Aadim meant a voter who was bought for a price. Aam was for sucking the juice and Aadmi was for using as foot-mat. Footages from archives depicting former great leaders of the party were tailored with the sacrifices of Mother India, her political lieutenants and excursion of the party amongst the toiling and starving masses of the country. The 45 minutes video was examined by the supremo and the important courtiers. They suggested certain editing and additions. After the final product was approved 1000 copies were made for distribution to state tributaries.
Similarly, some singers were hired to sing in praise of the supremo and the candidate imitating popular tunes like Sheila ki jawani and Munni badnam etc. Hundreds of audio cassettes were distributed in the constituency, free of cost. The artistic world was also exploited to perform nukkar natak (street corner drama) eulogizing the candidate and defaming the opposing candidate and his party. For that purpose I had to get the script scanned and approve for final approval by the candidate and a committee. Surprisingly our schools of drama and mass communication produce prolific talents. Election time is a bonanza time for the poorly paid (often not paid at all) junior artists and performers. I admired some of the talents. One of them confided in me that she would be paid only Rs. 2000 for the duration of month long performance. Well! Artists are paid higher amounts only when they get break in the celluloid world or the idiot box. The average street and stage performer get a pittance.
The most onerous task involved purchasing thousands of bindis of different sizes, enormous quantity of glass bangles and imitation-gold chains. Different qualities of saris, dhotis, blankets were procured in thousands. These were meant to be distributed amongst the slum dwellers, urban villages (a specialty of Delhi) and unauthorized jhuggi dwellers. A candidate friend of mine, who never walked down to the nearest slum on the banks of Yamuna, was made to walk down the dusty track across a slushy drain to a slum cluster. He had the privilege of distributing the saris, dhotis, blankets to the prospective voters. There was a rush for the bindis and bangles amongst the ladies. Some elders appreciated the string of plastic pouches of gutkha. My friend was so great that he agreed to be photographed and videographed with a dirty juggi child on his lap. That photo still decorates his house to prove his closeness to the underprivileged.
Another specialty of polls in this region is locating, identifying and inducting the guest voters. In a polling booth, where 1000 or more voters are eligible for voting, in average twenty guest voters are facilitated to cast votes in place of genuine voters. This trick has several layers. Inviting the guest voters from nearby states, accommodating them in one or more secret locations, providing them with quality food and preferred IMFL and cash payment of Rs. 500 per day. In case a candidate decides to import 500 guest voters for 10 days he has to spend about 25 lac for remuneration plus another 5 lac for food and drinks. The cost of making fake voter identity cards is extra.
I had calculated way back in 1997-98 that in one constituency alone a candidate had to spend more than five crore for efficiently contesting an election-win or lose. My learned friends may calculate the mind boggling amount that may be required in performing the election rajasuya yagna in all the parliamentary constituencies. They may leave out only 2% constituencies which are located in tribal area and where the voter numbers are less. That should give a clear understanding about the cost of an election mahayagna. The learned readers may guess where the money comes from and how the expenses are compensated after the leaders get elected to power.
My mathematician Tamil friend told me: you fool, the money go from your and my pockets and from the nearly empty food-plates of the starving and near starving millions of the country. The freebies offered by Abba or Amma do not cost them much. The whole process starts and ends with you. Do you realize stupid? I cannot ignore his legendary Tamil wisdom.
(Readers interested in knowing about the election rajasuya yagna in India may like to read my book: We the People of India-A Story of Gangland Democracy. This is not a solicitation, only a suggestion)
[ About Author:- Maloy Krishna Dhar is former director of the Intelligence Bureau, Government of India ]
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