Need for Kautilyan caution
in governance
Jagdish N Singh
Kautilya
In his famous treatise Arthasastra, Kautilya, the
consummate statesman of ancient India,
prescribed several time-tested commandments to
a nation’s political command for quality governance.
One of them warned rulers against having any
addiction and causing popular distress in the state.
R e g r e t t a b l y ,
the successive
l e a d e r s h i p s
across the
p o l i t i c a l
spectrum in
post-colonial
India have
hardly cared to
be enlightened
by this caution
in their
functioning.
Almost all
our political
parties’ leaderships have come to allow allegedly
criminal elements to contest elections for our national
and provincial legislative Houses and penetrate into
our power structures. Such elements are not in the
nature of appreciating the public good, fostering good
governance and averting popular distress.
Supreme Court of India
Our Supreme Court has of late done well to have
taken cognisance of this evil phenomenon and sought
to remove it . On September 25, 2018, a five-judge
bench of the Court directed that all candidates
contesting any polls must widely publish the details of
their criminal history if any, to the public. The Court
directed that their criminal history must be
mentioned in the nomination forms of all candidates.
The political party and the candidate must advertise it
thrice in newspapers of the area and also in electronic
media after the nomination papers are filed.
Last month, the Court passed an order in a
contempt petition that submitted that our Election
Commission had failed to comply with the directions
of the Constitution Bench ( 2018) . In its new order,
the Court has directed our political parties to publish
the entire history of their candidates for the Assembly
and Lok Sabha elections . The Court bench comprising
Justices R F Nariman and Ravindra Bhat ruled that all
candidates must be selected on the basis of merit and
achievement. The winnability of a candidate could not
be the sole reason for selecting him or her.
The Court
ruled that
advertisement
of compliance
reports with
respect to the
d i r e c t i o n s
must be filed
by all parties
before the
E l e c t i o n
Commission.
If any party
failed to do
so, it could
result in a
contempt of
court action.
The Court directed the Election Commission of India
to follow up the matter.
One hopes our Election Commission and political
parties’ top leaderships both would comply with the
new directive of the Court. They must honour the
spirit of our Constitution and not allow any allegedly
criminal elements to pollute any of our august
representative houses at the Centre or in the States.
(See “ Condone no contemner,” Power Politics,
August 2019 and “Purging rogues out of Parliament,”
PP, May 2019).
We cannot take any risk on this matter. Even if one
single person, out of the huge numbers of allegedly
shady characters in our Houses of representatives,
turns out to be a criminal in reality , he or she could
cause disaster in many ways. It has to be ensured that
no criminal element occupies a seat in any elected
body . ( See “ Corrupt politicians the main threat to
democracy,” PP, February 2019). The rising number of
allegedly criminal elements in our Parliament and
Assemblies has been very alarming. ( See “Too many
shady elements in Parliament,” PP, July 2019).
According to an authentic study , in the 17th Vidhan
Sabha, constituted in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, 143
legislators, out of the total of 403, have criminal
antecedents. In the Delhi Assembly constituted
last month , more than half of its MLAs face
criminal charges.
India & Muslim world
Narendra Modi
Has the
Narendra Modi
g o v e r n m e n t
improved India’s
relations with the
Muslim world ?
K n o w l e d g e a b l e
sources say
n e i g h b o u r i n g
Islamabad remains
as critical of New
Delhi as earlier.
Ankara has traditionally been an important capital in the
Muslim world. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
sees Turkey today as a successor of the Ottoman Empire.
In order to establish himself as the sole leader of the
Muslim world, he has been championing a cause perceived
to be close to Muslim masses . Last month, he compared
India’s present Kashmir situation with the Gallipoli
campaign.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Erdogan termed New Delhi’s actions in Kashmir
‘unilateral’. Addressing a joint session of Pakistan’s
Parliament, he said “ the issue of Kashmir is as close
to us as it is to you [Pakistanis]... ” Erdogan had raised the Kashmir issue during his address to the
United Nations General Assembly in September 2019
as well.
Kuala Lumpur , another important Muslim capital in the
world, has been a vocal critic of New Delhi’s decision to
end the special status of Kashmir. Ankara and Kuala
Lumpur do not seem to
appreciate Jammu and
Kashmir , now an Indian
Union Territory, is an
integral and inalienable
part of India. They do not
appreciate the grave
threat of terrorism
Islamabad has posed to
secular India.
Besides, the
Organization of Islamic
Cooperation is, by and
large, critical of India. On
August 9 last year, several Muslim groups came out in New
York to raise their voice against New Delhi’s action in
Jammu and Kashmir ( See “ Time for effective diplomacy,”
Power Politics, October 2019).
Kingdom’s clout waning
Mohammad bin Salman
Can New Delhi’s recently improved ties with Riyadh,
under Saudi Arabian de facto ruler and Crown Prince
Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, help it
influence other Muslim nations for long?
The sources say Saudi Arabia has historically been a
force to reckon with
in the Muslim world.
But its future is
uncertain. The
Kingdom’s financial
clout has of late been
waning. It has had a
population explosion.
It is being increasing
difficult to provide
employment to
younger generations
in the Kingdom
today. The kingdom
may become a less
munificent patron in
the Muslim world once its cash flows start to dry up.
Kais Sajed
Besides, the current Iranian military threat to the
Kingdom has made its reliance on American military
assistance much higher. The Muslim world in general
does not appreciate the
growing RiyadhWashington bonhomie .
The Arab street views
American President
Donald J Trump as a
deadly enemy of Islam and
Muslim interests. It does
not appreciate Saudi
Arabia’s growing ties with
Israel as well.
Most of the Arab
leaders may fear and hate
Iran. But they still cannot
overlook the age-old
general Muslim hostility to Zionism. During the recent
presidential elections in Tunisia, Kais Sajed emerged
victorious in part due to his anti-Israel rhetoric. Also, the
Arab leaders play their anti-Israel card to justify their
own failures as well as to oppress their political
opponents at home.