Jagadish G Chandra (New Socialist Alternative CWI-India) participated in a TV panel discussion on the issue of Cabinet bringing in an ordinance to overrule the Supreme Court judgement to bar Convicted legislators from active politics. As always happens, Cde. Jagadish was hardly given any time to elaborate the points. Here are the notes explaining New Socialist Alternative position on the issue.
Editors
Socialism.in
Indian democracy is long known as a sham. Those so called elected“representatives” are accountable to none. What the cabinet of Ministers of Govt of India has done today is unacceptable even by their own bourgeois standards. Entire Political system is rotten to the core, no wing of this system is today akin to a functioning democracy.
World phenomenon
In the recent period, if you look at Italy, Berlusconi has used all possible protection from his position in government to avoid being put on trial.
Members of the Parliament of France enjoy irresponsibility for what they did as parliamentarians, and partial inviolability i.e., severe restrictions for the to arrest or detain them. Both irresponsibility and inviolability are mandated by the Constitution of France. US, Turkey, Brazil are some of the recent examples where Parliamentary Immunity has come into question.
Yes, we are not a fan club of the judiciary or the rotten and corrupt parliament. We don’t want criminals to represent us, and we don’t think that MPs should have some kind of immunity.
The judiciary in this country like any other institution is rotten to the core. Very rarely do we get judgements and rulings which supports human rights, natural justice and humanity.
Yes we do have serious complaints against the money bag politics in this country, but ordinary people of course can’t rely on the Supreme Court (SC) to solve the problem with politicians (criminal or not) but has to build its own political alternative.
But with overruling the SC, the government is only emphasising that it can act in its own interest. The gap between politicians and working people has probably never been bigger.
The SC probably felt this more than the government does, attempting to stand a bit “neutral” and avoiding mass discontent.The government has exposed itself, showing that it’s first priority is to defend politicians.
But it is not BLACK & WHITE issue!
Any such sanitising of politics would just ossify the political status quo. Let’s not reduce politics to governance. Such reduction by definition freezes the status quo. Politics should retain the theoretical space to question and transcend everything, including its own legal and constitutional boundaries.
We reject the concept of only educated , upper middle class/caste people have the necessary political acumen to be active in politics
We don’t need SOME clean saviours…we need LOTS of people – in flesh and blood, with their weaknesses, at the centre of political stage…….politics has become too noisy and dirty for the elite and that is why they want to cleanse it….
If the SC RULING were to become a law many rank & file fighters on the ground would never be able to even stand even for a panchayat (local village council) election. I think we need to protect these genuine people from the powerful.
There are hundreds of Dayamani Barla’s, SP Udayakumar’s and thousands of other fighters of the people. Abhay Sahoo of Anti-Posco agitation, Abdul Nasser Maudany who leads the campaign of Power to the Avarnas, both are behind bars on trumped-up and fabricated charges, according to this SC ruling it is doubtful if they can ever aspire to fight an election.
It is a Cuckoo land concept to keep the Parliament ‘pure’ when the social reality on the ground is full of pit falls, at the end of the day parliament is also a reflection of the unjust social reality
We the working people need to build an alternative to the present rotten system
Jagadish G Chandra
Bangalore