Let it suffice that after the reports concerning how the Electoral Bonds were being used to collect funds for the party, I was oblivious of the manner in which the entire deal was being carried out and unaware of the nature of the immorality that would manifest in the process. It was sufficient for me to accept that money paid to political parties as Electoral Bonds (EBs) were exempted from income tax, but it didn’t strike me as to how this would open the most dangerous means of sacrificing the country’s economy to a political party.
And if that was the plan in mind when devising this EB fraud I needed, at that early point in time, to have had very scholarly, bold and industrious friends around me to educate me on the devious manipulations that these EBs would be put to. I needed to traverse with quite novel questions, as though with new eyes, the enormous and well hidden deceptions that the deceitful souls would create in using them at the expense of the country and its people knowing that they held the keys and the power to threaten any company with dire consequences unless the company obliged to their every demand.
To this day I am still looking for those friends who can educate me on these matters (and haven’t found any) and I certainly will not give up searching for them because as of now only the tip of the proverbial iceberg has manifested itself which I shall mention in the paragraphs that follow accompanied with a preposterous remedy.
The task before me is to move around with novel questions, and as though with new eyes, to see the intricate and extremely well hidden tricks that only the most crooked persons from the “State of Immorality” (people of one particular State in India have been the most immoral in the way they have deceived the country) could conceptualise, and the evil tricks they have actually put to practice and lived out in the past few years.
What has surfaced after the Supreme Court ruled that the State Bank of India was to reveal the names of the firms and companies and persons that contributed to the political parties through the use of these Electoral Bonds is creating headlines from day to day, headlines that far exceed the wildest imagination of anyone. The quest to grasp an understanding of what is happening is nothing short of the discovery of a land for the first time.
If I considered, in the above drama, that I myself would be somewhat a part of it all, being a member of a party that received and apparently manipulated companies to purchase EBs or face the wrath of the Enforcement Departments, it is because I had no idea whatsoever what the nature of the EBs was at that point in time. I am still getting my head around them now after hearing the latest ruling of the Supreme Court that there were additional details that the Election Commission wanted from the State Bank of India (15th March 24).
Here I admit that I have deceived myself in the entire matter, being as I was wont, to point an accusing finger at others, even constantly reminding our people that our State was declared as the “Most Corrupt State in the Country” by the country’s Home Minister when all along I was a member of a party that was indulging in the greatest heist the country has ever known? My desire then, at any rate, was to point out to the people the illegalities that were going on in my State, and so exempt myself from any feeling of immorality, and also to alert myself against gazing around aimlessly while all around corruption was going on in full swing.
That was then, what one can extrapolate this time round is that this EB issue is an altogether isolated question mark, and so I must react. Whoever sticks with finding answers to this EB scandal and learns how to ask questions will experience what I experienced – every kind of mistrust, suspicion, and skepticism leaping out of the earth – one’s belief in morality will falter and a new ultimatum will arise, and here is where different people experience different demands.
Having learnt of the enormity of what was taking place in the current EB scam, I can now exonerate my home State politicians of any immorality that would attract major condemnation such as the type I was putting them through, and which I now view as petty compared to the immorality that is surfacing from the EB scam. And for sure no party from Meghalaya had resorted to EBs for the simple reason that we are relatively less deceitful than others. When political parties are bent on enriching themselves at the expense of the State it is obvious to any referee which party has the upper hand. Hence we need a critique of party moral values.
That a lady MP could be expelled from Parliament for her alleged misdemeanour as a person and that nothing is being done to a party that has committed a far more evil manipulation against the nation does not speak well of our political moral values. An insight that can connect the value of the EB evil against a political party is yet to come to light.
We have accepted that evil is evil and that no rating is considered necessary when it concerns people, but what of the party that commits an illegality, can it be allowed to get away with it, and if it does wouldn’t it then have a graver impact on the future of the country, wouldn’t it then devolve upon the people in that party, wouldn’t they conduct themselves in even greater immoralities? If this continues unattended now it would be nothing less than entitling corruption by the party and that would mean the ultimate destruction of the society.
Yes this is what is at stake now. To those who hold contrary views to that stated above let me be clear, there is nothing worth taking more seriously than prescribing penalties to a political party when it intentionally commits immoral acts at the expense of the State. In this regard since the EBs have left nothing to speculation because everything is so perfectly documented that the SBI functioned in the interest of some political parties, and furthermore, since it has also come to light, that the Enforcement Departments were being exploited to threaten and coerce business houses into purchasing EBs instead in the name of a political party, and since the party subsequently paid a part of that amount to an individual in the party, it raises the immediate question of how do we penalise a party that indulges in such malpractices? Believe me no political party will initiate such a law.
I admit that people will find difficulty with coming to an agreement on having a special law to deal with the illegalities that a political party may intentionally commit. It is clear enough, that the ruling party has the greatest advantage and that, assuming as I do, every party hopes to be “The Ruling Party” therefore hoping that the political parties will come up with a solution is a high hope – no party wants it. Regarding this EB scam for example, the Opposition parties in Parliament knowingly allowed the ruling party to use the government machinery to do its job at revenue collection.
Why? I do not know anyone in any political party, or any common man for that matter, who has not at some time questioned the extravagant Assam BJP State office in Guwahati or the BJP Headquarters in New Delhi. Similar things are happening in other states. All these point to a scam promoted by the party, and that is squarely where the blame must rest. And it is for this reason alone that a special law needs to be passed that deals with the illegalities committed by a political party.
I am aware that this idea has not been taken seriously enough by any party – not even by any person – and the reason is obvious, but we have a right to demand for it. How a political party is created and how many representatives it has are essentially minor issues. To be sure, we have unlearned most thoroughly that which is necessary above all – that corruption is corruption and if one is to hope that a similar trade off will not recur we have to learn to identify a party as a person now, and penalise the party as one does a crook.
From here on, as Indians, we will become even more mistrustful and suspicious of our politicians and our political parties. If nothing drastic is done to penalise a corrupt party, I fear party corruption will become a way of life in India, and everyone will take for granted that there is nothing wrong in cheating and betraying others so long as it’s done by the party.
