By Jaspal Singh,
Few days ago the Supreme Court of India delivered a judgement in the case that has come to be known as Coalgate. The court in its judgement declared that all the coal allocations since 1993 have been illegal, arbitrary and ad hoc.
This verdict of the highest court has indicted all the central governments since 1993 that includes governments headed by BJP and Congress. In this period for five years government was headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and for ten years Manmohan Singh was at the helm of affairs.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
It is widely known that as individuals and at personal level, both Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh are men of integrity and not corrupt. But how is it that their governments carried out illegal activities for decades?
The Supreme Court is yet to decide on framing criminal charges and what to do with these illegal allocations. But it is being claimed by political pundits that neither Manmohan Singh, nor anybody else in earlier government of Vajpayee will go to jail or will be punished for these crimes.BJP that had made such a great noise about Coalgate and disrupted parliament for almost two years has become quite speechless and the government which claimed to make India corruption free is also silent. All it can come up with is that they will respect the verdict of the court.
The industrialists and companies that are implicated in this verdict have already started making deafening noises in the media that this judgement will discourage foreign investment as a smokescreen to blackmail the country. Some of these companies have made super profits in the meanwhile.
How is it that governments headed by honest prime ministers can carry on illegal activities for decades? How is it that public resource are handed over to looters and plunderers under the watch of honest prime ministers?
This is how liberal democracy works. Although a great deal of noise is always made about the rule of law, but the ruling elite cannot afford rule of law and violates it with impunity under the watchful eyes of prime ministers like Manmohan Singh, Vajpayee and others. Public resources are handed to private companies for a song by which these companies make super profits, while people are displaced and environmental degradation and devastation takes place, bringing death and destruction to people and nature. Vast areas of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Assam and other areas are going through this plunder at present as well.
Honest ministers or corrupt ministers and officials, tt does not make any difference. The reason being that the state and government have been hijacked by private interests, a very tiny minority. They use honest and corrupt ministers and officials to push their interest. They violate the law with impunity, as they know that they are above the law and the lawmakers are in their hands and serve their interest. In face of the public outcry they will punish some fall guys but the system of loot and plunder of public resources by a tiny ruling elite will continue whether there are honest prime ministers or corrupt ministers.
In many areas of India, voices are rising up to demand community control of natural resources, to remedy the present situation that has been going on since 1858 when the British colonialist started plundering public resources in a systematic way, declaring that the colonial state is the trustee of all natural resources.
This situation can only be remedied by the communities controlling their natural resources and deciding about them. This of course is not acceptable to BJP or Congress or other political parties, as they all represent the interest of the tiny ruling elite that has been amassing great wealth since 1858 at the expense of masses of people.
People have to take these matters in their own hands and give rise to new forms of organizations and collectives that safeguard their resources and interests.
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Jaspal Singh is a philosopher lives in Cambridge, MA.