Why should politicians have all the fun?

Everybody knows that politicians and their supporters do not manufacture any product nor provide any services that they sell to buyers to earn money. Yet they have huge reserves of funds. Political parties say that they get donations from well wishers. They say that this money is spent on the functioning of their party and upkeep of their party offices, for organizing/conducting various political events and other expenses. It is unclear whether members are paid salaries as well or they get a share of the amount they are able to collect from the public (through donations obviously).

We have seen people get into politics and amass great wealth. The source of this wealth is not clear. It is very difficult to understand exactly how people associated with politicians also become holders of great wealth. Elected members (MLAs, MPs) are entitled to some sort of salaries (paid by the government) but what about the unelected one’s, the one’s we always see hovering around the political leaders. They also seem to have immense wealth.

Even though the salaries of the most elected representatives have been hiked time and again the properties that they have in their names or in their family member’s names are way beyond what they can acquire with their salaries or through their known sources of income. They are required to declare their net worth before every election and in most cases it is seen that their net worth increase in exponential proportions and nobody seems to either understand or ask questions like how did they do it.

Though it is well known but hardly proven we can assume that these are ill gotten money. Money that was meant for development of the country and its people but siphoned off by a few people and their families.

It is assumed that Political parties and their leaders generate funds by the following methods

• Through imposition and collection of illegal taxes (also called goonda tax in local jargon) from all kinds of businessmen and traders (petty shopkeepers, road side hawkers, fish/meat/vegetable vendors, etc.). Obviously they do not it themselves but use young men who work for them under their ‘payroll’ and protection from persecution.
• Through getting a share of the illegal collections made by police personnel at various avenues (I don’t want to elaborate on that as I believe you must have understood by now)
• Through getting their shares of bribes collected by various members of the government machinery- be it for giving employment, for initiating or restricting transfers/promotions, for approving or rejecting supply/construction/renovation/maintenance orders for various governmental/developmental works. Well the list is unending but I believe I have made my point.

Trying to unearth this ill gotten money has been very tedious and in most cases futile. Court cases run for infinitely long periods. Investigating agencies never seem to collect enough evidence. Witnesses turn hostile. The charges against the accused are eventually dropped, the prosecution loses the case, the accused dies due to old age and the cases are dropped. No one gets punished and everyone forgets about the money but the family members of the accused keep enjoying the wealth.

Going by the old saying that prevention is better than cure I believe restrictions need to be placed on the business of politics and the present breed of politicians.

Some specific steps as below can be taken up.

• Restriction in the number of times that a person can become an elected member at any level of the government? Everyone should get equal opportunity and not just a handful of people.
• Restrictions of acquiring any kind of property, movable or immovable, after a person is elected to a particular position. They should devote their time solving the problems of the country and its people instead of amassing personal wealth.
• Restriction on family, close or distant, members of the elected person to acquire any kind of property, whether movable or immovable, after a person is elected to a particular position. They should not be allowed to take undue advantage of their proximity to the elected members. This restriction is required since the elected members may try to divert their ill gotten wealth to their family members or show undue favors to them.
• Restriction on family members, close or distant, to contest elections and become members at any level of government during and even after a person gets elected. To stop creation of powerful dynasties who are given undue importance when it comes to governance.
• Politicians should be considered as public servants and political parties as public bodies since they are constituted by members of the public and the public makes donations for their upkeep. This should be done to keep a check on the members of political parties against their amassing wealth and power.
• The funds of the political parties should be subjected to external audit and taxes.
• The law related to assets disproportionate to known sources of income should be amended to bring politicians under its domain. So that politicians who find loopholes in the above recommendations are ultimately caught.
• The ill gotten wealth of corrupt people should be taken away from their possession and used for the betterment of the country and its people. (This is not my own idea)

I know no politician or political party is going to accept these recommendations easily and it is expected that they will reject/counter these recommendations. Some expected answers are-

• These are an attack on the democratic rights of individuals.
• These are impractical.
• We cannot have blanket ban on all politicians as all politicians are not bad. The good politicians who are doing good work will also be thrown out of the system.
• The country will lose experienced people to run the government.
• The moral of the political party workers will be affected and they will not work for the party. They will not devote their time for the party.
• There is no precedent in any other country or no other country has been able to successfully implement such drastic measures.

These recommendations should not be rejected outright, just by saying that these are not practical, but should be discussed over. If the recommendations have not been applied anywhere in any other country then it will be our privilege that we show the world regarding such political reforms, if you may like to call them. 

We have seen in the last 65 years that a new class of people getting created who can also be called as career politicians. These career politicians do not do anything productive for the country and merely indulge in petty party politics of one up-manship. They are more interested in winning the next election than actually do any development works after they are elected. We need to get rid of these people and get in people who are interested in working for the country and its people’s betterment.

In my opinion the all round corruption can be controlled to a large extent if action is taken from above. When seemingly powerful people are penalized or laws are made to stop corruption at higher places people at the grass root level will automatically comply with the law of the land.

Kindly do not interpret the title of the post to mean that everyone should be allowed to plunder the country and not just a few politicians. I just want to say that if good governance is a good thing then more people should be allowed to take part in it.