No control over the natural resources - Water

Water works operated by the government in many cities are being sold to foreign companies
making water their property. In Delhi also water distribution system was being sold to foreign companies who would have charged its citizens money for every drop of water. There was an uproar from the citizens of Delhi after which the scheme to sell the water works has been put on hold. The rivers of the country are being sold. Shivnath  river in Chattisgarh has been sold to a company. Now the people of that region have to pay money for the use of water for irrigation, drinking and even for washing clothes. The indiscriminate use of river water is past history now. 

Dams are being constructed on all major rivers of the country. There are so many dams that are being constructed on Ganges that its existence is threatened. Soon it would become a trickle in the plains of the country. 

We do understand that we need electricity but indiscriminate use of a natural resource raises more problems than it solves. There are certain countries where there are laws to protect unfettered flow of a river. In our country the speed with which contracts have been awarded to private companies to build Dams over river, it seems the political leaders are more interested in the kickbacks that they get from such contracts rather than produce electricity. The pace of such construction would seriously affect the flow of water in the plains of the country. 

By the examples given above it is clear that natural resources of the country are at peril under the political parties, corrupt leaders and the government servants. Something will have to be done quickly failing which entire country would be sold out. 

No control over the natural resources - Forests

Bir Singh Markam is native living in Bastar District of Chattisgarh. He was growing corn over a small piece of land in the forest. This was his way of providing for his   small family. In 1998 he was arrested along with seventy five other natives  of that area on the charges that he had occupied the land that he tilled unlawfully. He was jailed along with others.
When he was released he had to visit the court at least twenty times in next few years. The
court was thirty kilometers away. Travelling expenses coupled with the fine broke his back and he was forced to sell of his oxen to pay for the same.
 
There are crores of tribal spread all over the country on whom the freedom in 1947 played a
cruel joke. The natives had lived on their land for generations   and the English in pre 1947 era treated the tribal areas as “Excluded area”. The English had adopted a policy of non interference and kept the tribal areas outside the British rule. The laws that were in force throughout the country were not enforced in these areas. In other words tribal areas were outside the purview of the British Law. 

When the constitution was promulgated in 1950 after independence then all laws became
applicable throughout the length and breadth of the country, including the “Excluded areas”. The tribal people are basically people of backward areas, poor and uneducated. They had no
papers to prove the ownership of the land on which they had lived literally for centuries. The
outsiders took advantage of this fact and started to grab this land. The tribal survived on the
land and the forest and some even lived in the forest. But the forest was declared as national
property by the government and the tribal for whom  it had been a home for centuries were
declared criminals by a simple law.  

Officials and minions of the forest department come and harass the tribal of the villages. Since these people do not posses the documentary evidence of the ownership of land on which they live, their occupation of the land is treated as unlawful. The officials of the forest department stop them from tilling their land, collecting wood from the forest or collecting flowers and seeds and do not allow them to let their cattle graze on the land. Their fields are mowed down by elephants. The soil is spoilt by throwing thorny seeds of babool. These people are beaten up and their crop is destroyed and many times the police arrest them.
 It seems ironical but as long as the forests were home and natural habitat to the tribal it was a forest but as soon as it was declared a national treasure it has started shrinking and is on the verge of extinction. Forest officials, contractors and politicians all in connivance with each other are looting and plundering this national wealth, and all in the name of duty.   

• Every year the government gives out contract to take out “Tendu leaves” from the forest.Every contractor gets contract for 1500-5000 bags of “Tendu leaves”. But officials of forest department are given bribes and how much the contractor takes out no one knows. Even a small contractors earns upto rupees fifteen lac per year. But the adivasi is paid only thirty naya paisa for each bundle of tendu leaves. Under the pressure of Naxalites, now that rate has been increased to one rupee.
• The government gives out contracts to paper mills to cut several lac tones of bamboo from the forest at hugely cheap rates. However, the paper mills give contract to adivasis at a rate of ten to twenty naya paisa per bundle. This way paper mills corner huge profits. 

These are but a few of the methods being used to deplete the green cover and we have no control over this

No control over the natural resources - Minerals

Our country has abundant reserves of minerals like, iron, bauxite, coal and etc.. These deposits were created by a natural process over a period of several thousands of years. This is our natural wealth that is either being sold to business houses at throw away prices or being leased to these companies. This wealth gets concentrated in the hands of few and we the owners of this wealth get nothing. The companies who have bought or leased these resources sell the minerals in international markets at super profits. 

It was mentioned earlier that companies that own mining lease for iron ore pay a meager
royalty of Rs. 27/tone to the government or let us say to us people. The same iron ore is sold at a price of Rs.6000/ per tone in the international markets. The expense incurred in extracting the ore and cleaning it up is only Rs.300/ per tone. Is this not a blatant loot of the countries natural resources?   

The rate at which iron ore is being mined will soon deplete the country’s resources if they have already not done so.   Goa exports large quantities of iron ore to Japan. It is said that this ore is of highest quality in the world but it has   finished or will be exhausted very soon. In the same way iron ore of Beladila in Karnataka is supposed to be one of the best in the world. In last few years this iron ore was extracted at such an accelerated pace by the companies in connivance with the political leaders that it is said that within next twenty five years the deposits will be exhausted. This ore is being exported to China.  Many countries are sitting over their deposits of iron ore waiting for the day when the other countries, like India have exhausted theirs.  

It is evident that this wealth is not safe in the hands of political leaders and the government
bureaucrats.   

Secondly, when permits are issued, for mining of the ores in any area then the people of that
area are displaced.  Jharkand, Bihar and Orissa government have signed several memorandums of understanding with mining companies under which  hundreds of thousand acre of land is being snatched from the tribal and handed over to these companies. In Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand several areas have become battle grounds for the local population and the police. 

This has given rise to the Naxal movement. The land belonging to tribal is being sold to mining companies at a pittance. While the companies owning the mines make obscene profits the locals of that land are faced with hunger, poverty. Their social fabric is being ripped apart.  

Thirdly, the mining companies do not take care of the environment while extracting the ore.
They blatantly violate the environmental norms, the effect of which has to be borne by the
population that lives around the area. When complaints are made, the government officers take bribe from the mining companies and decide to overlook into the causes of the complaint. 

When there is a leakage of any gas during the extraction of oil it can pose serious health hazards for the local inhabitants. In this small village near Ranchi where the ONGC was drilling for oil the people reported the leakage of methane gas ,not to  the ONGC,  because they,  knew the Corporation would not bother, but to the District Collector. Though the Collector assured the locals that appropriate action would be taken, he also mentioned that it was nothing to be scared of, for there were cases where methane kept  leaking from some of the functional oil wells. Methane is highly combustible and even the spark of a matchstick can cause fire and explosion in the atmosphere. 

 
So we citizens have no control over the natural resources of the country, no control over the
naked loot of the mineral wealth and no control over the ever deteriorating environment.

No control over the natural resources - Land

In the same way we do not have control over the natural resources of the country like mines, forests, water or land   which are being plundered and sold to business houses for personal gains of the elected representative. 

There is unrest in the country over the issue of acquisition of land. In every state of our country and  at least at three to four places, there is mass protest against the forced acquisition of land. The land  is being acquired against the wishes of the land owners. There are some fundamental issues which are highlighted as under in connection with land acquisition. 

1. Many farmers are just not interested in selling land because they cannot comprehend how the acquisition of their property for the proposed schemes of the government is going to benefit the common man or them and the government has totally failed to explain this to the people. In most places the acquired land is being given to big business houses, where the legislator has already struck a financial deal. This explains to a great extent why the elected representative is willing to snatch land away from the very people who voted him to power. 
2. Many farmers want better price for their land. It is believed that the price at which the land is acquired is less and that is becoming the point of agitation at many places. The rate of land for acquisition are decided  by the government and the people are not involved at all at any stage in deciding what they want or what they do not want. When the land is acquired the realization of the price of land takes many years. 
3. In many tribal areas land is acquired and a compensation of rupee one or two lac is given. This money is not sufficient to run their entire life. They belonged to that land through which they were making a living.  Once they are uprooted from their natural habitat, it is not only a social upheaval for them but also an invitation to hunger  and poverty. The government fails to understand and measure the gravity of the problem that the tribal face. 
4. Many a times when the land is acquired in a village, it is only the owner that gets the compensation. The others who depended on that land  for their livelihood, the laborer for instance face starvation. The whole economic infrastructure that revolved around that land collapses; for instance shops and small businesses that thrived on agriculture face extinction.
5. By acquisition of land for various industrial and other  enterprises   the business houses get a lot of profit, the politicians and government officers make money through bribes and the farmers face unemployment, the landless face hunger and deprivation and the food security of the nation gets weakened. Can the Politicians and the Government explain how this type of land acquisition is in national interest?

We need to understand the present system of land acquisition. If a company wants to set up a factory near or in the village then the company approaches the state government for permission instead of approaching the village. Bureaucrats and Politicians sitting in air conditioned offices in state capitals grant the company permission after taking hefty bribes. After the permission is granted for setting up the factory, the government  machinery is brought into motion like providing meager compensation, using police force to impose the acquisition and eject the land owners from their land. The land is, in fact, literally snatched from the people’s hand without their consent. All because vested interest at the centre or the state level are corrupt, inaccessible and unanswerable to the very people who had sent them to protect their interest with the government. 
In the name of Special Economic Zone (SEZ) land of  countless people is snatched away from them.  And the central government passes twenty to thirty such proposals in an hour If we are aware of the magnitude of one SEZ we can perhaps understand what goes on in these airconditioned office meetings where the country’s planners just take a few seconds to sanction one plan. Whatever goes on in such meetings we don’t know but there is certainly no time for due deliberation or discussion over the merits or the demerits of the project under review. But it is evidently here that deals are struck and money changes hands.  The companies who have paid the bribes are able to get their proposals sanctioned and the companies that have not go back empty handed  The process of sanction of SEZ is a  mere charade.

No control over Government policies and Laws

The third salient point is that we as citizens have no control over the parliament or the legislative assemblies and no control over the making of laws that affect us directly. Though the legislator is the representative of the people in the parliament, the interests of the people is farthest from his mind. The nexus between the government and the big business houses both within India and without play a big role  in formulating policies and enacting laws that are mutually beneficial.

The Politics of B.P.L.

We have heaps of schemes in the name of poverty eradication and for the poor. All these government schemes are responsible for turning the people into beggars. One interesting scheme goes under the name “Below the Poverty Line” (BPL). We will have to understand the political implications of this policy.  

BPL policies that are hatched by the centre are made with an ulterior motive of collecting votes for the ruling party. It is advertised and much publicized, projecting the government as pro poor. The politicians who make these policies in the name of the poor know from day one that this money will never reach the poor. But they show case and highlight these schemes to make everyone believe that this is actually for the very poor.
 

Why are the villagers not free to plan their budget? 

Why are the villages not given the right to decide what they want for their development?  Why our leaders sitting miles away at the Centre should be given this prerogative and not the villagers themselves?  

When we put these questions to a prominent political leader he was candid enough to admit that the existence of a successful government, coalition or otherwise, depends to a great extent on such schemes, especially the big money involved therein.
That said it all. We always knew it but now we had it straight from the horse’s mouth as to why the politicians made big money and why the villagers were left with just a mouthful.  The need for making grandiose development plans for the village without consulting the people now fell into place.  The neta wants to show that the government is for the people, to garner votes but makes sure all the while that the money came back into his pocket.
The BPL scheme of the government has been very successful in as much as it has attracted the villager,and hordes of them who are willing to be called BEGGARS, provided they get the monetary benefits from the government without doing any work. Living below the poverty line indicates that a person is incapable of earning a decent living for whatever reasons and he needs financial help from the government and the society. The paradox here is that everyone wants to be declared a beggar so that he can avail of the dole.  This cacophonic clamour for becoming a beggar is the biggest deterrent to the progress of the country. 

How can you expect a policy to be pro poor or pro nation if that policy is laying the foundation of a regressive mental state in the people?  

How can the nation then move forward on the path of prosperity and progress? 

I have yet to meet a person who has voluntarily left the BPL and gone back to earning a livelihood. All I see are masses who are making a beeline to partake of the government’s charity program. This scheme of BPL is having regressive psychological implications on the
poor of the country.
The two glaring truths that emerge: we have no control over the government employees and we have no control over the deployment of government funds.  

No control over government treasury

We have no control over government funds which is but taxes collected from the citizens. Our needs and necessities are ignored when plans to spend the collected money are made. We are not even told where and how the money was used.   

In the name of CWG Rs. 70000 Crores were squandered in Delhi. The roads were dug up and re made. Tiled Footpaths were unhinged and retiled. According to a newspaper report Rs. 400 Crores were spent on such footpaths.  

 The NDMC is riddled with contradictions and controversies. Sanitation workers of the municipal corporation have not been paid salaries for three months and certain contractors have not been paid for the last five yeas. Yet funds have been readily available for the construction of a helipad on top of the Corporation building to help political leaders land their helicopters there. 

When we go to the same Corporation with a genuine problem, we are told that there are no funds available. For example, Sundarnagri is a slum colony of New Delhi. The people do not have drinking water. They do not have a secondary school. There is no sewage system and the government claims that it does not have money to provide the same. But some years back fountains were made in the same area at a cost of Rs.60 Lacs. It was ironic that there was no drinking water but there was water for the fountain.  It was a joke that went sour for the red faced corporation was not able to provide water for the fountain even on the day of the inauguration. 

It is evident the government has money but it is used for wrong things. The money is not used for things that the people need. The wish of the people is not taken into consideration.
The problems of villages are different. The amount of money that goes there goes under some weird schemes. Policies are decided in the State capitals and in new Delhi by politicians and bureaucrats with a blinkered view of the problems that are faced by 120 crore people of India.  Their needs and necessities are never taken into account. The Neta thinks he knows the best.  There are several schemes like old age pension, widow pension, public distribution scheme  and others which are made by Politicians and officials located at state capitals and the centre that are divorced from the real people and their needs.    

We visited Khijuri village in West Bengal, where the Sarpanch told us that though the village had received rupees six crore from the government, they could not construct a school which was badly  needed and would have cost them only  rupees twenty lakhs. This was because this money was tied up under various scheme of the government, for instance, the pension fund or construction of houses under the Indra Vikas Yojana or for some other scheme.  
Our needs are not decided by us but by the politicians and bureaucrats at the centre.  The farmer might need money for irrigation, or the people need a hospital but if the government thinks  otherwise, then the farmer and the people and their needs can wait..  

We went to a village in Orissa where sixty three families were suffering from Plague. The village had rupees six lac available to them but that money was not free money. It was tied to one or the other of the government’s schemes. The nearest hospital was fifteen kilometers away from the village. In spite of the fact that so much money was available yet that money could not be used even to hire a vehicle and take the poor families to the hospital. The consequences were inevitable. Seven people died? 

What use was rupee seven lac if it could not save the life of people in that village?
Let us take an interesting example. It seems that one day an officer of government of India stationed at Delhi saw a dream. He saw that if people of every village started to collect water in their own village then the problem of water would be solved in the country. An order was passed regarding launching a scheme. The scheme had a slogan that ran something like “Our village our water”. If villages were to construct tanks to collect water then the village would be sanctioned rupees sixty thousand to one lacs for constructing the same. The scheme started from Delhi, was accepted by the state governments and then through circulars was sent up to the district magistrates for implementation. In one district, the
collector informed all the sarpanchs about the scheme under which funds could be sanctioned for construction of structures for collecting water. In a certain village when the sarpanch collected the people and informed them of   the Centre’s scheme about the allocation of funds against collection of water, the people laughed.  These villages were actually flood prone and needed no such grant or assistance or funds of the government. They did not need money for collecting the water but for throwing the water out of their villages. 

These are ridiculous schemes far removed from what  is needed by the people. There are specific problems in specific areas. There are different needs of different groups of people separated by geographical and cultural boundaries. The solution of problems cannot be measured by   the same yard stick.  Even two villages which are next to each other are bound to have different sets of problems. How can someone sitting in Delhi take decisions for them without knowing what they want or desire?  You cannot think up of solutions in isolation.

There is No Control over Government Employees

In a village government school, if a teacher does not teach properly  or decides to come late to school or prefers not to come at all , no action can be taken against him, even  if a complaint is filed to this effect  
Similarly, if a doctor in a government hospital does not treat the patients properly or does not prescribe or give medicines when needed no action can be taken against him even if a complaint is filed against him.  The owners of ration shops steal ration blatantly, but you have to remain a mute spectator for no action is ever taken on your complaint. 
In the same way when you go to the police station to lodge a complaint, the station house officer does not accept your complaint and many a times will initiate false cases against you. You can do nothing against him except seethe with an impotent rage.  

There are hundreds of other examples of passport  officers, personnel of revenue departments, licensing agencies, civic agencies dealing with birth death certificates where for smallest of works that common citizen has to get done has to pay bribes. This proves that we as citizens have no control over the government employees. 

We pay taxes. You will be surprised to know that the poorest of the poor including a beggar also pays taxes. Are you aware that every time you buy insignificant products like toothpaste, brush, cloths, copy , pencils, or a soap cake, then excise duty or sales tax is included in the price of that product. This tax that has gone into the government coffers is our money.  There are stamp duties, service taxes, custom duties and plethora of other taxes that go to government coffers. 

The statistics show that 70% of the population spends about Rs.20 only per day, per person. In a family of five, the monthly expense is Rs. 3000. If all kinds of taxes are added they average about 10%. In other words, even a poor family pays a tax of Rs.300 per month or Rs.3600 per year. If there are 1000 families in a village then, on an average they pay a tax of Rs.36 Lacs to the government. In 10years it means your village has paid a tax of Rs.3.6 Crores. You are the owners of this tax which has been collected by the government. All the government officers, bureaucrats, the political leaders are actually your servants. It is tax paid by you that disburses their salary. It is your money that provides them with bungalows. It is your money that runs their air conditioners. It is your money that provides them with those cars with flash lights, its petrol and their servants. 

These are the same people who look down upon you with disdain and indifference once their purpose is served.  It is a paradox that we have no control over the   people who draw their salaries from the taxes paid by us. We have no control over our servants. You can not take action against them, be it a government doctor or a teacher. You can say nothing to the ration shop owners and you fear the SHO of a police station.

Have you ever gone to a collector’s office? Have you tried to meet him? You will realize he is
unapproachable. Not only does the collector has an attitude but even his peon is ensconced in an ivory tower. We have no control over these government officers who are there to serve us and are paid salaries from the tax collected from us. 

CITZENS HAVE NO CONTROL

Root problem is the politics of electing our representatives once in five years who are not accountable to the people. The elected representatives once sent to the parliament are law unto themselves. People have no control over the same people in whom they had reposed their trust.

• There is No Control over Government Employees
• No control over government treasury
• The Politics of B.P.L.
• No control over Government policies and Laws
• No control over the natural resources - Land
• No control over the natural resources - Minerals
• No control over the natural resources - Forests
• No control over the natural resources - Water

Why This Book - Swaraj (Part-3)

A few days back there was news in the papers that a certain industrialist wanted to establish a private University in Maharashtra. He met the Education Minister of Maharashtra who in turn decided to table a bill in the state assembly that allowed private parties to establish universities in the state of
Maharashtra. Our state assemblies are ever ready to fulfill the wishes of the industrial houses. The mines of our country are being sold to these industrial houses for pennies. The companies that mine
iron ore pay a royalty of Rs.27/ per tone only. The same iron ore is sold in the open market by these companies for a price of Rs.6000/ tonne. It would be worth while to know that the expense for extracting iron and cleaning it is Rs.300/ tonne only. 

Is this not plundering of national wealth? 

In the same way our forests, rivers and other natural treasures are being exploited and manipulated by the  wealthy and  the powerful . Small landowners and farmers are being forced out of their land at a
paltry compensation in the name of development. The same land is then sold to these companies at throwaway prices. Natural resources and wealth of our country is not safe in the hands of the political
leaders and the bureaucrats any more. If nothing is done quickly then they will sell everything, even the country. 
There is a big question mark that looms large; a big question mark indicating the health of Indian politics and the Indian republic. All the leaders of the so many political parties that exist are the same. We can select leaders from one party or the other but the content of that political leader will not change. 
In last sixty years we have tried every political party and every political leader. But there has been no improvement in the condition of the country. One thing is certain that nothing happens when you
change political parties or the leaders.

 
We will have to do something more. 

We have been working, for the last ten years, on various issues through our NGO “Parivartan”. Some times we worked on Public Distribution system and at other times on privatization of water. Many a times we raised issues of corruption on the development work of the government.  We got partial success, too. But this success we realized was ephemeral and delusionary in nature. We got success on
the issue till the time we worked on it in that area but as we moved on to next issue the old issue became even worse than before. There are innumerable issues in our country and a sense of dejection started to seep in looking at the task in front of us. But we started to realize that the root of the problem is in the political system of the country.
All these issues crop up due to the corrupt politicians and their parties that have a nexus with criminal elements. Take the example of people involved with the grand theft of ration. These elements are under the direct protection of the political parties and their masters. When a complaint is lodged against theft of ration by a shop keeper to an inspector of food and civil supplies or the commissioner or the minister concerned, nothing happens because all these people are together in the theft. A large sum of the theft
reaches the top echelons. How can we expect justice against our complaint from the people who are robbers themselves?  At places where the media or the people exert their support then as an eye wash licenses of such shops are terminated. When the pressure of the public eases the officials of the food department take bribes and the same shops are then reinstated.
In this whole drama citizens have no powers except to lodge complaints against the thieves to thieves, hoping for a stringent action that is rarely taken. 
What we have started to understand is that the law  of the land must empower the citizens so that instead of making complaint against the theft of ration, the people themselves could punish the shop
keeper. The citizens must have direct control over the establishment where the decision of the people is implemented by the government officers and political leaders.
Can this happen? Can one hundred and twenty crore people of this country be empowered to take judicial decisions? Citizens are the owners in a democracy. The citizens have given the right to parliament and the government to take decisions on their behalf,   for their welfare. But the government, the parliament and the legislative assemblies have blatantly misused this right. Shamelessly and openly they have sold the citizens and their rights for Money. 
Is it time that we the citizens take back the right that we had given to the political parties, the politicians and the government officers to take decisions on our behalf for our welfare. Is it possible? Will it create anarchy? 

I have traveled a lot, read a lot and have met a lot of people to find the answers for the same. Whatever, I have understood I am presenting it in the form of this book. If you have any doubts after
reading this, please do contact us. If you are convinced with the issues raised in this book then please get involved with this movement whole heartedly. Time is very short. The wealth and the power of this country is being sold to foreign companies and countries at a fast pace. If we do not act quickly it would
be too late.

Why This Book - Swaraj (Part-2)

A few days back when I read in the newspapers about the Nuclear Civil Liability bill being presented in our parliament then all fears seemed to come true. The bill proposes that if a foreign company sets up a nuclear facility In the country and if an accident  were to occur in the said nuclear facility then the
liability of the company is limited to Rs.1500 crore only. Whenever, an accident has taken place in a nuclear facility anywhere in the world hundreds have perished and that country has suffered losses
amounting to several thousand crores. For example estimates of Chernobyl nuclear accident in Russia are pegged at Rs. 11650 thousand crores (US $235 Bln) Here our parliament is ready to accept a meager sum of US $ 0.35 bln (Rs.1500 crore). In  the Bhopal Gas
leak tragedy 2000 people died and an estimated 578000 people were affected but Union Carbide, the company responsible for the same, paid a sum of Rs.2200 crore (US $ 470 million) only, that too after
twenty years of litigation. Compare this to Oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico where the Obama administration is demanding damages to the tune of  US $ 40-60 bln. (Rs.1800 thousand crore-2600 thousand crore) from British Petroleum. The best part is, there was no loss of human life in the oil spillage. 

A nuclear accident, therefore, would be like many Bhopal tragedies. Many clauses in the Nuclear Civil Liability bill also ensure that no criminal complaint would be lodged against the foreign company and no liability suit would be filed in any court of law.  There would be no police case registered and the company can go scot free after paying Rs.1500 crore only. 

After reading this law, it felt that the lives of citizens held no value to our law makers. It is evident that this law was    enacted by putting on wager the lives of its citizens for the benefit of foreign multinationals. Why is our parliament taking such decisions? It is certain that either it’s members are under some external pressure or some members or parties have been bought by foreign companies.

There are and were a lot of news items circulating  in the papers during the time of the Bhopal Gas tragedy. When the court decided the compensation recently, the senior members of political parties and government officers treated the chairman of Union Carbide as state guest and helped him flee this country.
Observing these things doubts arise in the mind 

• Is the country in safe hands? 

• Do we see our lives and our future safe in the hands of few of these political leaders and government officers”?  

It is not only that our Government is under the pressure of foreign powers and foreign multi national companies, but for money, political leaders and bureaucrats can do any thing. It has been observed that certain business houses have become absolute power centers. In a recent phone tapping expose, the decision for distribution of portfolio to ministers in the present government was not being taken by the Prime Minister but by certain business houses. It is now an open secret that some ministers and bureaucrats of the government have got affiliated to certain business houses. They openly associate with each other. It will not be an exaggeration to say that certain state governments and certain ministries in the centre are being run by business houses.  

Why This Book - Swaraj (Part -1)

I was working for the income tax department earlier.  At the end of the 90’s, the income tax department carried out a survey of many MNC’s. During this survey, these MNC’s were caught red handed evading income tax. They accepted their crime and paid the  entire amount without an appeal. Had these companies been in other countries, their senior executives would have been jailed. During the survey one chief executive of an MNC threatened the income tax team by saying that their presence in the country boosted its economy; that they were here to help a poor country like India but if the income tax department continued to bother them they would pack up and leave. His boast did not seem an idle one when he said that he had access to the parliamentarians at the centre; that he could get his bills passed and could even get personnel who bothered them transferred. The threat rang true when one of the senior officers of our team was actually transferred. 

At that time I did not give much importance to the talks of these foreign companies. I thought they were venting their anger, frustrated with the process of survey. But I started to see the truth behind their talks by many incidents that happened in the last few years. I started to question the truth of their claim; 

“Did they really have control over our parliament?” 

In July 2008, the then U.P. government had to prove its majority on the floor of the assembly. MLA’s were being bought and sold. Certain T.V. channels showed these MLA’s accepting money openly. Those video scenes gave me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. If MLA’s could be sold like this then what is the value of our vote. Today the leaders are buying the legislators of the country to save their party. Tomorrow the same legislators could be bought by any other country like America or Pakistan. It is possible that such a thing is happening, but who knows. This thought sent tremors of terror through my mind and body.  

Are we citizens of a free country? 

Are the Members of Parliament of our country making laws for the welfare of its people only?