TN polls: Blender-grinder of corruption

The polls campaigns to five Indian State assemblies in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Pondicherry, are in full swing these days. The rising tide of protest against corruption is expected to feature prominently in these polls, especially with the new support gathering for the fast launched by Anna Hazare, a respected social and political leader, against corruption, and demanding key amendments to the proposed Lokpal legislation by the Congress led government in New Delhi, supposedly to fight corruption.

The Union Government and the Centre, and its allies in various states, will certainly be facing an uphill task as the Hazare campaign gains strength, and shows signs of becoming the precursor to a revolt in the Indian streets, at least in states such as Bengaloru, Kolkata, Kerala and in New Delhi itself. The magnet that Hazare’s fast, now in its fourth day, has been to the educated youth in the major cities of India points to the possibility of a new dynamic in the world’s largest electoral democracy.

While that is the general trend as the campaigns are moving into peak activity, the election in Tamil Nadu has a totally different character. It is an election where corruption is the main feature, not in a bid to fight it, but instead to have it enthroned in the state, even stronger than today.

Reports are that the ruling DMK - Congress alliance there faces an uphill task this time round against the Jayalalitha led AIADMK party. The DMK has faced many serious allegations of corruption over the past one year. DMK member A Raja has been in the thick of it with his involvement in the 2G scam that has rocked both the nation and the Parliament for most of the last few months.

It is a reflection of what the Congress - led UPA faces in keeping a hold on Tamil Nadu, that it is compelled to be in alliance with corruption ridden Karunanidhi led DMK, when corruption is threatening the position of the UPA and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself in large parts of the country.

Blender-Grinder Poll

In Tamil Nadu the trend of expecting something free in return for casting your vote is catching up fast. It is raining freebies in the state and this time it is not just colour television sets or liquor but also laptops for college students and blender-grinders to housewives. Beating incumbent Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, his arch rival in the state, AIADMK Chief J Jayalalitha has promised four grams of gold to poor voters, in addition to cable TV connections at subsidized rates, reports Reuters.

Not lagging behind in the race, national parties like the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, while condemning state parties for what they term “bribing voters”, have offered stationery to students, sanitary napkins to women and Rs 100,000 ($2,260) deposit for female children born in a below-poverty-line family as poll promises in a bid to mark its presence in the state.

The DMK which showered free colour TV on voters at the last assembly polls is making a polls promise of providing a laptop to the state’s college students, at an expected cost of over Rs.10 billion ($226 million).

The Election Commission, doing its best to clean up the polls process, has issued an instruction to newspaper agents and hawkers not to violate the poll code by distributing money, gift coupons etc., as newspaper inserts. In a state with comparatively high literacy rates, hawkers are a convenient vehicle for propagating and disbursing ‘freebies’ to each and every household.

The many freebie offers being made are part of welfare programs run by the state government. For example, the promise of giving Rs 30,000 ($680) for a daughter’s wedding is basically applicable to those families which make sure their daughters clear matriculation at least. “It contributes to women’s empowerment in ways that a lot of programs may not,” Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi’s daughter, was reported as saying in the Financial Express.

Polls Commission

Election Commission (EC) of India has responded with determination to act against the freebie domination of the polls, especially in Tamil Nadu. It has setup a mechanism to scrutinize accounts of Self Help Groups, NGOs etc. including daily auditing of cash flow, check distribution of gifts/serving of food in Marriage/ Community Halls, distribution of Tokens to be exchanged for gifts or cash or distribution of money through various means, distribution of cash by candidates/political parties along with disbursement of wages under any Government scheme, production, storage and distribution of liquor during elections, cash withdrawal from Banks and distribution of cash by candidates or political parties along with disbursement of wages under Government special schemes.

Commencing March 1, 2011, this mechanism has swung into action in Tamil Nadu and several searches and seizures have taken place in the last few days. This is the case of the EC and clean sections of civil society working together for the common cause of free and fair elections.

However, loopholes in the EC’s model code of conduct, using semantics and playing between ‘promise’ and ‘promise to consider’ have emerged as the best defence for the competing political parties who have been showering freebies to gain an edge over each other.

Sri Lankan blend

Not even the best efforts of the Elections Commission will be able to prevent the use of Sri Lankan Tamils as a major bribe to the voters of Tamil Nadu. In a public

rally held Chennai earlier this week, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, who was joined on stage by Karunanidhi who leads a corruption ridden DMK, made special mention of the deep feelings of neighbourliness she had towards the Sri Lankan Tamils, and how the UPA Government is acting to make Sri Lanka change its Constitution to resolve the problems of the Tamils of Sri Lanka.

It is now evident that when it comes patting the back of the Congress’ political ally in Tamil Nadu, both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are ready to mouth statements that they believe will have good resonance among the voters of Tamil Nadu, whether what they say is based on fact or not. Political opportunism, especially in the need to have a grip on Tamil Nadu, through Karunanidhi, and through that means protect a flank of the UPA Government in New Delhi, will make the Gandhis and others too, make such statements when they are with the DMK leadership, at gatherings of Tamil writers and even at meeting with pro-LTTE Tamils in the UK. The compulsions of Tamil Nadu politics certainly transcend state and even national borders to the Congress leaders today.

The Gandhis, who are at the helm of the Congress party, are not alone in this opportunistic distortion of events in Sri Lanka, especially with regard to the Tamil population here.

The entire polls campaign in Tamil Nadu has the ‘Sri Lanka Tamil issue’ given top billing by all contenders, from Karunanidhi’s DMK, to its main rival Jayalalitha’s AIDMK, and other organizations led by extremist Tamil and pro-LTTE politicians such as Vaiko, Nedumaran, Seemon and the film star Vijay, who have lesser clout but a great deal of voice, especially in the Tamil media.

It remains to be seen whether in the ‘blender-grinder’ politics of the Tamil Nadu polls campaign, the Elections Commission will be able to impose restrictions on the use of the Sri Lankan Tamil issue as a freebie at this election.

Time is running out with the polls to be held in a few days. Meanwhile, there is every indication that for most politicians in Tamil Nadu, and their allies, who are unable to address the key issues faced by Tamils in their own state, the Sri Lankan Tamils have become, in their minds, the most potent vote catcher, combined with the abundance of tears that will be shed on stage about Indian fishermen, allegedly killed by the Sri Lankan Navy. On with the grind of corrupt politics in Tamil Nadu, while Anna Hazare is fasting for a corruption-free India.