What may happen in a state where no one takes bribes
PremiumBy deeming corruption the greatest evil, AAP in Punjab has put itself in a position to fix its simplest form
It is as though our bodies cannot endure astonishment; that is why when a marvellous event occurs, we forget how improbable it once was. Until a few years ago, many of us believed that only a corrupt person from a corrupt party can win an election. Even the anti-corruption movement was not about creating upright politicians, but a lament that they do not exist, cannot exist, and for that reason elected politicians must be supervised by unelectable activists who won the Magsaysay Award. That movement was in fact not an anti-corruption movement but a continuation of an anti-politician movement which began in Mumbai after the terror attacks of November 2008. But then, one of its leading revolutionaries, Arvind Kejriwal, realized the only meaningful revolution in a democracy was democracy itself. He would form a party to contest elections in a clean way.
His Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would win a series of elections, forming governments in Delhi, and now in Punjab. But its government in Delhi was and is nominal, because of the special status of the quasi-state. The Centre has demonstrated that through the medium of its lieutenant governor, it can stifle almost all efforts of Delhi’s government to govern. The Delhi administration is a puppet controlled by a puppet. Thus AAP in Delhi could never answer the great Indian question: What happens when politicians of a ruling party in a state do not accept bribes? Maybe now we can find out—in Punjab.
With 92 seats in Punjab’s 117-seat assembly, AAP has significant freedom to do what it wants. So what is going to happen?
You may think I am naive in believing that AAP is not corrupt. You may point out that some of the party’s elected members even have criminal cases against them. But there is really no evidence to suggest that AAP has organized corruption as part of its business model like many other parties. And the few times its members have faced charges of pelf, the party has acted swiftly against them in a way that is unusual for any Indian political party. As for the criminal cases faced by some of its members, they are mild, unproven and appear to be politically driven. Also, this greyness of AAP, which enables it to woo popular characters who it believes are clean even if they face accusations, is a hint that the party is now more formidable than people think.
Idealists are mostly useless. They do not get that idealism is a thought experiment meant to clarify the human condition; it is not to be taken seriously. Addicted to the clarity of a thought experiment, they are lost in the real world. The success of AAP is its focus on only one virtue—financial propriety. On this, the party is neither grey nor pragmatic. In everything else, it makes compromises. It appeases caste groups, tries hard not to upset Hindus, and may not go after stubble-burning farmers who contribute to Delhi’s poisonous air.
Most humans have the same set of virtues; what separates us is the order in which we hold ideals. It is the same with political parties. In being uncompromising on financial corruption and deeming it a greater evil than all else, AAP has put itself in a position to solve the simplest form of evil.
Like how hunger is the greatest consequence of abject poverty, yet the easiest to solve as a person progresses, corruption is a great destructive consequence of modern India’s disastrous experiments but easier to solve compared to more complex evils like class and identity.
So, what happens when a party that says none of its members will take bribes or permit any form of financial corruption has complete control over a state. What are we going to witness? With near-full freedom to rule Punjab, what exactly will AAP do? What can clean politics achieve in the state ?
In my fantasy Punjab of the future, this is what will occur: With the top brass of the state government not asking government officials to funnel a cut of all bribes to it, it can confidently go to war against corruption at all rungs of the police and bureaucracy. It may even ask people to secretly record government officials asking for bribes.
Without a higher authority sabotaging it, and with government officials forced to be honest, the quality of public services like roads and road design, mass transit systems, hospitals and schools will improve perceptibly. It will also lead to a greater ease in doing business. Even an AAP suffocated by the central government in Delhi could achieve reasonably good state-run schools and hospitals and find the money to distribute cheap or free water and electricity to lower-middle-class homes and the poor.
As you can see, in my fantasy Punjab, there will be a lot of things going on. But will they be visible? Five years from now, would Punjab look as though it is more advanced than the rest of India? Kejriwal’s AAP does not appear to be enamoured by urban aesthetics or the grandness of infrastructure. It would not want to build a Dubai, nor will it be strict enough to enforce road discipline. Still, many of the transformations can be conspicuous.
A major flaw of India is that it treats the average citizen as a poor person, so offers everyone poor utilities. Even today, many politicians and bureaucrats think air-conditioning is a luxury. But AAP has demonstrated that it treats the average citizen as a middle-class person, like Kejriwal. This can create good public services, like aesthetic and comfortable buses and trains, and free hospitals that look fancy to the average Indian.
A clean government is more conspicuous than people think, and the failure of AAP, too, should it fail, will be more glaring than more complex political failures.
Manu Joseph is a journalist, novelist, and the creator of the Netflix series, ‘Decoupled’
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