20090503139 | Editorial: Constitutional Institutions Losing Credibility? | Editorial

By The Editorial Team, on 04-05-2009 00:24

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A perceptible decline in political culture is getting reflected in the eroding credibility of the constitutional institutions. Attempts to safeguard politically vested interests have led to politicization of these institutions. The increasing political interference in the functioning of these institutions and presence of pliable officials have led to a situation that people are fastly loosing faith in the system. The tendency in the bureaucracy to stop to any extent in pleasing the political masters is picking up and we rarely find any example of upright individuals standing up to challenge this politically oriented patrimonial system.

Most recently the Interpol has removed the red corner notice issued against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi at the instance of CBI. He was facing criminal charges as a middleman in the Rs 64-crore Bofors kickback scandal. Quattrocchi figuring in the Bofors scandle had brought former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his wife Sonia Gandhi in the picture as suspected recipients of the kickbacks owing to his proximity to them. The soft handling of Quattrocchi by first allowing him to withdraw the kickback money through account "de-freeze" order, CBI's ‘deliberate failure' in extraditing him from Argentina and then helping withdrawal of red corner Interpol notice speaks volumes of political manipulation in the case.

Apart from Quattrocchi case, CBI has much more to answer for the manner it has been handling the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, corruption cases against Mayawati, Mulayam, Lalu, Rabri and others and in many other such politically volatile cases. If one moves beyond CBI, many other constitutional institutions like Election Commission and Office of the Governor are within the ambit of controversies. Such controversy may affect the democratic system which may lead to people's alienation from the constitutional institutional thereby creating a severe crisis of faith in the entire set-up. As long as our political class keeps prioritizing its short term goal of clinging to power by hook or crook, the long term national interest would get jeopardized.