Opinion - Editorials   

Brazen abuse of power

THE CONTROVERSY OVER the videotapes showing the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, allegedly exhorting her party MPs and MLAs to contribute a share of their "earnings" out of the Local Area Development Funds to the party's coffers reveals the extent of her contempt for norms of probity in public life. The evidentiary value of such tapes notwithstanding, the episode only brings to the fore how brazen sections within the political class could turn and abuse their powers to shore up their own and their party's resources. The fact that Ms. Mayawati went on, as revealed in the tapes, to condone siphoning of funds meant for development projects by her party MPs and MLAs and to instruct them to part with a portion of such funds for the party is an affront to democratic values. The entire episode calls for a thorough enquiry into the freewheeling ways of elected representatives.

The videotapes as well as charges against Ms. Mayawati (levelled by a whole lot of public spirited individuals in the form of a PIL before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court demanding that the Chief Minister be ordered to disclose details of the "gifts" received by her during her birthday celebrations and that the court order her to deposit such articles in the State treasury) are issues that the political leadership of the ruling coalition in Uttar Pradesh will have to respond to immediately. The usual refrain that the charges are politically motivated will not do in this instance. The stand taken by the top leaders of the BJP, including the Prime Minister, A.B.Vajpayee, and the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, that Ms. Mayawati has explained her position on the tapes in a letter to them and that the letter's contents shall be revealed only in the event of the Lok Sabha Speaker calling for it is clearly an inadequate response. The point at issue here is not about the functioning of the Government in Uttar Pradesh or about the privileges of the MPs. Instead, there are allegations of malfeasance of funds meant for development works. Hence, the imperative for the political leadership of the BJP-BSP combine is to ensure transparency of all the works purportedly carried out using funds drawn under the MPLADS during the relevant period. Any attempt to evade the main issue and bringing a breach of privilege charge against those who produced the tapes will only add to the perception that the scheme as such is open to abuse.

Be that as it may, the experience with the working of the scheme and the facts revealed by a performance appraisal by the Union Department of Programme Implementation (in 1997) had confirmed the apprehensions of critics of the MPLADS regarding execution of the works. Apart from the larger issue of unfairness involved in pampering incumbent MPs, the working of the scheme itself was found to be unsatisfactory. Uttar Pradesh, for instance, recorded a fund utilisation ratio (between 1993-94 and 1995-96) of 76 per cent, surpassing the performance of several other States that can claim to have a far better administrative infrastructure in their districts. The implementation of the scheme has a lot to do with an efficient district administration. The figures, in this sense, should reveal that all is not well with the implementation of the MPLADS and the fact that there is no mechanism to audit the projects carried out under this scheme creates ample scope for diversion of the funds. Apart from these, there is a serious anomaly with the MPLADS in that the funds transacted under this scheme are not placed for scrutiny by any agency including the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) as is the case with all other schemes for which funds are sanctioned by Parliament. All these factors and the remarks of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister on how the elected representatives are profiting should lead those at the helm to rethink on the merits of persisting with a scheme such as the MPLADS which is so blatantly unfair, vests spending discretion in individual MPs and is prone to large scale abuse.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment |

Stories in this Section

• Brazen abuse of power
• The next stage
• Tolerance and exclusion
• The Northeast after the polls
• No comparison
• Poisonous brew
• Abolish phone rental
• Cricket unites

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu