Can politics really be democratic? Perhaps not.

Member of the now abolished Planning Commission, Arun Maira writes that India needs to improve its democratic institutions. "Democratic institutions are built by leaders with a vision for an inclusive, just and democratic society. Reform of institutions is always a political process because power has to be accumulated and used against vested interests," he writes. He wants politicians to be apolitical, like Vaclav Havel, who said,"Politics must be more than just a technology of power. (It must) provide a genuine service for citizens, a service that follows the moral order that stand above us....and not just what appeals to the at any given moment." That surely is so much tosh. A person like Havel became president only because the communist government fell and it led to a division of his country into Slovakia and Czech Republic, much like MK Gandhi led to the division of India, into 3 pieces. To 'accumulate power' you need to win elections and to win elections you have to better at whatever your opponents are up to. It is illuminating that the present government, which is engaged in a war against black money, actually argued in front of the Supreme Court against submitting political parties to the Right to Information Act. Rajiv Gandhi probably had the best chance of being an apolitical politician when he was thrust into the Prime Minister's post after the shooting of Indira Gandhi in 1984. But the 'accumulation of power' led to a cover up of Bofors which will be forever linked to his name. Institutions can be created only if justice is fair. Unfortunately, cases never get resolved in India, leading to an accumulation of over 20 million. Yesterday the Supreme Court said that those accused of crimes are fleeing India and ordered the government to get them back. That must have been music to CBI officials who spent Rs 2.5 billion chasing Ottavio Quattrocchi all over the fleshpots of the world. One attempt in Argentina cost Rs 4 million. All failed. Because politicians of all parties had no interest in catching the guilty. It was the Supreme Court itself which allowed Ms Ritika Awasty to escape to London, ostensibly to nurse her sick husband. Did their Exalted Excellencies think that she was going to return to go to prison? The Prime Minister's war against black money does not extend to releasing the police from political control, without which there can never be genuine reform. Over Rs 642 billion have been deposited in Jan Dhan accounts of the poor. At Rs 200,000 per account in means over 3 million accounts. Also housewives are charging 20% to deposit up to Rs 200,000 in their accounts. So the black money war has created millions of money launderers. Institutions will reduce power. Indian politicians will never allow that.