In an unprecedented move, the Speaker of the Punjab legislative assembly Kultar Singh Sandhwan raised the issue of corruption in the Punjab Police.
The issue related to an Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) posted in his assembly segment Kotkapura, Bohar Singh, allegedly having taken a bribe from a gangster.
The Speaker sought the approval of the house to summon the Director General of Punjab Police to submit a report personally on the matter.
This gave ammunition to the opposition Congress to settle its score with the government. The dissident ruling Aam Aadmi Party MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh also seized the opportunity to target his own party’s government.
There is a clear message in what the Speaker did on Monday, the opening day of the assembly session that the government, the bureaucracy and the police are accountable to the legislature. There is a widespread sense of alienation among the ruling party legislators that they are not being “properly” heard by the officialdom. This is something similar in the previous Congress regime when most of the ruling party legislators had a similar complaint.
In this case, it was the Speaker of the assembly himself, who is the guardian of the house, who had some grievance related to the “insubordination” by a junior cop in his assembly segment, Kotkapura. Imagine the plight of the common legislators and how the police and the administration must be dealing with them.
The Speaker wanted to make a point by bringing the matter to the notice of the house. He could have raised the matter with Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, who also heads the home ministry, under which the police department comes.
He could have summoned the DGP on his own without seeking the approval of the house. Instead, he summoned the DGP to the house. The DGP, for that matter any other official, in any way is accountable and answerable to the legislature.
In raising the matter in the legislature, the Speaker tried to convey a message and give voice to the “countless voiceless legislators”, who are meeting a similar fate day in and day out.
With 92 legislators, the AAP has the “problem of plenty”. There are only 15 ministers including the Chief Minister besides the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, the remaining 75 are feeling “powerless”. Most of them are young and first-timers and do not have any experience in dealing with the bureaucracy, which exploits the situation to its advantage. Besides, there is a “collective bureaucratic brotherhood” when it comes to dealing with the political representatives.
The ruling AAP will need to take “the message” from the Speaker quite seriously. It must learn from its immediate predecessor, the Congress government headed by Capt Amarinder Singh. At that time also, there was a strong perception that the bureaucracy was too much in control of things. Although the Congress did not have as many members as the AAP has, but still at 77 legislators it was again a problem of plenty, as the more the number of legislators, the more the likelihood of greater dissidence with the possibility of a strong rebellion.
Both the Congress as well as the AAP legislators compare the functioning of the bureaucracy with the earlier Akali-BJP regime when the ruling party/alliance workers were properly heard and would act with authority. While at times, too much authority to the legislators and political leaders and legislators does lead to misuse of power, there is still no alternative to empowering the party workers. There can be checks and balances against misuse, if any of power, but keeping the party workers and legislators “powerless” and handing over entire authority to the bureaucracy, only weakens the party.
The AAP government has already completed half of its term. It is the time when the “anti-incumbency” against any government, no matter which party/alliance it may be, is at its peak. Only a strong and effective party network helps the government during such a situation. But if the workers feel “powerless and disillusioned”, they obviously cannot do much.
The Speaker Sandhawan may have tried to provide a voice to the legislators and convey a message of assurance to them, but a mere message without a proper follow-up will not serve any purpose. Every legislator does not enjoy the same authority as the Speaker himself.
Even for him also it took so much time and an occasion to deal with an ASI-level official who, despite having a case registered against him was proving to be insubordinate.
This goes without saying that in Punjab, the bureaucracy, particularly the police, has been wielding too much power and authority at the cost of the political executive. Unlike the officialdom, the political leaders and legislators are accountable and answerable to the people.
They have to reach out to them every five years with their performance card. Sadly, they do not have any authority of their own, which lies in the bureaucracy. In case they feel that their own government is not supportive of them, they end up feeling powerless, frustrated and disillusioned.
The Speaker raking up the issue in the house is a sign of that sense of powerlessness and frustration. Elected governments must be run by the elected representatives only, and not the bureaucrats, who remain unaccountable and unanswerable for every act of omission and commission, while the public representatives remain answerable and accountable to people round the clock.
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