TODAY'S COLUMNIST

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Vikram S Mehta
Posted: Tuesday, Jan 06, 2009 at 2216 hrs IST
Updated: Tuesday, Jan 06, 2009 at 2216 hrs IST

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: financial instruments. The brew tasted good in moderation but when driven by greed and on the back of integrated markets and information technology, it became the drink of the global financial community and caused a systemic dysfunction.

It would be naïve to argue that the events of 2008 mark a radical watershed. But it would be a mistake to ignore the signals that they emitted. If nothing else, the signals suggest that the world does not revolve around an axis of only scientific principles and deterministic trends; that the future is not hostage to precedent. The votaries of change post Mumbai should pick on these straws to sustain their efforts to buck the conventional trend.

One idea for instance that has been floated but which conventionalism would rubbish can gain credence from such signals. This is an idea premised on three assumptions. Coalition governments in the Centre are here to stay; no single party will have the numbers to ride roughshod over its coalition partners and a cohesive group of 50-60 parliamentarians could well therefore hold the balance of power. The idea is to identify and then somehow get elected such a number of individuals of integrity and public spirit and for them to use their disproportionate clout to check public venality and executive incompetence. The conventionalists would dismiss the idea as impractical and infeasible. Elections require funds; candidates need to be backed by organisations and whilst integrity is a fine word it counts for little in the hurly burly of our electoral battles.

These are solid reasons for jettisoning the idea but only if the signals of 2008 are totally ignored. But if they do hold out straws then it is one that invites experimentation. After all, could not a Trust be set up to finance the election campaigns of such individuals? Could not the Trust draw on the Obama campaign tactics and use the Internet to raise money from an ‘angry’ public? A contribution of say Rs 100 from even a part of India’s so called middle class could put over Rs 100 crore into the Trust. Could not the Trust be managed by a cross section of eminent non-partisan citizens who would also identify and select the candidates bearing in mind of course the socio-cultural-economic realities of the electorate? The effort may come to naught but if it did not and some candidates were elected through such a...

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