The Adarsh Housing Society scandal that is currently hogging media headlines has

evoked a gamut of emotions: outrage in the public, opportunism in opposition po

litical parties, somewhat jingoistic jubilation in the media and, above all, sur
prise in the beneficiaries who had managed to procure prime property in Mumbai f
or a pittance.
These worthies must be scratching their heads and wondering what the fuss is abo
ut. After all, this is the way such things have always been done in the world’s bi
ggest democracy for decades. It is common knowledge that senior leaders of major
political parties have undeclared assets to the tune of hundreds, if not thousa
nds, of crores – and have you ever met a poor bureaucrat? Far from being brought t
o book, such charlatans have been rewarded for their ingenuity in acquiring weal
th well beyond their known sources of income. A case in point is the proposal by
the Dehli Development Authority to award prime flats in the Commonwealth Games
village to the very scamsters who used the games as their personal bank. So what’s
the big deal this time?
The chief casualty of the Adarsh fiasco appears to be the Maharashtra Chief Mini
ster, Ashok Chavan, a pleasant enough fellow who, by the pathetic standards of g
overnance set by India’s politicians, is doing a reasonably good job. This leads t
o another surprise development. The attack on the hapless CM, being prosecuted w
ith unrestrained gusto, is being spearheaded by the Times of India (TOI), normal
ly a pro-establishment newspaper that relies considerably on government advertis
ements for its revenue. One has to wonder why it is now rocking the gravy train
with gay abandon. Considering that Chavan is now tottering on his throne, this b
ears startling similarities to a palace coup. Conspiracy theorists may be specul
ating that the TOI has struck a secret deal with the next aspirant to the CM’s gad
di, in return for increased government largesse, but of course this is pure spec
ulation.
So what is the big deal this time? I regard it as a heartening sign that, at lon
g last, India’s democracy is slowly but surely maturing. It took us half a century
, but we Indians are gradually escaping from the mai-bapp sarkar mindset our Bri
tish colonial rulers took such pains to foster in us. For decades after Independ
ence, our new overlords – who masqueraded under the sobriquets of ministers, elect
ed representatives and bureaucrats – simply took over where the British left off.
They knew what was good for us; they told us what to do and what to believe – and
ours was not to question why. In effect, they were a law unto themselves; and th
ey made sure the general public accepted that fact. They controlled the police f
orces, so there was no question of their being brought to book for their misdeed
s – corruption being the major one. Even more shamelessly, they passed laws and am
ended the Constitution to facilitate their immune status. And like docile puppet
s, we the people accepted it as the natural order of things.
No longer. The people are fighting back. The first salvo was fired when we force
d a reluctant government to pass the Right to Information Act. Hitherto, our net
as and babus considered themselves too superior to be required to explain their
actions. Indeed, secrecy was the principal weapon in their armoury. The second a
rmament handed to the people was the emergence of independent private television
news channels. For the first 40 years of our existence as an independent nation
, the government disseminated information very selectively through the state-own
ed Doordarshan and All India Radio. However, with the advent of cable and satell
ite television channels, the media was free to report events and express their o
pinions and, allowing for a certain measure of sensationalism, they are doing a
fairly good job.
It may be too early to be certain, but I think our so-called leaders are slowly
beginning to comprehend that there can be consequences for their misdeeds; that
the days when they could almost literally get away with murder are coming to an
end. Reluctant as our politicians and bureaucrats are to take punitive action ag
ainst their co-conspirators, public pressure is forcing them to act – or at least
to be seen to be taking action. We are still light years away from an adarsh for
m of government, but at least the first baby steps have been taken.