'Probe against Vadra would be a victory for democracy'

Well-known author and public intellectual, Gurcharan Das has justified the call for a probe against Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra saying that this would be important for Indian democracy. A probe into the allegations against Vadra “would be very healthy,” said Das in Pune on Saturday. “If you can actually probe and put the first family in the dock, it would be a victory for democracy and show that nobody is above the law,” he said. “I would disagree with Mr. Chidambaram and all the worthies of the Congress party who are trying to defend the family. I feel a probe is justified,” Das said while speaking at the BDB Book Club here on Saturday. [caption id=“attachment_489657” align=“alignright” width=“380”]  Time for a probe against Vadra? AFP[/caption] The former CEO of Procter & Gamble (India) and managing director, Procter & Gamble Worldwide (Strategic Planning) was here to promote his latest book ‘India Grows at Night’. He said there was enough evidence to institute a probe into ‘Vadragate’ although the connections of quid-pro-quo between Vadra-DLF and the Haryana Government were still not strong enough. Das, who has authored a number of bestsellers on the problems of contemporary India and possible solutions, said what the country needs most is a liberal state with a strong rule of law. “Democracy means many things- it means equality, liberty, justice, elections, free press…But most important of all is the rule of law. Vadra should not be above the rule of law,” he said. He called for pro-market policies rather than pro-business policies which promoted crony capitalism. “Pro-market means rules-based capitalism. If you are pro-market, you allow companies to die when it is time for them to die- you don’t bail out Kingfisher…” As an example of a strong rule of law, Das cited the example of the sentencing of former president of Enron Corporation Jeffrey Skilling to 24 years in prison following the collapse of the U.S. multinational. Skilling’s lawyer had requested for a reduction of just 10 months in the sentence as that would keep Skilling away from the company of hardened criminals, murderers and rapists in jail. “The judge thought for a few minutes and then refused,” said Das. According to the writer, India would be lucky if a strong leader were to emerge on the scene. Arvind Kejriwal, he said, is a possibility although he had reservations at the moment. “The biggest achievement of the Anna Hazare movement was to awaken the middle class,” the author said, while observing that the political awakening of the middle class was bound to have an impact with the expansion of this segment of society. The middle class accounts for one-third of the population today but will soon expand to half of the population. This is when it will exert a decisive influence on Indian politics, he said. Das said that although Indira Gandhi was a strong leader, she destroyed democratic institutions that her father had built painstakingly. Stating that India had better governance under the British, he said, “The institutions of the police, bureaucracy and the courts that India inherited in 1947 were much better. The destruction of institutions began under Indira Gandhi,” he said. Pointing out to the benefits of the reforms process, he said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s biggest mistake was not to have sold the reforms to the people. “Margaret Thatcher would say that she spent more time selling the reforms than initiating the reforms themselves. Reforms are for the aam admi- they bring lower prices through competition,” Das emphasised.