BJP MLAs in MP get away with Office of Profit

Madhya Pradesh

BJP Govt changes law to circumvent office of profit, appoints legislators to PSUs

NK SINGH

Bizarre things start happening in political theatre as elections year approaches. The Madhya Pradesh Government decided in March 2017 to exempt eight government corporations and boards from the ambit of office of profit.

The politically significant development got buried in routine news. Consequently, the cabinet decision to amend MP Assembly Members’ Disqualification Act did not evoke the debate that it deserved.

Simply put, the proposed amendment to law allows the government to appoint MLAs as chairpersons and office bearers of so-called autonomous corporations and boards, many of which are notorious for corruption and gross irregularities.

Till now, it is prohibited because these posts are considered "office of profit” as these corporations are financed by the government. If an MLA is appointed to these posts, he becomes automatically disqualified from the membership of the assembly.

The proposed amendment is aimed at removing the disqualification clause.

The timing of the largesse is equally significant. The government has already moved in the election mode.

Many ruling party MLAs are unhappy with the government’s functioning, as reflected during the current Vidhan Sabha session. Ignoring Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s appeal to avoid criticism on the floor of the House, many BJP MLAs have been hauling their government over the coals.

Former chief minister Babulal Gaur is so scathing in his criticism that DB Post called him BJP’s in-house Leader of Opposition.

Spoils of office

Dangling the carrot of spoils of office has been an age-old trick in the arsenal of governments to mute voices of dissent. But MP Government’s attempt to dilute the provision of office of profit has long-term implications for the health of democracy.

The Constitution puts restrictions on lawmakers accepting government positions. It disqualifies a legislator from holding any office of profit under government, except ministerial positions. The idea is to keep lawmakers away from temptations from executive so that they may discharge their legislative duty without feeling obliged to government.

The law is strict on this point. Even an administrative position without any financial benefit can attract disqualification.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi, among many others, discovered this when in 2006 she had to resign her Lok Sabha membership. The Opposition had sought her disqualification for heading the National Advisory Council that supervised the work of the first UPA government.

The concept of office of profit is also our Constitution’s attempt to separate power between legislative, judiciary and executive so that institutions can keep a check on each other.

BJP is smarter

An easy way out to placate dissatisfied MLAs would have been to create more ministerial berths and distribute more lalbatti. But 91st Constitutional amendment in 2004 restricted the number of ministers to 15 per cent of the strength of legislature. It was done to stop governments trying to influence legislators by luring them with ministerial posts.

The Aam Aadmi Party Government in Delhi tried to circumvent the law by appointing 21 MLAs as parliamentary secretaries and then exempt these appointments from the ambit of office of profit. But the President refused his assent to the exemption. In January 2018 the Election Commission disqualified 20 of these 21 MLAs.

Shivraj Singh Government cannot appoint more ministers as the 230-member MP assembly has already 30 ministers. The quota is filled to the brim. So the government has to find ways to shower largesse on the MLAs.

The brainwave, which is not exactly original, is to appoint them as ministers outside the ministry, a concept that has taken root over the last three decades, weakening democratic foundations by blurring the difference between legislature and executive.

It has become an accepted practice to appoint ruling party leaders and supporters to various posts in government corporations, boards and commissions and then give them the status of a cabinet minister or minister of state by a simple executive decree.

It makes both parties happy. The government, because it gains support from legislators. And the legislators, because they get a ministerial perks without becoming ministers along with a little fiefdom of their own.

Jobs for the boys

That is why the Government is trying to exempt more posts from the purview of office of profit. The amendment in legislators’ disqualification act will translate into more jobs for the boys.

How is the common citizen, the taxpayers, affected? The Government largesse comes at a heavy cost to the State exchequer. It is also totally contrary to the concept of good governance.

The Government was committed to wind up loss-making public enterprises, which are bleeding the exchequer. But the number of corporations and boards has, instead of decreasing, increased by almost one-fifth over the past decade.

The government has invested Rs 57,000 crore in 58 government companies. Due to corruption and inefficiency in public enterprises, the State has already suffered accumulated losses of Rs 30,000 crore.

According to CAG report, in 2014-15 the State budget earmarked Rs 8,921 crore to 28 public enterprises as equity, loan and grants. This money came from our pockets.

Obviously, good governance is a phrase saved for public speeches.

Powers That Be, my column in DB Post of 19 March 2017

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