We don't normally expect the judiciary to quote ,inter alia, Arthur Laffer, informational asymmetries, Washington Consensus, "Greed is good" philosophy, Gunnar Myrdal's "Soft state" concept, "Follow the money" principle, Prof.Rotberg and that too in the same judgement. This is exactly what the Supreme Court has done in its order in the case filed by Ram Jethmalani raising issues relating to black money. The order is a logically reasoned and elegantly phrased magnum opus that deserves approbation.
On the contrary the Government has sought recall of the order. This shows the ethical deficit and abject poverty of social values among ministers and bureaucrats.
Many paragraphs in the order are worth quoting and are a delight to read. For example,
"15.In addition, it would also appear that in this miasmic cultural environment in which greed is extolled,
conspicuous consumption viewed as both necessary and socially valuable, and the wealthy viewed as demi-gods, the agents of the State may have also succumbed to the notions of the neo-liberal paradigm that the role of the
State ought to only be an enabling one, and not exercise significant control. This attitude would have a significant
impact on exercise of discretion, especially in the context of regulating economic activities, including keeping an
account of the monies generated in various activities, both legal and illegal. Carried away by the ideology of
neo-liberalism, it is entirely possible that the agents of the State entrusted with the task of supervising the economic
and social activities may err more on the side of extreme caution, whereby signals of wrong doing may be ignored
even when they are strong. Instances of the powers that be ignoring publicly visible stock market scams, or turning
a blind eye to large scale illegal mining have become all too familiar, and may be readily cited. That such activities
are allowed to continue to occur, with weak, or non-existent, responses from the State may, at best, be
charitably ascribed to this broader culture of permissibility of all manner of private activities in search of ever more
lucre. Ethical compromises, by the elite - those who wield the powers of the state, and those who fatten themselves
in an ever more exploitative economic sphere- can be expected to thrive in an environment marked by such a
permissive attitude, of weakened laws, and of weakened law enforcement machineries and attitudes."
The detailed order is available in the following link:
No comments:
Post a Comment