Media, psephologists and even the aam aadmi of the country termed the victory of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the December 2013 Delhi elections as remarkable. The credit of the ‘almost’ clean sweep of the Congress from Delhi landed in the kitty of the AAP as the aam aadmi vent out its frustration against the then ruling Congress party, which was mired with rampant corruption and horrendous scams, by voting for the party which promised to wipe out corruption from the country. People saw a ray of hope in the credible faces of Arvind Kejriwal and its core group and by pressing the ‘broom’ button and putting the ink on their index fingers, gave their go ahead to the Kejriwal-led team.
However, if we look at the whole scenario from a different vantage point, then it would not be irrational or illogical to say that the real victory cannot be gauged from one coming to power or by the people choosing their leader, but by how the governance is done and affairs of the people managed. The frustration of the people from the ruling Congress led to the ‘phenomenal’ victory of AAP, however the real ‘phenomenal’ victory would only be when AAP delivers to the promises it made. It is another matter that Kejriwal and his team have quit the government and are now preparing for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
This article puts forward the idea as to how Caliph Umar Bin Abdul Aziz would have solved the issues of the modern world, by extrapolating the way he ruled during his tenure as a caliph. During his short span as a caliph, which was merely two years and five months, Umar applied justice everywhere, introduced good practices and improved the economy to such an extent that there was no one in the whole of the Islamic Empire who was entitled to receive the Zakah.
Being nominated by the caliph before him as his heir apparent, Umar Bin Abdul Aziz, after the death of Suleman Bin Abdul Malik, addressed the people and said, “O people, I have been nominated your caliph despite my unwillingness and without your consent. So here I am, I relieve you of your pledge (baiyat) that you have taken for my allegiance. Elect whomsoever you find suitable as your caliph.” People shouted in unison, “O Umar, we have full faith in you and we want only you as our caliph.” Umar bin Abdul Aziz continued his address, “O people, obey me till I obey Allah; and if I disobey Allah, you are not duty bound to obey me.”
It is important to understand that Umar revived the system of taking consent from the people as in Islam authority belongs to the people, however the thing which is even more important is the line of thought which Umar made clear in the very beginning, which is when he said, “Obey till I obey Allah.” This makes the cornerstone of Umar’s rule. It is indeed true that human mind is a store house of ideas and thoughts. And it is these thoughts and ideas which drive man to find the solution to the problems he comes across in life. In other words, human beings formulate a worldview and see the solutions of the emanating problems based on a set of beliefs or doctrines they adhere to.
The adherence to a system of ideas or ideals, which forms the basis of political, social and economic theory, is commonly known as an ideology. Hence Umar made it clear that he will be ruling by the command of Allah. Umar believed that since God has created the humans, He has also given them a system by which we have to govern our whole life, whether public or private, religious or political, social or economic, whereas the present world gives prime importance to human mind and believes that the mind is capable to decide laws for itself.
Coming to the issue of governance in the present scenario, it is important to first of all take a look at the manifesto of AAP. What tops the priority of AAP is the passing of the Jan Lokpal Bill, followed by it are the demands for reductions of electricity bills by 50 per cent, free 700 litres of water to every house in Delhi, improving women security in the wake of horrendous crimes against women, improving education and health sectors, rehabilitation of slums, regularisation of unauthorised colonies and expansion for the DTC bus service.
It is indeed true that the problems mentioned in the manifesto of AAP are certainly what the aam aadmi of this country faces and it is really unfortunate that even in the 21st century and 66 years after Independence, the people of the country still yearn for basic amenities. However, it is also important to understand that the problems arise not just because of the menace of corruption but they emerge from something which is beyond corruption.
The core of the problem lies in the system – capitalism – that is being implemented upon us. If we contemplate on the word capitalism, we see it has two meanings, one is related to money or wealth and the other is the centre or the city where all the hustle-bustle takes place (capitals of the country or states). Capitalism is a system of life that is primarily based on the concept of benefit or profit. The notions of freedom started to appear in the 16th century and later the idea of freedom of ownership got introduced by Adam Smith in his book An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Hence freedom to own or benefit became the prime factor in doing business. The necessary result of profit earning was to create big centres in only some parts of the world so that the masses migrate from their native places to those few big centres which would obviously result in the huge amount of workforce getting concentrated in only some parts of the world. As the general rule of the thumb is that the prices fall when the supply is more, it was but natural that the labour would become cheap and the workers had to satiate themselves with whatever the capitalists would pay them. As the primary aim of the capitalist was to earn money, he would set the bare minimum for the worker and he had to settle with that bare minimum because, first he could not go back to his native place as the opportunities to earn are absent there because of the centralisation, and second if he refused to accept it, he would have nothing even to maintain the subsistence level.
Now with this understanding, let us try and understand some of the issues mentioned in the manifesto of AAP and how it would have been solved by Umar Bin Abdul Aziz.
IMPROVEMENT IN HEALTH SECTOR
What has been proposed is the use of generic medicine so that the cost of medicines remains in reach for the common man. Besides the promotion of generic medicine, new government hospitals will also be opened so as to meet the growing demands of patients in the national capital.
The solution apparently appears promising, however a closer look reveals that the rot lies somewhere else. One first of all needs to question why generic medicines are not readily available in market. What is the reason that medicines cost whopping amounts of money whereas the reality is that once the formula of the drug is known, one can easily manufacture the drug at a much lower price?
The reason for the high price is patenting, which has its roots in the capitalist ideology, whose sole objective is to earn more and more. It can be easily gauged from the statement given by the CEO of Bayer, a German pharmaceutical company, when he said, “We did not develop this medicine for Indians…We developed it for Western patients who can afford it.”
Hence the root cause of high prices of medicines is patenting and because of this even after the formula of medicine is known, people cannot reproduce the medicine as that would be illegal and if they do so, they are committing crime and liable to be prosecuted. So, generic medicines cannot be promoted, unless patenting is done away with and this patenting does not seem to go away unless the capitalist thought crumbles. Had this reality been in the time of Umar, he would have straight away denounced this practice and claimed it illegal, as he was not ruling from his mind, but from Islam. And in Islam, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) when mentioned about the putting of conditions while selling said, “What about some people who impose conditions which are not present in the Book of Allah? So, any condition which is not present in the Book of Allah is invalid. Allah’s ordinance is more deserving, and Allah’s condition is more firm.”
As for the point of increasing the number of beds in hospitals and opening up new hospitals is indeed valid, however unless decentralisation takes place there is no end to opening up of new hospitals.
REDUCING ELECTRICITY BY 50 PER CENT
It was argued by Kejriwal that the consumers of Delhi have been getting inflated bills due to malpractices of discoms. He further argued that by regular audits and checking of the electricity bills by independent agencies electricity rate could easily be brought down to 50 per cent.
If we look into the reign of Umar, we realise that he made a clear distinction between the public and the private. Whatever was public and was the part of the Bait-ul-Mal he took extra care. His cautiousness could be gauged from an incidence when a single dirham was missing from the Bait-ul-Mal. He immediately wrote to the official in-charge: “You do not appear to be dishonest (as one dirham is an insignificant amount), but I consider your negligence and offence. So, on behalf of Muslims I ask you to swear in public by Allah that you are innocent.”
Coming back to the issue of electricity, had this reality been at the time of Umar or had Umar been solving today’s issue of electricity, he would have solved it in a fraction of a second as he just had to look as to what source of legislation says. The issue is because of the privatisation of electricity and privatisation of anything that produces energy is not allowed as the Prophet said, “The people are partners in three things: water, feeding pastures and fire.” According to this Hadith, all energy resources, including oil and gas wells, coal mines and electricity generation plants can never be privatised.
JAN LOKPAL BILL
We all know that the movement which catapulted Arvind Kejriwal to the seat of Chief Minister was the movement to pass Jan Lokpal Bill. It was felt by the people that the corrupt politicians have made the whole country hollow and there must be some mechanism or rule so that the ruling elite could also be tried under the law.
Kejriwal’s idea is to pass a bill in the parliament which would bring all public servants under its purview. The Lokpal would have the financial, administrative and investigative independence and would have the power to even initiate the investigation. This way those who are sitting in the higher echelons of power would feel threatened and corruption would have been controlled.
During Umar’s time also corruption was on the rise. The ruling Umayyads had even confiscated lands and the governors and other officials became corrupt. However, since Umar was ruling with Islam as the source of legislation, he did not have to come up with something new as the concept of Mahkamatul Madhalim (Court of Unjust Acts) was already in place and no one, not even the caliph was immune from this department.
To conclude, it is important to first of all understand the reality of the issue and the root of the problem and only then can one begin to solve the issue. The issues in today’s world are arising from the capitalist ideology that is being implemented upon the society, which forms the core of the issue. One needs to think out of the box and someone has rightly said, “Problem is not solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”