Rule by law: Delhi minister harasses hotel

Delhi’s Social Welfare & Labour Minister Mangat Ram Singhal’s vindictiveness against a five-star hotel demonstrates how government agencies are used and abused by politicians to serve their personal ends.
The security staff of the hotel committed the cardinal sin of checking Singhal’s car. Since most politicians consider themselves as above law, the honorable got so furious. So, he unleashed eight inspectors on the hotel. Even by the standards of Indian politics, the display of might was so disgraceful that Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit felt ashamed. She decided to rein in the wayward minister and his men. She reprimanded Singhal; she also pulled up senior officers of the departments involved such as Labour, Excise, Health, Finance, Prevention of Food Adulteration and Electrical. She is said to have castigated the officers for “wasting government resources” and ordered them to apologise to the hotel individually.
It was a big hotel, run by a leading company. The ill-treatment meted out to it was righted by a sensible chief minister. One wonders about the plight of smaller enterprises which are always at the mercy of our political masters and the paraphernalia that they have under them to dictate terms.
This is not the rule of law; this is the rule by law. Aristotle favored the rule of law, writing that “law should govern”; those in power should be “servants of the laws.”
One of the prerequisites of modern democracy is the rule of law. A prominent political scientist, Li Shuguang, illuminates us by distinguishing the rule of law by the rule by law. “The difference.... is that under the rule of law the law is preeminent and can serve as a check against the abuse of power. Under rule by law, the law can serve as a mere tool for a government that suppresses in a legalistic fashion.”
The Singhal episode clearly shows that we have the rule by law. It has also highlighted the fact that the government officials are putty in the hands of politicians. A few days ago, the then Indian Premier League Commissioner, Lalit Modi, was interrogated by officials. The timing made it all obvious: it came just after his well-publicized fight with former minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor. The high and mighty in New Delhi were offended: how could an upstart cricket czar take on one of us. So, the empire struck back. Unfortunately, non-Congress regimes have been equally bad on this count. The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, for instance, vengefully persecuted and prosecuted the promoters and financiers of Tehelka after the Bangaru Laxman affair.
The politicians are unlikely to promote the rule of law. We, the people of India, will have to do that.