CDG – the never ending controversy

CDG is one of the most talked about controversy for the first elected government. This is another view from Bhutan Times:

Written by Sangey of Haa Wangcha
January 17, 2010: Once again it is in the news. The National Council seems to have faded because now it seems to be a contest between Government and the Election Commission. Is it constitutional or is it unconstitutional? Is it a breach of Election Law? The last time, in fact quite sometime back, I thought this issue was put up to the King by the National Council. Maybe I am wrong.


What is happening is that the CDG has been put into operation through a mechanism called Annual Budget which the National Assembly says does not need to be approved or consented to by the National Council. I think the 2 opposition members in the National Assembly opposed the CDG inclusion in the Budget but in Democracy the majority have the say, most of the time.

The Election Commission is worried because CDG could, in its opinion, give an edge to sitting MPs if Constituency Development Grant is used to meet the promises that these MPs made whilst asking for votes in the 1st General Election. The voters could reward the MPs in the next General Election (2013) if these MPs are able to keep their campaign promises already made.

The CDG of Nu: 2 million a year i.e. 10 million or 1 crore in 5 years is quite a sum especially in a small constituency and could provide the necessary edge against any opponent in the next Election.

I like one arguement put forth by the Minister of Works and Human Settlements. The Government formed by DPT Party is executing and implementing all projects/developments works in the 10th five year plan. Does this automatically mean that the incumbent Government will be elected to power in the next General Election? If the answer is “yes”, then CDG does not make a difference and if it is “no”, then again by the same logic, CDG should not have an impact. I may have an answer but for the time being the opportunity must be given to the National Council and the Election Commission.

What I am intrigued is about the present scenario where Government proposes to go to the Local Governments to find out whether the CDG is needed, justifiable or unnecessary, not justifiable. So if the Local Governments responds favourably to the Government’s continuance of the implementation of CDG, then I suppose the Government intends to go ahead and if not then revert. How does one revert what has been spent under CDG?

The Local Governments are supposed to be apolitical institutions. At least the present Dzongkhag Administrations and the DYTs and the GYTs are supposed to be apolitical. Therefore, would it be even politically correct to draw them into this political disagreement? And more important will the Local Governments agree to be drawn into such a political bone-fire. It would be interesting to find out the reactions and responses of the Dzongdas and the Chair Persons of the Local Governments.

Why are MPs so insistent on this CDG? Is it because of the objectives of the next General Election or is it because their Constituencies keep reminding them of campaign promises? There is no easy answer but fulfilling campaign promises to the extent possible can be a very powerful motive. Maybe the MPs are caught in a moral dilemma. If CDG goes through, they will be able to keep part of the campaign promises. But then they stand to be accused of being unfaithful to the Constitution that created them and breaching Election Laws. And if CDG does not go through, their Constituencies would mark them as being unreliable and dubious. It is also possible that few MPs do genuinely feel that there are things to be done and not necessarily because they form part of campaign promises or laying future vote banks.

I can also imagine the kind of pressures that the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers are subjected to from their DPT member MPs and Party Faithfuls. Why even have a Party and fight an Election if you cannot do anything for the Party and Party Constituencies? Further MPs could even challenge the Ministers for not supporting the CDG after all Ministers have Ministries and all the development works to talk about but MPs would not have anything to show their personal care for the constituencies.

There also pressure on the Election Commission. It is the constitutational resposibility of this Commission to ensure that Election is Free and Fair. Therefore any wide spread perception that the present government is finding ways to tilt the scale of the next general election, is harmful and detrimental to the perceived process of democracy. Therefore the Commission will do all it can to correct any possible imbalance.

CDG is just one battle and there will be continuous other battles. All I hope is that in-spite of differences of the opinions, all Parties keep maintaining their dignity even in disagreement and find ways to resolve the differences in a way that the Nation can find confidence in itself.

What seem to appear on the surface may not be the real picture. It is important that all involved parties especially the public should be honest and forth right in the long term interest of the nation.

Democracy is a complex monster. It is not a Faith of Fairness and at times it is not even the choice of the Majority. The intricacies of the patterns of Democracies practised all over the World could baffle the most skilful weaver and the challenges of Democracies can be daunting even to a Knight of the Round Table.