INDIA TODAY.
Nearly seventy years ago India won freedom chiefly as a result of the non-violent struggle under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru hoisted the national flag on the Red Fort. Earlier, Balgangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Gopala Krishna Gokhale, Annie Besant and a host of great patriots made their own contribution to the freedom movement. It is equally true that the British government was willing to grant independence to India when Clement Attlee, a great statesman, was the Prime Minister of England as Head of the Labour Party which declared through its election manifesto that it would grant independence to India if it came to power. It kept its promise. Attlee said," I have always felt that political India will be the Light of Asia".
For six decades India paid lip sympathy to Gandhiji, all the time violating his teachings and turning a blind eye to his values. Today we are proud that India's is world's largest democracy while many of our neighbouring countries are under military rule and that ours is one of the fastest developing countries and second in the world in scientific and technological manpower. No doubt we have many plus points. But there is no cause for jubilation and euphoria when we look at our minus points, especially after the recent world economic crisis and 26/11 in Mumbai. I would refer to the evaluation of the working of our famed largest democracy!
The Indian Constitution is the most beautiful in the world, but what have we made of it? As Minoo Masani once said, "When we made the Constitution of India, we made a sad mistake and thought that we were drafting a Constitution for Englishmen. Unfortunately we had not bargained for the kind of politicians India had been suffering for the last forty years. The Constitution is good but we Indians have let it down". Its framers Dr. Ambedkar, B.N. Rao, Alladi Krishnaswamy and others never suspected the shape of things to come. Nehru himself gave a warning: "There is a duty cast on us and that is to remember always that we are here not to function for our party, or one group but always to those of India as a whole, and always to think of the welfare of the 400 millions that comprise India" (13th December, 1946). What a great statesman-like advice!
While addressing the Constituent Assembly, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the philosopher statesman said: "Our opportunities are great but let me warn you. When power outsteps ability, we fall on evil days. We should develop competence and ability which will help us to utilise the opportunities. From tomorrow morning, from midnight today we cannot throw the blame on the Britisher. We have to assume the responsibility for what we do". Inspite of his wake-up call, we are still blaming the British for our failures, particularly Macaulay for our educational mess. The age of statesman has passed and the time of politicians has come. We have men of short visions and limited thinking. As Michel Angelo said, "The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it".
When diversity is despised, difference is not tolerated, dialogue is not encouraged, democracy cannot flourish.
There appears to be very little democratic content in our democracy barring periodical elections. When we look at the changing combinations and electoral alliances of the political parties with conflicting aims and objects, we wonder whether manifestoes have any meaning, Aaya Rams and Gaya Rams are the order of the day. Assuming leadership of what remained of the old party, each party desperately seeks power with opportunist alliances on a temporary basis. They are marriages of convenience. We have forgotten the famous debates which used to take place between the stalwarts of the Treasury Benches and the Opposition Parties. The cut-and-thrust of democratic debate of Nehru's time is replaced by a knock-down and drag-out fight metaphorically speaking. The Speaker's rulings command no respect. Often they invade the podium and reach out for the papers. Walk-outs are so frequent that bills are passed in the absence of the opposition. The public has the opportunity of witnessing these uninspiring scenes thanks to the electronic media. We cannot blame the members of any particular party. They are all pieces cut from the same cloth.
I thought that we should learn lessons from the American democracy where members of the party in power and the party in opposition forget their differences and present a united front on issues that benefit their country. It has lessons for India. But today the Democratic party and the Republican party locked their horns. Political realities and ethical principles are often seen as strange bed fellows. The opposition parties think that their duty is to oppose the government irrespective of the soundness or otherwise of its policies. Eisenhower, the former President of America said, "Indeed, I think people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out and let them have it!"
India is fourth in dollar millionaire countries. Yet it ranks 134 in Human Development terms. We have splendour on one side and squalor on the other. Some 830 million people exist on less than Rs. 20/- a day. Only five percent coverage is there in our media (news and electronic) for such things. 75% and above coverage is there for film stars, fashions, food, cricket, crime, pop music, Disco and astrology, diverting the attention of the people from real issues like price rise, corruption, unemployment and other social evils. Hundreds of accredited journalists, it seems, attended the Lakme Indian fashion week. There were only a few journalists to cover the suicides in Vidharba and Sircilla. None cares to cover meetings of social and educational importance.
As the largest democracy in the strategically important region India is poised to play a crucial and leading role on many issues. A nation is not the geographical entity of a country. People should be emotionally integrated by common philosophy, heritage and aspirations. Politicians should not try to divide the people by encouraging casteism, communalism, regionalism and sub-regionalism.
A well known jurist of the United States said in "The Commentaries on the US Constitution", "Republics may perish in an hour by the folly or corruption or negligence of its only keepers - the public. They fall when the wise are banished from public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded because they flatter the people in order to betray them".
To set the record straight, growth and development are no doubt necessary but one thing is sure, unbridled capitalism produces a crisis. The market is not a self-correcting mechanism. It needs an effective regulatory oversight with safety nets to save the people whose livelihoods collapsed and life styles slumped. We have to roll back the state from neo-liberalism or moderate it. Otherwise there will be universal manifestation of discontent and distress.
Paul Valery, the French poet, said "If the State is strong, it crushes us. If the State is weak, we perish".
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