During the winter session of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, some Opposition members advanced towards the Chief Minister and over a point of law, came to blows. In the 14th Lok Sabha, BJP members displayed wads of currency claiming this as an instalment for winning over their party’s support. The campaign for the 15th Lok Sabha elections witnessed hurling of shoes and footwear at top leaders.
After 61 years, the Indian state reveals a society precariously balanced on a precipice in sharp contrast to its splendid and ancient civilisation. The vistas of hope promised and the commitments made by the Constitution notwithstanding, good governance has eluded the Indian people in every sphere of life. Strangely, neither during the electioneering nor in the laudable slogans is there a specific mention of immediate fundamental concerns such as food, housing, drinking water, health care, primary education, employment, rural electrification, increase in agricultural production, area-specific industrialisation and saving the environment from degradation.
Poverty in India is widespread with the nation home to a third of the world’s poor. According to the World Bank survey of 2005, 42 per cent of India falls below the international poverty line in 2004-05.
As one enters New Delhi’s Central Secretariat through Gate No 4, one often misses the British Raj maxim incised in golden letters: ‘Liberty will not descend upon a people; a people must raise themselves up to liberty…’ These were ominous words and it is time to diagnose the cancerous malaise that will not allow India to progress before comprehensive effective and timely reconstruction is embarked upon.
The vast Indian population have been likened to a directionless herd, innocent about their rights or duties under the law and therefore, frequently we are privy to respectable citizens; teachers, doctors, professors, media men, lawyers and law officers being subjected to the supercilious markedly cruel behaviour of an indisciplined, politicised and disorderly police force somewhat akin to the levies of the Ottoman Empire.
In Punjab and Haryana, at least six Directors-General of Police have served jail terms or have been arrested for corruption and moral turpitude while most recently a police officer was held for murder. It is generally believed that India is governed by a corrupt and largely insensitive civilian administration. The civil servants have fallen victim to the post-independent political dispensation where they are no longer masters since their power and postings are determined by their pliability and loyalty. Merit or expertise very rarely has anything to do with the civil servant’s career graph.
Criminal charges are pending against 153 and 93 MPs respectively of the 15th and 14th Lok Sabha. We must look at the electoral process with care. Of the important pillars of democracy, an independent judiciary, a free press and free and fair elections are of cardinal importance. We need to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1951 to prevent candidates with a criminal record from contesting elections.
It is also imperative to root out money power which can destroy democracy. Large contributions from corporate sectors tend to corrupt political life. Companies in the private sector are permitted to donate up to 5 per cent of their average profit for the previous three years. In fact, it is ‘notes for votes’ that is the mother of all corruption. The voter is ignorant that for every Rs 10 given to him by a candidate for votes, he ends up paying five to ten times more as bribe to avail himself of basic services due to him from the government. Such donations need to be totally banned and it must be ensured that no link is possible between the donor and a political party.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said recently that India needs a new government of patriots. Where have they all gone? — Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, C.R. Das, Rabindranath Tagore, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Lala Lajpat Rai, Udham Singh and the endless galaxy of men and women who laid down their lives to secure India’s freedom. In fact, the period between 1885 and 1947 has been termed by some historians as the age of idealistic innocence.
The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the Godhra riots in 2002, the dark years of militancy in Punjab, the Naxalite movement, the terrorists attack on India’s Parliament, the reprehensible attack on Christian churches, missionaries and nuns, and the Mumbai terrorist attack on November 26, 2008 indicate a threatening state of lawlessness in the country.
In this ancient land renowned for its saints and Bhakti singers, one is particularly pained by the power of hate which has so openly surfaced and become the emerging principle of our times. Recently an upcoming leader expressed a view to get the members of a minority community forcibly sterilised. This is a resonating echo of Will Crooks hatred for “human vermin” or Hitler’s avowed belief in eugenics to physically weed out an inferior race.
Had this leader made a speech based on love and stated “embrace them in your arms” he would have been left unnoticed. Likewise, echoes of ferocious slogans by a rising sun in Punjab claim that the rival political party would be decimated and pulverised. It could be said that these are ferocious mongoloid war cries tangential to democracy.
Therefore, this writer recalls with a heavy heart the words of India’s great philosopher Swami Vivekananda: “Civilisations have arisen in other arts of the world…Wonderful ideas have been carried forward from one race to another…But mark you; it has been always with the deluge of blood. This, many nations have taught but India, for thousands of years peacefully existed when even Greece did not exist…Even earlier, then history has no record…ideas after ideas have marched out from her, but every word has been spoken with a blessing behind it and peace before it. We, all nations…have ever been a conquering race, and that blessing is on our head, and therefore we live…!”
Jawaharlal Nehru wrote about himself in an anonymous article with respect to his 17 years as Prime Minister: “He must be checked. We want no Ceasers”. Thus, during his tenure, democratic values became so entrenched that when Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency for 21 months during 1975-77, she felt compelled to hold elections and to return freedom to the Indian people.
This writer has attempted a cursory survey of the tragedy of India today as he understands it. For he fears that democracy in India needs no external foe. If it withers away, this will be because of the sustained apathy and unmindful insensitivity to its essential prerequisites.
The writer is a former IAS officer of Punjab cadre
Source: The Tribune, Chandigarh, India.
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