The Hindu Business Line : Democracy under duress!

We are all familiar with takeovers by the military after overthrowing democratically-elected governments. India's democracy alone is in the funny position of needing the help of the police, para-military and other security forces for conducting elections to Parliament, State Assemblies and local bodies. For instance, in the last General Election in 2004, 20 lakh security personnel of all categories were deployed. The electoral process had to be extended over a month by holding the poll in phases to allow time for the movement of security forces from one group of States to another. Hitherto, however, the military had seldom been called in to foster and sustain our democracy.

Military assistance

The shocking orgy of violence and anarchy let loose by rowdies and goondas, instigated no doubt by their political patrons, during the election to the Chennai Corporation, and the panic that gripped the electorate in Tamil Nadu as a whole, have led not only the concerned citizens, but the political parties themselves, to think of seeking the Army's assistance to ensure a fair, free, clean and orderly election! Can one conceive of a more ridiculous situation in which everyone wants the military to guarantee democracy?

The two Communist parties in Tamil Nadu, which are part of the Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA), deserve appreciation for displaying an exemplary sense of public-spiritedness and courage in an otherwise repulsive scenario. Instead of remaining silent out of misplaced loyalty to the Alliance, they have made bold to come out openly — and at the risk of straining their relations with the DMK, which heads the Alliance — with their condemnation of what they allege to be wanton acts of booth-capturing, rigging, attacks on polling personnel, and so on, indulged in by members of that party.

Indeed, media reports have, without exception, laid the blame primarily on the DMK, calling the ugly scenes enacted as worse than those usually witnessed in States such as Bihar.

It is a matter of immense sadness for all the right-thinking people of Tamil Nadu that the State, with its once proud tradition of quality administration and effective maintenance of law and order by a professionally competent police force, should be depicted in such terms. The Chief Minister and DMK supremo, Mr M. Karunanidhi, on the other hand, has claimed that the violence this time was less in scale and extent than what the AIADMK, according to him, had unleashed in 2001.

The State Election Commission and the top brass of the police have also asseverated that disturbances were confined to a limited number of booths and wards and never went out of control. Anyway, it is to be hoped that the precise nature of the happenings on the poll days will be clear when the case now before the High Court is decided.

Need for introspection

Regardless of how the case turns out, there is an imperative need for deep introspection by political parties, civil society, residents' associations, voters' groups and the administration. Is this the kind of legacy we want to leave to future generations? Do we want to set for our children examples of behaviour and conduct which trample under-foot the tenets and precepts of our culture and civilisation, of whose glory and greatness we are never tired of boasting? Should not each of us exemplify the best and be No. 1 if we want our country or State to be No. 1?

B. S. Raghavan