The Hindu Business Line : Whither India’s democracy?

Democracy is the collective outcome of precepts such as respect for the people making up a polity, public-spiritedness, commitment to public weal, putting the nation above parochial interest, rule of law, tolerance of pluralism, freedom of expression, right to dissent, honesty and integrity in public life and private conduct, an independent and impartial judiciary, and the dependability of institutions meant for societal well-being.

Judged strictly on this touchstone, even long-established democracies such as the British or the American, may not make the grade to the full extent. However, the difference between those countries and India is that in the case of the former, adherence to the democratic value-system is more of a rule than an exception, whereas in India, it is the opposite.

Actually, Western political scientists had been advancing the thesis that the Oriental mindset cannot comprehend the nature and scope of democracy, leave alone put it into practice.

As if corroborating their view, compared to the Western hemisphere, there are too few democracies in this part of the world functioning as per accepted criteria. They can, in fact, been counted on the fingers of one hand: Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand and perhaps South Korea. And in two of these the people are of the Occidental cultural stock.

Pakistan long ago unabashedly gave up all democratic pretensions and had either got into the clutches of military juntas, or such institutional detritus as is sticking around, remains under the shadow and fear of the military. President Ayub Khan coined a phrase — guided democracy — for this state of affairs, but it has not been heard in recent years.

Total revolution

Dissatisfaction with the ‘functioning anarchy’ that India had become set in within the first 25 years of India’s Independence. Jayaprakash Narayan was the first prominent leader to give public expression to it. The ‘partyless democracy’ he initially espoused as a cure for the ills afflicting the polity could not take off because he did not spell out the defining features he had in mind in concrete terms. Meanwhile, the deteriorating political scenario drove him to think of a students’ movement for ‘total revolution’. The internal emergency of Indira Gandhi was largely to stem the tsunami of popular support for JP’s call.

In the 1977 election for the Lok Sabha, the people, by booting out the Congress, including Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay, in all the northern States, demonstrated that somewhere deep down within their psyche, there was still the spark that constitutes a lingering hope for India’s democracy. Some of the other intriguing features of the Indian political scene have their roots in the people’s native wisdom.

For instance, Western-oriented intellectuals beat their breasts over hung legislatures little realising that are but the unavoidable result of the electorate testing out the capabilities of various parties in the crucibles of group dynamics that elected bodies represent. Likewise, their letting the regional parties play a role in national politics is their way of decentralising power and taking government nearer to where the shoe pinches.

They have in their ingenuity forged for themselves the weapon of anti-incumbency that is a peculiar hall-mark of India’s democracy. It is nothing but an indication of the people’s determination to keep ruling establishments on their toes and at a short leash.

On the other hand, where, as in West Bengal, the ruling combine has by and large acted with their interest at heart, they have rewarded it with an uninterrupted tenure of more than 30 years.

Thus, the people’s instinct is sound. Turning around India’s democracy, therefore, involves its transformation from party politics to people’s politics. The next column will concern itself with this process. Watch this space and don’t go away.

B.S.RAGHAVAN