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It is just about three weeks since the Delhi rape occurred. What happened in the capital on that cold night of December 18 was the result not merely of a handful of people losing their “sanity” temporarily but of a general decline in ethical mores and leadership.
Leadership issues
The issue perhaps boils down to “good leadership” which, most people will agree, is a scarce commodity in India’s public life as opposed to, say, leadership in the commercial world, which has shown the world again and again that Indians can match the performance of any other group in the world when it comes to engaging in efficient entrepreneurial activity.
Why have we not been able to provide good leaders in our public life? To quote one view, “A democracy cannot survive if the rule of law is applicable to only a selected few influential people like politicians, civil servants or the rich and famous . . . The need of the hour is to recognise that somewhere we have failed to live up to the expectations of the founding fathers of our great democracy”. These words were written recently by a serving non-UPA MP in a letter to the Prime Minister, the writer describing politicians as appearing to serve “their political parties first rather than the nation”, his grim prognosis being that “slowly but surely, the common man is losing faith in democratic institutions such as Parliament, CBI, CAG, judiciary, etc”.
Electoral reforms
Last month, Vice-President Hamid Ansari made no bones about the fact that the electoral system adopted by the Republic was flawed in that it had led to the creation of governments based squarely on a minority vote.
He cited the view of observers who felt that the system “induces candidates to focus on securing votes of a segment of the electorate and thereby induce, accentuate or reinforce social divisions based on caste, creed, faith or language”. More generally, Ansari said our “political process depicts ideological decadence and a declining observance of constitutional morality. Our society exhibits a disturbing disregard for moral order and public conscience”.
As a panacea, the Vice-President has urged reform to process that leads to minority representation of winning candidates. In 2009, 82.68 per cent of the successful candidates represented less than half the electorate in their respective constituencies. The problem is: Will the politicians themselves agree to this electoral reform?
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