Govt should bow to people's will

The spokespersons of the UPA Government have been misleading the people by painting the mode of protest undertaken by Team Anna as being against the tenets of both the parliamentary system of government and democracy.

The first document to spell out with clarity the imperative duty of the people in a democracy was the American Declaration of Independence. It proclaimed bluntly that governments are instituted among men in order to guarantee the inalienable rights of the people to good governance, and they derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. Going one step further, it stated that “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it….”. That is the clarion call for any people to rise against an unjust and oppressive government by way of venting their anger and do everything possible to replace it.

It is not that this principle applies only in the case of a dictatorship or despotism. Nor does it mean that the people, as the sovereign masters, should be helpless spectators when elected assemblies and the governments in power turn freebooters, showing callous disregard for the well-being of the people and using their authority as a licence to let loose a monstrous reign of corruption and plunder of public coffers to enrich themselves.

DEPTHS OF DEPRAVITY

When a government, regardless of whether it is democracy or dictatorship, descends to such depths of insufferable depravity and venality, it deserves to be removed by the exercise of people power. That is the rationale behind the US and most nations of the world accepting the legitimacy of mass uprisings by the people to overthrow the regimes of Marcos in the Philippines, Milosevic in Yugoslavia, Ben Ali in Tunisia, and Mubarak in Egypt, with Gaddafi in Libya and Assad in Syria already on the way out, unable to bear the wrath of the people.

In the light of the above, mouthing stock phrases and stale notions about democracy, Parliamentary processes, and so on, becomes meaningless, when those very concepts and processes have been perverted and subverted by members of the political class and MPs and MLAs who are supposed to function as custodians of people's interests. The people are then left with no alternative but to take charge and show who the boss is.

India's political class is, as expected, closing its eyes to the radical shift in the mood of the people. It is yet to realise that the people are no longer prepared to suffer in silence the harassment, humiliation and hardship heaped upon them by insensitive and repressive governments. They are determined to enforce submission of the Government to the people's will and commands, or else.

EMERGING TREND

During Anna's campaign, India's political vested interests had been propagating the nonsense that Gandhian methods fashioned for throwing out colonial rulers are repugnant to parliamentary democracy.

Gandhiji himself, in answer to a question by the Hunter Commission inquiring into the Jallianwala massacre, unambiguously declared that he would not hesitate to launch the same kind of satyagraha as he did against the British against any government in free India if it went against the people's interests. His favourite exhortation to the people was to be fearless in fighting injustice and be steadfast in upholding their rights.

People power, as a renowned political analyst and former US Ambassador, John W. McDonald, puts it, constitutes “an emerging trend of genuine deep democracy across the globe which governments and international organisations will increasingly have to contend with in their policy-making.”

He points out how new leaders have emerged from among the masses who are drawn to the ideals and techniques of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. and determined not to let the organs of state stray from them.

He also brings out some interesting features common to people power movements the world has witnessed so far. Most such movements which proved successful in rallying the people in their hundreds of thousands revolve around a powerful and poignant message with which the people could instantly identify.

NEW PHENOMENON

In some instances, the protesters won over the doubters and sceptics, as also the forces of the state ranged against them, by highly imaginative gestures such as offering roses to security personnel and hugging them (as in the Rose revolution of Georgia, a former State of the Soviet Union).

The role of the media has been crucial in making the achievements of people power possible. Besides their in-built motto of keeping people informed, they are also an integral part of the civil society. It is no surprise that they should associate themselves with a popular cause of such compelling and profound importance as ridding the body politic of all the revolting and corrosive elements that are eating into the vitals of the nation. Technologies and social networks, in the form of cell-phones, Facebook, Twitter and the like have buttressed people power to such an extent that governments are going to find it extremely hard to cope with it.

People power is with us to stay. To quote from Mr McDonald's paper: “If this new phenomenon of peaceful revolutions is to be dealt with effectively, in a manner that protects civil freedoms and human rights…., governments will soon find it necessary to begin creating policies and institutional mechanisms to respond to these demonstrations of people power.

“Most importantly, governments must learn how to listen to their people to determine what their needs are before violence occurs; once a conflict begins to escalate to violence, it becomes astronomically more difficult to resolve peacefully. Presently, governments are not changing with this new reality, and their people are leaving them behind.”

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