Independence Day ruminations

There's plenty that's frightening in the Indian scenario: The unending series of scams; the high percentage of crooks facing criminal charges elected to Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies; the intolerably rowdy behaviour of MPs and MLAs inside the so-called Temples of Democracy; the rising tide of intolerance and violence, often morphing into insurgency and Maoism; the utter lack of accountability, transparency and probity in every field of activity; and the explosive mix of corruption and callousness crushing the aam aadmi .

The list is well-nigh inexhaustible. You may add whatever comes to mind that is loathsome and oppressive, and you will not be far off the mark. However, it will be premature to write off India as a failed or failing state, teetering on the brink of disaster. Summoning a historical perspective will be in order here: The course of democracy has never been orderly wherever it has been adopted as a mode of government.

It was not long ago that Lord Macaulay, in a condemnation of politics in Britain, the mother of democracies, said that it bristled with “whatsoever things are false, whatsoever things are dishonest, whatsoever things are unjust, whatsoever things are impure, whatsoever things are hateful, whatsoever things are of evil report, if there be any vice and if there be any infamy”. Winston Churchill summed it up with hisstatement, “…democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”

SELF-CORRECTIVE IMPULSES

The US too had to go through the unbearable torments inflicted by Tammany Hall politics, the anarchy of the Wild West, the murderous mafias, the lethal lynchings, and a civil war over the abolition of slavery before it could claim that life, liberty and pursuit of happiness were within its reach. There is every reason to hope that in India too, the self-corrective impulses built into the democratic process itself will get round, slowly but surely, the apparently grim portents.

I base this hope on the following considerations: First, my own experience of handling or studying situations such as the Rayalaseema agitation, the ship-to-mouth existence under the PL 480 regime, the Mizo insurrection, the Naga insurgency, the Mundhra scandal, Tara Singh's fast unto death demanding Punjabi Suba, the rampage of aya rams and gaya rams, Naxalism in West Bengal, and terrorism in Punjab. Each of these seemed like the end of the world but somehow the Indian political class found a way out within the democratic framework.

Every Indian citizen can take legitimate pride in the firm measures to counter political defections, the Constitutional amendment which has brought about a silent revolution by strengthening panchayati raj, the bold move to unshackle the economy from the crippling clutches of Statism, and the immense benefits that will increasingly accrue from the rights to education, employment and information.

QUIT DESPAIRING!

Even in the matter of corruption and black money, the tremendous forces unleashed by the people are at work, pushing the Government towards the desired goal. The recent announcement of the Government to introduce a Bill to bar persons against whom Courts have framed charge-sheets for criminal offences from contesting elections will be a major electoral reform, saving the people from the outrage of having to watch law-breakers strutting as law-makers.

Next, willy-nilly, the power, range and reach of the media are already enabling the people to keep all transactions of whatever origin, government, corporate, civil society, under scrutiny.

Advances in technology — the communications revolution, in particular — are bringing about greater accountability and transparency. They are also lessening the scope for corruption as is evidenced in the case of reservation of air and rail tickets. The spread of mobile telephones has brought down low-level corruption in the Telecommunications Department.

Finally, the steady progress in e-governance will make the hassles and hardships resulting from a heartless administration things of the past. So, dear readers, quit despairing! Hold the head high! Welcome the 65th Independence Day with all the joie de vivre you are capable of!

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