| Published on 25-01-2008 In National |
| Viewed 1438 times |
| Lets stop absuing all politicians,Republic has worked |
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Written by
Nilotpal Basu |
`Politics is the last refuge of the scoundrels' – this oft-repeated observation seems to be the `in' thing, so far as the mainstream Indian media is concerned. There is almost `a day in and day out' bashing of anything having to do with politics. And, nastiest of the lot are the political parties and political leaders!
Is this venom justified? Is the Indian political process really in a state of decline and reached its nadir – or whether the case is overstated – blown out of proportions?
It is true that after having concluded six decades of existence as an independent republic – these are questions, which are needs to be examined with all seriousness that they demand. India at sixty must seriously introspect.
But before proceeding with such a scrutiny, the question must beput in perspective. Is India or its polity doing too badly – with respect to other countries in the comity of nations – at least with countries which had become independent around the same time, at leastin the third world, not to speak of those who have been independent and had opportunity to evolve their political systems over a reasonable period of time into functioning democracies.
The answer must be emphatically negative. In fact, India has done quite remarkably in the sense that outside the developed world, whether inNorth America or Western Europe, to have an uninterruptedrun of rule by elected representatives of the people. India – never had to bear with any interruption of military dictators with the clicks of their jackbootsdisrupting the vibrant chimes of democracy. Democracy has taken deep roots. This is in sharp contrast to most of the developing countries – most significantly in our neighbourhood. Not once have charges of any major electoral fraud blemished our record.
That our democracy has survived is not without reasons. The edifice of the Indian State is premised on three pillars – the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. Our Constitution, which has sprung out directly from our freedom movement, had designed itself on the principle of independence and separation of powers of each of these constitutional organs. Not that such separation has been always treated as sacrosanct – but whenever breaches have taken place, the processes and most importantly, the sovereign – the citizens have asserted to sustain the equilibrium.
One such serious breach was the internal emergency in the mid-seventies. Stung by judicial disapproval, Indira Gandhi refused to step down from her office. The executive in that instance attempted to crudely undermine the judiciary. Aided with a brute majority, the Constitution was amended to ensure a tilt in favour of the executive. But that Constitutional misadventure did not succeed. The regime was reversed.
Similarly, the emergence of the communal forces in the late eighties posed a real threatto the secular foundations of the republic. But, by then, the polity had changed beyond recognition. No single party was in a position to call the shots. The judiciary also saw to it that secularism was recognised as a basic feature of our Constitution. And, the exercise that the BJP-led government undertook to review the Constitution could not even lead to proposals for amendment.
Indian polity is actually becoming more multipolar. The possibility of one party rule seems to be remote in the near future. The diversity of ethnicity, social differentiations, unevenness in regional development, linguistic and cultural plurality – are all coming into play. Structurally, Indian nation and its society is a `coalition'. The political process has come to manifest this.
It is true that there are aberrations. There is corruption – and corrupt politicians. There is executive ineptitude - and, at times legislative incompetence -and, of course, of late, judicial overreach. All these are putting strains on the institutions and the processes. The first flush of idealism that characterised our first generation of political leaders who came out of the thick of freedom struggle is missing. This is not abnormal. But the aberrations have not overtaken the Constitutionally determined processes. Indian democracy and its political processes are, indeed, alive and kicking.
The apocalyptic spectre is, indeed, cynical and obviously overstated. One cannot but recognise a hint of globalisation induced attempt to substitute a role of popularly elected leaders by `experts' and `media overlords' whose loyalty may lie elsewhere – embedded ina neo-liberal premise ordainedby international finance capital. |
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