What's scare mongering, Mr. PM? | Nilotpal Basu

Published on 12-06-2008 In National

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What's scare mongering, Mr. PM?

Sometime back, when the leaders of the Left Parties had met the Prime
Minister to present him with a memorandum outlining the proposals for
containing the rise of prices of essential commodities – there was a
strange response. The very same evening, a terse statement was issued
from his office to the effect that any protest over the rise in prices
would, actually, `further fuel inflation'. The logic was simple –
protest was synonymous with `scare mongering'. And, this was going to,
surely, abet the speculators and further contribute towards upward
spiraling.

Secondly, the statement also made out that protest over prices was
`politicizing' a development which was the result of global processes.
It was implicit in this argumentation that the global processes
cannot be questioned and ought to be accepted as such. The corollary
was that our government could do little to insulate the people from
this global process which was invested with a degree of `omnipotence'.

We are now witness to the continuing refrain on similar lines. The
BJP National Executive meeting attacked the government for failing to
keep prices in check. The spokesperson of the BJP and a former
minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tried to rebut the Finance Minister on
the record of the NDA government. But both Mr. Chidambaram's
contention on the BJP performance and Mr. Prasad's rebuttal were
essentially on cold statistics, repeating ad nauseam figures on
inflation and annual growth rates. The discourse unfortunately is not
capturing the sense of urgency which ought to be displayed to provide
succor to the people. Far less this discourse is trying to examine
policy making both by the present government and the previous
government of the NDA which has, no doubt, contributed to the present
situation.

But, the scrupulous avoidance of the policy underpinnings which has
led to the present situation which by now even the Finance Minister
has been forced to concede as `bad'. This is, however, not
accidental. Actually, there is a complicity in this conscious
proliferation of a `culture of silence' over people's vital question
of livelihood.

Apparently unrelated, another question has also come up with a sharp
focus. This relates to the manner in which elections have come to be
conducted. The obvious immediate reference is the manner of holding
of the Karnataka assembly elections by the Election Commission of
India.

Increasingly, the election process is appearing to be an exercise to
primarily contain `wrong doing' by the political parties. There is a
manifold increase in emphasizing the need to bring down the money
spent by the candidates and the political parties. The EC's
oft-repeated prescription is now leading to curbing the activities of
political parties themselves to pose before the people the issues
concerning their life and livelihood.

The restrictions are,
therefore, singularly directed on the number and volume of posters,
pamphlets, public meetings, etc. which inform the people – of course,
from the standpoint of each political party. Conversely, this attack
on the right of the political party thus affects the people's right to
information. Election time – no doubt, provides an opportunity for
the people to be informed about the analysis that each political party
is supposed to put forth for addressing popular concerns. And, it is
on these commitments that whosoever assumes office having to be
judged. That is, the bedrock of the principle of accountability which
is the heart of a parliamentary democracy. The political party or in
the era of coalitions-the set of parties-have to redeem themselves in
course of governance in the light of those very pre-election
commitments. Therefore, ignoring this crucial aspect can only imperil
democracy.

That this is not directed as such against the use of money power in
the election process has become increasingly clear in the Karnataka
elections. There have been widespread reports even in mainstream
media of the increasing use of money power triggered by the activities
of the `lobbies'. As compared to the `liquor lobby' in the past
elections, this election has thrown up the `mining lobby' as the
flavour of the month. The election process has highlighted that
notwithstanding such antics by the EC, money has flowed like water.
This ominous development, therefore, raises the question that what is
the effect of all these exercises in so far as insulating the election
process from manipulation through money power is concerned?

All these developments from the statement issued by the Prime
Minister's office – the discourse between the BJP spokesman and the
Finance Minister – the conduct of elections by the EC – howsoever
unconnected they might appear are actually inter-related. It
underscores a degree of consensus aimed at insulating our discourse on
people's concerns for survival and livelihood from uncomfortable
policy questions. The basic policy paradigm of neo-
Liberal globalization has to be accepted as such; regardless of
whether they are effective in addressing people's concerns or not.

In a country as huge, as diverse and as complex as India, consigning
the bread and butter issues of peoples livelihood to the backburner
can only signal an unmitigated disaster. In election after election,
the incumbents are being voted out of office. To ensure that such
changes are better informed. And daily discourse, particularly those
elections be premised on the policies that parties espouse, so that
there can be intermittent reality checks. That is the only way to
ensure transparency and accountability. This is surely a time for
introspection.

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