By Shehzad Poonawalla,
Indian Democracy has a very strange postal address. You wouldn’t expect a thriving democracy like ours to reside a few hundred kilometers away from the most suppressive dictatorships in China and Burma, neighboring countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh that have been plagued with military dominance in their politics, in a part of the world characterized by the highest incidences of abject poverty, innumerable ethno-religious diversities and the largest population density.
Most western democracies owe their existence to the crossing of a socio-economic barrier that facilitates and encourages the sprouting of free thought, liberalism and free markets. The very philosophy of Capitalism underpins the democratic make-up of these societies and additionally the ideals of these democracies further consolidate their capitalist economic systems. In India however, the formula of capitalism induced democracy hasn’t really worked. And the decade and half from 1990-2004, which saw India adopting a liberal economic policy, was characterized by a degeneration of our democratic institutions and politics- rise in election malpractices, higher incidences of judicial and other corruption and declining scores on the Human Development Index (HDI). Instead of having a liberating effect and promoting freedom of speech and expression, rising national incomes in India coincided with a growing atmosphere of intolerance, aggressive nationalism and right-winged political thought. No wonder right-winged groups like the RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal and company assumed more importance than they actually deserved. It is not surprising that the BJP too gained electorally during the period from 1990-1996 and eventually came to power in 1998-99. In my view there were two major events that marked the beginning and culmination of this period, which posed a grave threat to Indian Democracy namely the destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and the Gujarat Pogrom in 2002.
So why did a rise in affluence and prosperity not have the same liberalizing effects on India as it did on western societies which led to the strengthening of their democracies? Well when India became independent in 1947, poverty was widespread. But there was a sense of equality that marked our collective poverty as a nation. And that equality became the glue which held our democracy together. So ours was a Socialistic democracy. But as we entered the 1990’s, the fruits of economic benefit only percolated to a miniscule minority and a large majority were deprived of these, which disturbed this sense of equality and had an adverse effect on our democracy. Explosion of 24/7 news channels and greater emphasis on reporting human interest stories meant that both- the poverty of the majority and the ostentation of the few became even more visible and the divisions between the “Haves” and “Have Nots” became even more pronounced. And this provided fertile ground for the rise and spread of right winged political ideologies.
One does not imply even for a moment that economic reforms or the media were the reasons for the creation of this division. Instead the failure on the part of successive governments to create a cushion of security and make massive investments in social infrastructure simultaneously for all those who were missed out by these reforms, led to the creation of these visible divisions between “India” and “Bharat”. As a matter of fact, the government of the time was so enamored and obsessed with the Indian Growth story that it completely neglected “Bharat” and this was best reflected in the unsuccessful “India shining” campaign run by the BJP in 2004. But since 2004, the political dividends reaped by radical right winged ideologies have been on a decline and Indian democracy delivered a very important verdict on the overwhelming need to restore the sense of equality by reducing the visible divisions between the “Haves” and “Have nots”. Realizing this, at the political level the Congress party reoriented itself to its original left-of-the-centre position and it adopted the “Aam Admi” slogan while BJP kept oscillating between “Soft” and “Hard” Hindutva. The Congress party once in power translated its political slogan into economic and social programmes namely the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme i.e. the work-for –all programme, National Rural Health Mission i.e. the health-for-all programme , Bharat Nirman i.e. development-for-all programme and Right to Information i.e. information-for-all programme, to name a few. A large number of these programmes have Rahul Gandhi’s imprint on them, who time and again, in press conference after press conference speaks his mind of creating a more equal and equitable India by reducing the gaps between the “Haves” and “Have nots”. As a matter of fact, he has been quick to read the aspirational streak amongst young Indians who now desire equality in prosperity and opportunity rather than equality in poverty.
Returning to power in 2009, the Congress party has continued to be proactive on this front by passing the Right to Education Act which will ensure education-for-all. The proposed Food Security Bill comes with the promise of providing food-for-all. The proposed Unique Identification Project, apart from its obvious benefits to national security will also, if implemented properly, act as a tool for restoring equality by enabling better delivery and distribution of social security programmes to all deserving constituents. These initiatives perhaps will be reasonably successful in curbing threats emanating from the radical right wing to our democracy.
But today, Rule of Law and democracy in India are coming under threat from the growing Naxalite and Maoist influence and radical left winged groups, who similar to the right-winged groups will use political violence, prey on latent insecurities and exploit institutional deficiencies to create divisions. Hence we urgently need reforms in the judiciary, police and public distribution systems. An overburdened judiciary is unable to achieve the ideal of justice-for-all and societies where justice becomes the privilege of a few, run the risk of becoming banana republics. In addition to this, police reforms are necessary to ensure security-for-all because today our police functions more like hired mercenaries of the rich, powerful and the politically connected class rather than the protector of rights of the common man. Millions will hope that political capital is channelized in making progress on these fronts too. After all, India’s very existence as functional democracy rests on it.
Jai Hind
(The author is law graduate from Pune’s Indian Law Society and a political activist)