Editorial

Seeking Changes?

Increasing pessimism or what prime Minister Manmohan Singh calls ‘negativity’ seems to have gripped Indian polity. All, including Mr Singh’s party—Congress Party managed by the Gandhis—are talking about ‘changes’ while focusing little changes in their policy outlook and quite naturally nothing  is changing in the administrative setup that is rotten to the core. The ‘changes’ in their proposals are not really major changes but seeking changes is the trade mark of all parties. As social problems have been accumulating in almost all states for long, people are restive everywhere voicing their urges for change. There is no political or economic justification for treating states like colonies or semi-colonies. But the Centre has perfected the art of legalising colonial approach to states in the name of federalism and balanced economic development over the years.

The Centre’s deliberate policy to develop the West at the expense of the East on the specious ground of national security defies any rationale. These days there is no Pakistan in the east and yet old arguments about national security continue to deprive the eastern and north-eastern states of their legitimate central investments. Defence-related industries and non-defence heavy industries constitute a big area of employment and southern and western states have been enjoying the bonanza since the fifties. Expectations and doubts live on despite tall talks of federalism and democracy. In truth what exists in India today is a unitary system and lack of real federalism continually fuels regionalism, sub-nationalism, parochialism, even communalism and all that.

Unequal development of some regions, rather under-development, has been an issue of agitation of the aggrieved since the days of Nehru and the same tradition continues unabated. CPM, a ‘national’ outfit with regional political relevance, derived extra mileage in so many elections at different levels by cashing in on ‘Agony of West Bengal’. One reason they had been in power for so long in Bengal was their consistent campaign against the step-motherly behaviour of successive central governments towards Bengal. They actually first raised the question of centre-state relations in terms of colonial exploitation by the Centre, albeit they later dropped the idea altogether, for reasons best known to them.

The republic of India means too much power with the centre while states are at best greater municipalities dependent totally on Delhi sultans for their hand-to-mouth existence. The process of centralisation has been going on unchallenged for decades though populism about decentralisation and panchayeti raj is an all-season staple for the media. And this centralisation has created its opposite—regionalism. Today there are too many regional forces—some are working at cross purposes—hoping to play national game beyond their borders after the next general election of 2014, the time-table of which may be advanced to save the embarrassing situation for the last few months the minority Congress government has been in.

If there is no valid reason for the mush-rooming of regional outfits, small parties like Marumalachi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) would have vanished from political scene long ago. No, this is not happening. With every passing day more regionalists are joining the fray.

Everything sells in vote market and parochialism does business well where discrimination is too glaring to be glossed over. Whether India’s future lies in the hands of regional parties as suggested by Vaiko of MDMK the other day is open to question but the so-called mainstream parties have failed to unite all contending tendencies in a union that is hardly federal in character. That India is not safe under the Congress-led ruling dispensation is a fact of life. Nor will the situation change for the better under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Opposition. The main problem with the regional parties is that they are regional at the time of electioneering. After the polls they allow themselves to be dragged into what the late Charan Singh once called ‘donkey-trading’ at the centre.

If anything the myth of ‘unity in diversity’ is crumbling and crumbling. In some parts of the country people refuse to recognise themselves as Indians. The self-proclaimed national parties have so far failed to hasten the process of assimilation and naturalisation without which national integration will remain elusive. But they have succeeded in antagonising and alienating a large number of people through their divisive ploy of ‘divide and rule’.

Regionalism is bound to flourish unless regional disparity in living standards and income is being adequately addressed. Janata Dal (U) is now demanding to make Bihar a special category state, rather a special status like Kashmir. And there is logic in it. Central doles cannot satisfy the socially and economically disadvantaged and bridge the widening gap in income between ‘developed’ and ‘under-developed’ regions.

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 19, Nov 18-24, 2012

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