Editorial

Shaping ‘Indian Democracy’

The brute fact is that in the coming years, the hot money the ruling elites accumulate by literally looting public money, will increasingly comprise sources of funds, for making the biggest showpiece of democracy in the world, a real banana republic. Social trust in India has fallen drastically over the recent years. Of all sectors of society, the public today is most distrustful of politicians, no matter whether they belong to the right or to the left. The distrust on the part of the public toward government officials and police, patients toward doctors, as well as consumers toward businessmen, is deepening and deepening. Corruption and dereliction of duty by government officers and employees further deteriorate the trust of the public even toward local panchayets and petty traders. Not that people are not protesting, they are protesting through local initiatives, only to get lost in the middle without knowing how to move forward.

Again and again struggles arise from the grassroots but are carried out without raising a banner of a long-term vision for radical social change. India today is riven between the creativity of masses in revolt and the bankruptcy of political left, rather the parliamentary left. And dozens of mass outbursts across the country are without concrete and lasting outcome. What is true nationally is equally true internationally. Progressives these days talk less and less about Occupy Wall Street, the indignados in Spain, the World Social Forum, Arab Spring and all that. After the euphoria following the revolution of January 25, as the Egyptians call it, two years ago, minimum civil and human rights such as gender equality, remain elusive.

But the issue in India is quite different. Here nobody thinks of Spring, everybody talks of summer ordeal. Here even revolutionaries have stopped talking of revolution; all are dancing to the tune of spontaneity. Political establishment is so corrupt that in this land of Buddha, no national daily is complete without news of scam. Amost everyday some persons somewhere in authority are getting exposed for their criminal involvement in economic offence and limitless fraudulence.

Criminalisation of politics is so daunting and all-pervasive that ordinary people everywhere suffer from a kind of fear psychosis as it was the case during Indira Gandhi’s emergency. No doubt her torch-bearers have made the situation worse. For those who think India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) can deliver even under conditions of stress and strain, are bound to think twice, after the recent Supreme Court verdict that CBI changed its own report on ‘Coal Scam’ involving Prime Minister’s Office, at the instance of influential people in the Union Cabinet. CBI too speaks in its master’s voice and that is what the Supreme Court judgement is all about. Of late it has become a political fashion to demand CBI inquiry by opposition parties in every scandal, financial or otherwise. But CBI itself is on trial. So is Indian democracy.

Most independent and semi-independent democratic institutions that were built over the years can no longer function in old ways. They have been crippled, mostly by corruption, beyond repair.

Today, the countury is torn by violence, with frequent attacks on genuine dissenters and independent people’s initiatives. From the police force to courts to prisons, the ‘criminal injustice’ system remains a machinery of partisan oppression. No doubt throughout the country there are determined struggles developing from the bottom but politicians of all hues are too cunning to divert them into electoral channels.

Amidst scams and scandals the Congress camp had reasons to celebrate as they wrested Karnataka by defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), winning 121 of the 223 Assembly seats elections to which were held on May 5. That Congress could win was a foregone conclusion because the erstwhile ruler BJP failed to cover up the himalayan corruption of some of its leading lights, including ministers. Congress is now more like a party of the South and they look unperturbed, notwithstanding multiple corruption exposures because they still hope to do well in the up-coming Parliamentary Poll.

If anything, all sorts of reactionary ideas and attitudes have been ushered into the mainstream of politics and media. If they continue to loot the exchequer at the present rate—and electoral power is all about how to loot exchequer with precision at both national and state levels—the country is likely to plunge into severe crisis with no foreseeable end. Angry protests are hitting the streets spontaneously but mass outbursts do not automatically develop into social revolution that would liberate people’s fighting energy in a sustained manner. After every mass upheaval either at nuclear power plant sites or in areas of forcible land acquisition people soon get driven by frustration over the strategy of inaction of the left.

There is virtually no conscious effort from any political outfit on the left to articulate mass anger and deprivation and a sense of helplessness that has gripped the poor and weaker sections of the society. All are busy to formulate their electoral game plan with a pompous election manifesto to be released before the poll. People want to fight normalisation of their drudgery and volatile present, not to speak of uncertain future. But leftist parties, including communist parties, show no inclination to go beyond tokenism. And tokenism cannot unfurl new banner of freedom and what is more, most left parties being part of state administration, are too willing to settle for much, much less, while shouting against anti-people policies of the governments, somewhat vaguely.

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 45, May 19-25, 2013

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