The Shape of Things, post Indian Election

Congress is back in power with a bang; if there can be such a thing in the highly fragmented polity of India. This has been widely welcomed. Interestingly no major opposition party has made any adverse comments on the election process, the winners, the electorate and the machinery that conducts the elections, conceding their defeat with a modicum of dignity. The major parties like the BJP and the Communists have chosen to introspect instead of slinging mud. All this augurs well for the floundering democracy of this country. Several good things happened and a lot of doomsayers were proved wrong, thanks to the electorate of India.

First, and probably the most important, is the fact that the regional parties lost heavily reducing their status from being King Makers, never mind if they acted more like Trouble Makers, to nothing. Lalu’s departure to oblivion is about the most desirable outcome of the election. While Rajdeeep Sardesai rated him the most saleable TV personality, and Shekhar Suman spent considerable time making a third rate video news report on Lalu’s daily chores (and poor mannerisms), lionising him for unknown virtues not long ago, today Lalu is singing songs saying ‘Badal gaya Insaan’.

The truth is that the regional satraps have been feudal in their approach with little dignity or respect for law, or even the electorate that made them what they were. Paswan with 3 MPs, Ramdoss, Lalu and many others hardly seemed like the right people in those places. Most of them are more interested in their selves and families and have scant love for their regions, state, the nation and the people. And like Sonia Gandhi said everybody wanted to be Prime Minister in this election. Lalu had actually said several times in one issue of Walk the Talk with Shekhar Gupta with raised finger “I will be Prime Minister one day”. Pawar’s ambitions were going through the sky. Communists who have long been suspected of dubious relationship with the Chinese and divided loyalties have also been put paid. Indeed, the Indian communists are hardly the socialists they claim to be as they are elitist, can be seen in designer clothes and need servants to carry even their cabin bags on domestic flights. Mulayam and Amar Singh have failed to persuade the peoples of the country of their sincerity and are probably seen just as regional satraps, power drunk, power hungry and opportunistic. People rejected them as well as Mayawati who despite being ‘Dalit ki Beti’ acts like a queen and seems to believe that she is above law in some way.

I however suspect that much of this thought process-the tendency to hallucinate as being bigger than the nation, lack of humility and power drunkenness has been inherited from Nehru and Indira Gandhi who was infamously branded as ‘India is Indira and Indira is India’. Nehru seemed to believe that he alone could take the right decisions for the country and bore an aura of arrogance of being indispensable for the nation. No wonder the latter day politicians, whose role models these leaders no doubt must have been at some time or another being so much younger, saw political power as the sole goal and eventual licence.

The second good thing is that we have a stable government at the centre. There is a great opportunity for the Congress to redeem itself of its huge failures in its over 50 years’ rule over the country. The defeat at the hands of China in 1962 is dwarfed by the abject failures at the home front. (Indian state has failed to stop their incursions into Arunachal and their repeated claims to it, and has also failed in delimiting boundaries with China and Pakistan after years off efforts indicating lack of both political élan and competence.) The society is deeply riven on religious and caste lines. Then, there are regional, linguistic and sectarian divisions in the society. This is a potentially explosive situation and can drive the country into a civil strife of unspeakable dimensions. The corruption is endemic and the political system is corrupt to the core. The judiciary, gubernatorial positions and bureaucracy are repeatedly seen as partisan and bureaucracy has been instrumental in giving the country the reputation of being one of the most corrupt on earth. 30 million pending cases in the courts are a mockery of our legal process. Failure to effectively counter and overcome the problems of Kashmir, separatism, Naxal rebellion and its greatly increased power as well as spread, fundamentalism etc are irritants that are not only threatening the nation’s security but also the credibility of the Indian nation, even the idea that is India. This can result in our failure as a nation and loss of our position, both economic and political, in the world. Our failure to get Pakistan out of our system and Kashmir are monumental failures that impinge upon our sovereignty and paint us as a lame duck state. We have failed to secure our borders. An estimated 10 million Chakma rebels and Bangladeshi refugees that entered India in the 70s, and who should now be around 30 million due to proliferation through normal birth rates, are in the country and are eating into our resources but we have failed to do anything about it. No other country in the world would allow that.

Congress has again a chance to show that they can make a difference and really work for the nation’s uplift.

The BJP is vanquished, crestfallen and without any clue how to pull itself together again. This may not be good augury as the democracy can only remain strong and working as long a there is a strong, nationalist and well meaning opposition. Absence of it would soon allow the Congress to degenerate to its old ways and the democratically elected representatives will soon turn into unbridled despots. The RSS has failed to stimulate the electorate and could not convince its constituency of its own honesty and progressiveness. For the first time in its existence, during the time of K. Sudarshan at its helm, its claim of an undivided, disciplined and honest organisation has come under serious doubts. Most people suspect treachery against Modi, Chauhan and many others. The good thing however is that BJP can take a lesson from it and finally understand that if it performs it does not need the crutch of RSS. And, it should be chastening for RSS too but we can still see their belligerence.

BJP can have another chance only if Congress squanders the gains of this election and betrays the trust the Indian electorate has placed in it after a long break. BJP therefore must reinvent itself.

The Communists need to be banished by law, and if that is not possible then by the electorate. They have no function in a democracy. Communism is a farcical system which claims to be by, of and for the proletariate and working classes, but actually is a system that suppresses all dissent and representation. Maoists-Leninists have gone further to propagate the idea of grabbing the political power through the barrel of the gun, taking the world back to barbaric times. Is a sovereign state, democratic or not, going to be held at a barbarian gun point and, maybe finally be defeated by it, as we saw in Nepal not long ago? They will pretend democratic values as long as they are not in power. And when they come to power they will banish all democratic processes without losing any time and will immediately create a dictatorial state. I think not understanding this would only be the worst political naïveté.

The new congress led governments has its task cut out. The priorities are infra-structure (Power, roads, communication in the same order), defence, education and water resources management. I believe everything comes later. By defence I mean the internal homeland defence as well.

True to its confused philosophy rooted in Nehru’s ideas obfuscated by his elite background and socialist leanings, the Congress believes in taxing anyone who can be made to pay somehow. It seems to believe that taking away food from some and distributing it to others is a solution. They do not seem to understand that to help people you need to teach hem fishing rather than give them a fish.
They are likely to increase taxes.
They are likely to hike interest rates making India less competitive.
They are unlikely to make sure that the educational schemes are made functional again right from the village level, where the schools exist but teachers don’t.
They are unlikely to curb corruption. Mrs. Gandhi had already accepted it as a way of life when she said that it was there everywhere in the world.
They are likely to continue policies of appeasement for certain sections of society rather than fair and just action.
They are unlikely to gather the will to take on terrorists in true earnest or to fight Naxals with kind of will recently displayed by Mahinda Rajapakse in Sri lanka.
They are likely to take moral high ground at every opportunity, employing the English media to its fullest without doing much at the ground level.
They are unlikely to work on labour law reforms to reach a just system which recognises inefficiency, incompetence and avoidance of work as criminal waste of national resources and establish the right to hire and fire with the employer.
They are unlikely to take radical steps for legal reforms so that the pendency of cases may be reduced and faster dispensation of justice may be promoted.
They are unlikely to ensure high moral values and transparency at ministerial levels.
They are not serious about water resource management.
They will remain embroiled in casteist politics and will let the country lose its social fabric and its progress. Imagine that in the canopy at India Gate in New Delhi we could not install the statue of Mahatma Gandhi after removal of George V statue due to such sectarian squabbles, what to talk about bigger things.

In the opinion of Congress there have never been any leaders of national stature except Congressmen, mainly Nehru-Gandhis. So they will go on usurping all opportunities of naming new resources such as roads, buildings, monuments, airports etc after only Indira Gandhi and her bloodline. This is an insult to the nation but it will continue.

The country is likely to lose its position in the world which was build by Vajpayee and Bill Clinton. The country may lose its position as a safe and attractive investment destination due to the possible social strife and unsafety in the future. The challenge is to ensure a safe and prosperous future for the one billion that live here and their progeny. Is the current Congress up to the task?