INDIA IS POISED FOR A POLITICAL CHANGE – MAKE IT HAPPEN
Where have we moved as a nation in these
65 years since independence? That the country has been shamed beyond words in
the tragedy which befell a young girl, whose modesty was outraged and she murdered
by some of its very own men, who are nurtured on the freedom of democracy. The
question which begs an answer from the people of India is, are we worthy of
democracy and its accompanied freedom; as we have adopted for ourselves in our
Constitution. And the answer, which is forthcoming from an honest attempt in
response to this, is an emphatic NO. This was the apprehension of most social
thinkers, world leaders and political scientists, who had wagered their bottom
dollar on genuine and meaningful democracy, not prospering in India in the long
run, because its people were not as yet prepared to understand its implications,
in its entirety. The economic, social and class imbalance, which then existed
in our society, did not suitably lend itself to the ennobling and empowering
concept of adult political suffrage. That, it happened was a colossal
contradiction that engulfed our political thought. However, the political
leadership, which was then in the forefront of society that emerged from the shackles of
British Rule, was charged with and inspired by national idealism, steeped in
rectitude and probity. This, initially, and to a large extent compensated for
any lack of ability among the Indian people, to comprehend and imbibe the
essence of their role and active participation in this form of a governmental
dispensation. India, adopted the British system of parliamentary democracy,
which today has been subverted by the political class; who short-changed its
people by manipulating the provisions of our Constitution by unleashing a
virtual democracy, which was propped up on the divisive calculation of
religion, caste, creed, class, parochialism, language etc intrinsic in a multi
ethnic and multi cultural populace. India was kept largely illiterate and
disempowered, by design, rather than the
existence of any insurmountable problem, which was an impediment towards the
social empowerment of its people. The second generation of the country’s
political leadership was happy with the thought of appealing to the emotive
instincts and ephemeral survival needs of the people. Politics got criminalised
and corruption was institutionalised. The three pillars of our parliamentary
democracy were whittled down to become selectively effective, depending upon
the desire of our political masters who subverted these to their advantage and
interpretations. This is where we stand as a Nation, today.
In the aftermath of the liberalisation of
the country’s economy and an end to the license permit raj, we are poised at
the intersection of hope and gloom, of individual aspiration and frustrating
institutional failure. The successes are weighed down by the failings, which
stem from the failings of the political class and the bureaucracy that is
supposed to complement the former. The political class lacks the vision to make
course corrections for the larger good of the country and its people, as also
courage to face the crisis which confronts society and the Nation. For
democracy to survive and for India to prosper, the political leadership must be
driven by the public good than private dividend. Corruption, national and
individual security, water, energy, poverty, hygiene and sanitation,
federalism, casteism and many more critical concerns will become chronic
impediments in the commensurate progress and development of an India, which is
on the threshold of becoming a world player in the comity of nations. Even at
the cost of being seen and read as a Cassandra, it is my firm belief that
should the country not be jolted from this state of political quagmire, which
exists presently in our polity; we are living and sitting on a disaster waiting
to happen. It will be too late then for much to be done to arrest the fallout
of the disaster, we as a people will have invited upon ourselves. All will be
equal stakeholders for the tragedy that is most likely to befall the country in
the coming decade or so. To be forewarned is to be forearmed, and hence the
present stares each one of us to come out of our comfort zones and degenerate
our despair with the political system that obtains in India, with a purposeful
alternative, which could even be anarchy, followed by an authoritarian
dispensation.
Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal
+919410900051
