Choice Between The Devil And The Deep Sea

Being away in Minneapolis, ever since 10 Jun 2013 on a holiday with our son and nephews, who live here; kept us away from the Indian news channels which keep people abreast with the latest happenings in the country. We missed out real time on the spate of Breaking News, Talk Shows, Debates and News Hour programmes, but did get to watch these online in YouTube or videos. Even by a very economical estimate of the story that were put in the public domain by the premium English news channels, much has happened and is happening in the firmament of Indian society and politics. With the parliament being in its monsoon session and the business of the Houses focussing on the passage and approval of the Food Security and Land Acquisition Bills, the demand of the Opposition from the Prime Minister to make a statement on the floor of the House, in the more than 200 missing files from the Coal Ministry, which are critical to the CBI investigation of the coal scam, the rape of a woman journalist in Mumbai, the charge of rape against Aasaram Bapu and his arrest by the police; are some of these which occupied the electronic space and time of most channels. As if this was not enough to engage the attention and concern of people, the Syria chemical weapons story, its International political ramifications and the American response to the situation, urging the American President to build up a consensus within the Congress and Internationally, to deal with the crisis by a military intervention to degrade the capability and capacity of Bashar Al Assad to use such weapons of mass destruction ever afterwards, is more than what can occupy one’s mind which craves for information about current National and Global happenings . Be that as it may, the one thing which comes forth from the above is the difficult times in which we live and our children are exposed to, when in the formative years of their growth and development. Governance in India has been hijacked by political expediency, wherein public morality has been shown the door to make space for venality and hypocrisy, which mocks and insults the people’s intellect. Political Parties, across the board have cocked a snook at the citizens of the country, by reducing vital matters of National concern into rhetorical slugfests that do not inspire any hope in the people of the country, who continue to remain marginalised on fundamental issues of individual security and human dignity, which must essentially undergird the Government’s commitment to them. While, it can be argued that the right of a political party in a democracy is to reach out to its political constituency with such social welfare schemes as are populous and sustained by the provisions of the Indian Constitution; it can be nobody’s case that this is done when the country is coursing through an economic crisis which negates such an initiative. The fiscal costs of this Bill becoming an Act under the Law, will impose a huge burden on the budget and will create an additional deficit which will require exceptional balancing skills to provide for it, without impinging on other budgeted Heads. It is for this reason that, the President of the Congress Party and the Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), is considered a shrewd political mind who has wisely imbibed the skills of the trade from her mother in law, the late Mrs Indira Gandhi.  There could not have been a better game changer for the Congress, when the country is going into its General Elections in 2014. The Congress will hugely build its election strategy on the largesse of the Food Security Act and Modi bashing, to deflect the country’s attention from the series of scams that have dotted the tenure of UPA II and could puncture a huge hole in its prospects of returning back to political power in 2014. The other major political party, which has the potential to challenge the Congress in the Centre and form a government with its allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), is not doing itself any good by polarising society with its doggedness to go into the General Elections with a Prime Ministerial candidate who is perceived as being communal. Therefore, while there exists a wonderful opportunity for the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) to go to the people with the promise of a clean and corruption free government, should the NDA be elected to power, it is losing out on this leverage on account of its recalcitrance to be flexible in its choice of their leader in the parliament. However, what has emerged from the sounds of the kettle drums, which are beating on the electronic media, in the verbosity of the spokespersons of most political parties who have their eye on their share of the pie of political power, is a game of one upmanship, blame game and passing the buck. This is not going to serve the genuine interests of the Nation and its people in equal measure, because each of these parties is driven more by a desire for power than a sense of service and are in the ultimate analysis, the same with differently worded manifestos which do not get operational and are an exercise in political subterfuge.The fault in the prevailing circumstances lies more with our System, which does not have an escape valve to break out from the pincer grip of the most evolved form of government – A Democratic Republic.  In our case, unfortunately, this is not working and would require a complete overhaul, surgery and transplant through the instruments and stages of chaos, oligarchy and dictatorship, before finally evolving back into democracy. We as a country need to travel through this journey, before we can finally settle with a System, that best suits our reality, culture, temperament and attitude. It is indeed a very maverick and outrageous line to take, when mulling about the choices that the country has in the given deplorable circumstances of political debaseness and want of an alternate that, makes it a Hobson’s choice.  The burgeoning middle class, which was helped by the growth ushered in by the liberalisation of the Indian economy, must make it their mission to effectively participate in not only a public referendum on the subject of driving the wheels of change, that is inclusive of the class divide that Indian society is riddled with;  but also be the drivers who give leadership to this movement.  In the aftermath of the emergency, a political movement to bring in a change in the government at the Centre was spearheaded by Jayprakash Narayan, but even after 36 years of that happening nothing has changed. And it is my firm belief that, no matter what? Nothing will change either now or else in the future. So, irrespective of all discourses and platitudes which belabour the virtues of democracy elsewhere in the world, we as a country are doomed should we not make a conscious choice to throw in our hat with the devil, than the deep sea. The devil of chaos, oligarchy and dictatorship than the deep sea of democracy. Because, with the devil while we may have a chance to close the circle with meaningful democracy, but without the ability to swim in the absence of the life jacket of economic and social equality, which afflicts Indian society, we are destined to drown and perish. Make your choice now and help build the critical mass, which is similarly inspired to bring about the change we wish to see.

Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal

5339, W 64 Street, Edina, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA