AFTER THE INDIAN CENTURY- Indian democracy is not free of perversions
Taking a broad view of how humanity had performed in the 20th century, The past century with despair. The century of wars, the Holocaust, Hiroshima, depressions, the scourge of AIDS, environmental degradation, and other forms of exploitation was savage enough. Yet, in the midst of the misery, principally of Western making, one country stands out. And that country is India. For India, if the struggle for freedom was the primary theme of the first part of the century, the struggle to establish and maintain the largest democracy in the world was the main theme of the second part. What Europe aspires to achieve today in the form of the European Union has already been achieved by the Indian Union.
Added to the achievement of freedom, democracy and unity, India has a good reason to celebrate the emergence of Gandhi who has a valid claim to be considered the man of the past century, if not of the millennium. There were others, like Tagore and Vivekananda, whose voices claimed the attention of the world. Their voices have abiding lessons for India and the rest of the world. Martin Luther King III, the son of Martin Luther King Jr., wrote movingly some time ago that he had come to realize the importance of Gandhi’s teachings and the effect it had on his father and ultimately on his nation.
It is possible, indeed, to claim that the 20th century was the Indian century. But it is wise not to be swept off one’s feet by this grandeur. It is the irony of Indian history that the reality of this society appears fractured on all the points noted above. Independence did not come to the subcontinent without Partition. The Indian holocaust caused suffering to millions of people. Indian democracy is not free of perversions where those who are supposed to uphold it make a mockery of it. Indian unity is precarious. There is hardly any solidarity that is visible among egoists, caught up in petty feuds and petty victories and petty defeats.
We should not lose sight of the recent past. All those Indians who have travelled abroad during the last ten years cannot but fail to notice the change that has come about in the external perception of India during this time. India is no longer seen as a country of snake-charmers, sadhus and squatters. It is being increasingly recognized as a rising society with industrial might and intellectual power. This respect is not unearned. The new breed of entrepreneurs, such as N.R. Narayana Murthy, and Indian intellectuals, most visibly Amartya Sen, do their country proud. It is possible that India might turn the new century into the Indian century. Will that happen?
There are crippling problems that have to be overcome. The poverty, illiteracy and poor health of the Indian masses are not only a matter of humanitarian concern in themselves but also a concern for the further development of this country. Moreover, poor infrastructure, poor work culture and archaic rules do not promote development as is evident in a state like West Bengal. More serious than these concerns is the invisible problem of mentality. A case can be made, going back to Schumpeter, that what works in the situation of slow change may not work in the process of rapid change. This critical point has not been understood well. Thus, if H.D. Deve Gowda feels, as was evident in the controversy on the development of Bangalore, that protecting his electoral turf is important and delays are a way of life, and Narayana Murthy’s way of calculating delays operates along a different clock, more in tune with global reality, then we have a classical case of the mentality of slow change or no change proving disruptive with respect to rapid change.
There are many such disturbing acts that signal different mentalities. A case in point is the manner in which the discussion about the choice for the highest positions in the land has been carried out. It has been old business as usual of electoral calculations and petty gains. Was any thought spared for the image of the country in a situation where India is being more and more noticed as a world power? Was it considered that India needed a president and a vice-president who could, by their personalities, proudly represent the nation abroad, while upholding the integrity of their offices internally? A very parochial inward view was taken, even by the Left parties. This is sad. The Constitution of India does not impose restrictive conditions for the election of president or vice-president, except in general terms. The normal expectation is that persons considered for such positions should be persons of eminence and of proven integrity in public life.
All of us can have a wish-list for these positions. My own wish-list included A.P.J. Abdul Kalam as president, and in the event of his not willing to go in for the second term, the combination of Karan Singh as president and the person who does Bengal proud as its governor, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, as vice-president. All of them are persons of integrity who have thinking minds. They can hold their own in any company in India or abroad.
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has done us proud. He is a man who has shown vision and care for the future of this country. There was no reason why he should not have been requested to serve another term. If it was important to have a new person, it was sad the manner in which Karan Singh was overlooked. Not many persons in this country can represent the high standards set by Rajendra Prasad, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Zakir Hussain better than Karan Singh. Any person who has heard him or read his writings knows the breath of vision that he brings to his understanding of the world. As far as his secular credentials are concerned, he is secular in the sense in which Vivekananda was secular. Vivekananda was steeped in the religion of his birth, fully appreciated its best elements and universal promise, and yet was critical of its failings.
Karan Singh has been active in the international arena in promoting inter-faith harmony. His vision of India and the world is best expressed by his concern to find that light within all of us which will lead us inwardly to an enlightened existence and outwardly towards peace, harmony and global consciousness. This is the best message that India can give to the world, a message that is needed in these troubled times. This is the message that Gandhi, Tagore, and Vivekananda tried to give to the world in their own ways.
Gopal Krishna Gandhi deserves to be noted not just as the youngest grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. He has already found fond acceptance among the people of this state as a person with a head, heart and integrity. He came to the state as the governor with a distinguished career behind him. A governor who thinks nothing of sitting in a classroom along with normal students just because the teacher happens to teach a subject in which he is interested is no ordinary person. Like Karan Singh, he is an accomplished speaker.
India is a vast land, which has crossed the one-billion mark in population. It is a gifted land where talent exists among the poor and the uneducated no less than among those who are more privileged. Surely, there are persons who deserve to hold the highest positions as much, if not more, than Karan Singh and Gopal Krishna Gandhi. Sadly, political considerations prevailed in the choice of persons. It does not prove our secular credentials if all the three candidates proposed for the position of vice-president are Muslims. On the contrary, it shows, in a distasteful manner, how a secular image is pursued with calculation by those in a position to decide.
Was it too much to expect that national interests would be considered more important than these petty political considerations? History has its own way of forming judgments. If Jawaharlal Nehru gave us Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan as president, Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi have shown their own stature by giving us Zail Singh and Pratibha Patil.
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