The Undemocratic Quest for a Stronger Democracy.

Abhishek Dwivedi

Last few days have been busy for Anna Hazare. Famous for his “fasts”, he did the tough task of heading a mass movement against corruption. His fast was a great hit scoring direct hits at the government and the political brass. The movement gained widespread popularity among the youth who were out to protest against the rampant corruption. The motto was same. To fight against corruption. To speak against the wide spread loot of the country and its exchequer. Anna’s fast was the silence breaking point for the young India who joined the old man in his old and proven method of protest. The great “Satyagraha”. Some parties called it a movement of few; others called it opposition’s bait. And some called it undemocratic. The government and its warriors were out to call it blackmail. While the major part of media tried to navigate away from the marches and protests siding with government, few tried to cash the movement with highly glorified coverage. But the question was and still is. Was it undemocratic?

The soul of democracy lies in the parliament. The parliament and its members are chosen directly by the citizens. They are representatives of people. They have been elected and sent to parliament to represent us and to guard the country’s economic and other interests. What if, instead of guarding the interests, he starts plundering the nation? What if, he turns hostile and forgets his duty towards the country? We cannot let him continue his act of disgrace just because he is an honorable member of parliament. When the savior of democracy starts betraying the very soul of democracy, it becomes important to speak. Same as what Anna ji and the young India did.

Scams after scams were coming out. The last year turned out to be the scam year of India. Scams ranging from land to waves, Space to sea shook the nation. The interesting case of CVC P.J.Thomas and the accompanying shame for government was an important point to think upon. The government appointed a charge sheeted person as the head of India’s supreme anti-corruption body. Basically, what we were told that, A corrupt appointed by another corrupt will investigate all other corrupts. And then we are being instructed to not to question the government as they are chosen by us. Do we really need to keep silence and let this loot happen? I will go with a NO.

CVC Thomas case was a brilliant example of judiciary keeping the government in check and a perfect instance of judicial activism. The series of landmark judgments by Supreme Court provided some hope to the nation. Judiciary was turning out to be the only place where some serious steps were being taken or some serious work was being done. But this was an alarm too. Judiciary taking the prime spot is not good for democracy. Judiciary slamming government again and again was a sign of weakness on the part of democratic government. Over involvement of judiciary to literally save India shows the falling standard and level of democracy and its ethics in the country. Has the democracy lost its supreme place in mind of people to judiciary? The answer must be no. But sadly and unfortunately, the reverse is true. And it is not only scary but alarming too. A people’s movement was need of the hour to show the strength of democracy. To bring democracy back from the claws of darkness. The “India against Corruption” movement actually fulfilled the very urgent requirement. Democracy actually scored a point over judiciary. A case where government took a baby step towards ending corruption without the scolding’s and pushes of Supreme Court. Finally a good sign for democracy happened.

My last point is simple and basic. Even if it takes undemocratic peaceful methods to save democracy, we must go for it. “satyagrahas” are the pre-independence era proven non-violent methods of protest. Corruption is another “Firangi” sucking the blood out of India. To drive out this corruption, any peaceful method must be not only welcomed but appreciated too. To save the respected and pious soul of democracy, this movement was very much required.

But the question still stands. Will the movement reach its destination or will loose its track in someway middle? The answer lies with the people of the country. The young and enthusiastic generation must fight for the country and weed out this corruption. Now it’s up to us if we want to convert the Undemocratic democracy to a strongest and charming one or not. The principle is clear: Its dangerous to right when the government is wrong, but its cowardice to be quite when the government is wrong.

In The Name of The Politics

Anubha Shukla

India- an incredible country that has become a synonym for scams in past few months. Diverse are its people and so are its issues of concern, but the speciality about this country is that not a single issue remains untouched with politics.

India is a place where serious issues are shadowed by so called secular media and almost every thing is politicised to worsen the issue itself. It's a place where a 'Hindu nationalist' is called 'RSS Activist' and a 'Muslim nationalist' is framed as 'kafir' within a blink of an eye by some 'liberals'. Sometimes in the name of majority and most of the times for the votes of the minority, 'truth' is concealed and killed by our politicians. Pragmatically, the only minority in this country are nationalists who can put the country first & don't sell it for their vested interests.

There are no rules, no ethics required to pursue politics in India. As long as you can fool the people successfully to snatch the only right constitution provides them , their vote, you are the

Government.

Democracy has transformed into Demoncracy where 'Votes' are more valuable than lives.

Do the politics on the demolition of a mosque. Promise the people to stand a temple again in the name of the politics. Reopen the corruption cases during elections and bury them deep down into the stacks of files as soon as the elections are over. Don't even leave 'God' unaffected from the dirt of politics. Provoke the people to get into riots. Engage them in talks of Mandir-Masjid so that they don't get time to think about the huge chunk of their countrymen who are dying of hunger sharing the same land. Politicians in our country are so amazing that they can even politicise the hoisting of national flag within its territory. Ironically, the decision which was factually 'wrong' when you were in 'opposition' becomes the 'right' when you are the government. Everything is fine in the name of the politics.

Is Egypt possible in India ?

Abhishek Dwivedi

This year from start has been a year of revolution. Tunisia, Sudan, and Egypt all opted for a Revolution. A revolution for better life, for a better democracy shook the whole Middle East. Now Libiya has started its movement for democracy. The struggle between rebels and Gaddafi has taken the center stage in world politics. NATO and its European friends are trying all their methods to make Gadaffi leave the troubled country. The world is hailing all these revolutions, calling them historical and a new beginning for democracy. The predictions of an Arab revolution are getting louder. But I have remained unsure of these revolutions from beginning. Let’s look into some related terms of these so call historical revolutions. Indian civil society is also predicting and vouching for such a revolution in India. I am trying to review the feasibility on any such revolution in India.

My assessment is a big NO. Egyptian like revolution is not possible neither good for India. Reasons?

First,

India is a multi-layered structural democratic system. It has a decentralized power system. Powers are divided, so is accountability. Yes, the corruption is also at all levels. The recent example is the NREGA scam which involves a minister to a gram Pradhan. The urbanization drive is pushing more citizens below poverty line. But the glitter of cities is hiding the pain of villages. The big buildings are making the trouble of slums look to small. Somehow, miss-governance has been over-shadowed by the over-publicized concept of development. The stories of “Bharat Nirman” and “India shining” are more than enough to give fairly good pictures to Indian people. The Self-assertion of being a super power is thrilling the nation.15 August and 26 January are enough to keep people in illusions under the hood of nationalism. The day a scam breaks out, next day we see India achieving a milestone or at least proclaiming that it will achieve and we forget everything. Also, we have RTI’s in place which have increased the accountability of the government. The concept of dictatorship is frightening if we see the condition of our neighbor Pakistan. It’s a dying economy surviving only on the aid of USA. Egypt has been living under this terror for so long that they ultimately give up. They want to be like us, cherish the democracy we celebrate.

Secondly, India is a highly diversified country. Here each region has its own language and culture. The lack of a national language is also a negative for uprising. The divide and rule policy can be/is employed here conveniently. The linguistic and communal gap has become so divisive due to politics of last 50 years, that it’s impossible to unite all sects of people. You will find no unity in the diversity here. The mixture of religion is politics have always harmed the nation but it has also silently destroyed all prospects of a pan-India revolution. This is the same phenomena we saw in the Anna movement. The controversy related to RSS and Vandematram did the trick for government. It was able to decrease the magnitude of the movement.

Another important point is the emergence of the important middle class.India has a far big middle class which believes that it has nothing to do with the rampant corruption. They think that good governance is related with only inflation and terrorism. Assumption of corruption as necessity is the problem. They have developed a habit of tolerance. Its view that corruption is only limited to top, is lethal. But certainly it makes the way difficult for a revolution. It’s simple; nobody cares till the problem is not personal. Huge uproar was made about the Anna revolution that it has raised the middle class from its never ending sleep. The mighty middle class is on streets. But not even half million of 150 million people belonging to middle class responded to the movement on the ground. We cannot term a fraction of middle class, in fact a very small fraction as the representative of the might middle class.

We enjoy our right to freedom of speech in India. It’s only in India that we call our leaders a thief on national television and escape the punishment. We have our democratic rights. We have all human rights with us. Egypt is fighting for all these. They want the basic rights to be given back to them. They are bleeding for the right to life. We are blessed that our democracy is so strong that it has kept all these values embodied in the pillars on which our nation stands today.

Also, the revolution in Egypt was driven by faith. The sudden rise of Muslim Brotherhood after a long pause was hailed by most of the Arab world. They were called as catalyst of change. But most of the people ignored the fact that, faith can drive masses but cannot govern a nation. Nobody sensed that situation like Iran can arise. No country has been successfully ruled by the Religion. Faith and governance are two different things. Last week’s brutal killing of 13 Christians was a starling incident and proved my fears. The revolution which was hailed as historical has started to show the other side. This is what happens when a revolution takes place without an after plan and a leader. The emergency of situation is alarming in Egypt. It can take the path of civil war there. Rebels have started fighting among themselves. Not surprisingly what Mubarak had said, is coming true. It will be interesting to see what CIA does here. But let’s not shift the topic. Coming back to India, we must agree that we do not need religion as a catalyst for a political change in India. India has had very bitter experience from the fusion.

India has a very troubled neighborhood. Pakistan in west and north, China in east and north, Bangladesh in east, Srilanka in south, it’s not a good picture. Our relationship with China and Pakistan has not been on a good note. LTTE in south is searching for a base to revamp its organization. A revolution will give chances to anti-India forces to silently harm India. Separatists in Kashmir may use the situation to push the valley into chaos again. A state of anarchy may develop. It will be a perfect opportunity for the Maoists to move towards the cities which they have been eying for years. Predictions of civil war cannot be ruled out. Violence may take the center stage. Also our economy is going through a troubled phrase. Rupee is falling day by day while inflation is rising. Our airlines are one by one moving towards bankruptcy. Just imagine what a state of chaos will do to the situation. The burden will fall on the poor along with the lower middle class. Do we really want this?

India has been a sufferer of silence. Here nobody is concerned until it’s personal. But the sudden flood of scams and inflation has changed the circumstances a bit. The urban mass somehow has started rising. But will it take the form of Egyptian revolution? I am still unsure.