Dance of Democracy – Matured Indian Voters
I wrote about the wonders of Indian democracy a couple of
times earlier in my blogs. In the process of getting mature over the years,
Indian democracy has further thrown some more wonders in the just concluded Elections
2024. Let us pick up some of them with a view to analysis the resultant
outcome; particularly with regard to the weaker sections of the society,
minorities and the core values of the Indian constitution – Equality, Liberty,
Fraternity and Secularism.
Jawaharlal Nehru. It has
further justified the fears and apprehensions expressed by Babasaheb Ambedkar
to safe guard our hard earned independence – hero-worship leading to
dictatorship, placing self-interests above the national interests, adopting
unconstitutional methods resulting in ‘Grammar of Anarchy’, transforming
political democracy into social and economic democracy among others. I would
try to list here my personal views on the emerging scenario not as a political
analyst or an expert but as an ordinary citizen and humble stakeholder.
The mandate of Elections 2024 is many folds – with political,
social, economic and even cultural message to all the political outfits and the
incoming rulers of the country. Political: ‘We the people of India that
is Bharat’ completely reject and negate dictatorial tendencies in the polity
and support democratic discourse and accommodation; Social: We reject
the agenda of religious polarization and communalism; Economic: We tend
to support democratic socialism over capitalistic hegemony with well-defined
and managed social securities and affirmative action to empower and up-lift
socially and economically weaker segments of the society; Cultural: We
want social harmony with fraternity and brotherhood among people in accordance
with secular and inclusive orientation.
The festival of democracy; the Elections 2024 has underlined
some of the basic facts and needs to sustain and keep ourselves on track in the
journey with the sense that ‘we have come a long way but we are still to go a
long way’ – We might have arrived but are still to reach. The drums of the
dance of democracy have gone silent. The Aam
Aadami (Common man) has shown the
way as Ira Pande wrote in her write up in the Tribune of June 9, “Finally, a salute to the aam aadmi, the
common Indian, who is really the hero of this verdict. Overlooked, despised and
dismissed as foolish and illiterate, he has more wisdom in his little finger
than all those psephologists who only crunched numbers, and those reporters who
thought they had the elections on their plate as they ate and chatted with
citizens who spoke fluent English or Hindi.” Let us list some of the
visible indicators in this regard:-
ü Federal State - India shall remain a ‘Union of
States’ as stipulated in the constitution.
People have strengthened regional political outfits like TMC, DMK, TDP,
SP, JDU, NCP, Shiv Senas among others in their respective regions. The BJP
government of PM Narendra Modi tried to concentrate powers at Delhi. It has
backfired. The States of Bharat shall have more autonomy and financial muscle.
Our constitution is a unique and wonderful document with provisions to have “federal
state with unitary bias”. The separatist
demands of radical elements in Punjab and others in other areas would sub-due
in the process. I would tend to agree
with Harcharan Bains who commenting on the radicalism wrote in the Hindustan
Times, “Instead of seeing radicalism through an alarmist-nationalist prism, it
is better regarded as a sub-conscious call for dignified accommodation through
legitimate democratic decentralization.” India is Bharat and Bharat is India. There is
no need to flag these things for narrow politico-communal agenda.
ü Religious polarization – The uncalled for and undesirable
attempts to have religious polarization both by the hardcore Hindu majority and
also the largest minority of Muslims have further complicated the scene.
Though, it seems, people have rejected these efforts yet it has given chance to
have yet another kind of polarization – caste based one that is SC, ST and OBC
and even
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Muslims joining hands against the majority Hindus. The new assertion
of Samajwadi Party formulated the social approach as PDA – Pichhde – Dalit –
Alapsankhyak (Backwards, Dalits and
Minorities) which make lot of sense. One
of the major failures of our polity has been that we could not have political
polarization on the basis of ideology, agenda and programme which has resulted
in Aya Ram and Gya Ram syndrome. Politicos tend to shift here and their without
any logic just to cater to their selfish interests. It is a negation of
democracy. I think, people are not oblivious of these unhealthy trends.
Elections results in Faizabad and Jalandhar and else where have registered the
resentment of people against religious polarization and shifting political
loyalties mid-stream.
ü Reservations – It has been registered beyond doubt
that reservation for SCs and STs and also for OBCs is going to stay. No party
can stop even dilute these provisions even if they want to do so as their
narrow agenda. This is a high point of the dance of democracy as Babu Kanshi
Ram said “Vote Hamara Raj Tumara Nahin Chalega”. Dalit voters are becoming
aware of the ground
realities. The old order of dalit leaders is fading out giving way to young brigade of new
leaders like Chandershekhar Azad of Nagina, Sanjna Jatav of Bharatpur,
Shambhavi Chaudhary of Samastipur among others. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s lofty
vision – Educate; Agitate; Organise is taking effect. Dalits are increasingly
getting educated. They have started agitating for their due and rightful space
in the polity and society. The third prop of the preposition that is ‘Organise’
is yet to come about. Dalit youth need to understand this: Divided we Fall and
United we Stand.
ü Constitution – We have a dynamic constitution made
under the visionary leadership of Babasaheb Ambedkar and others. It has proved
itself over the years – in 1964, it answered the question ‘who after Nehru’; it
upheld the system after PM Lal Bahadur Shastri’s sudden death abroad in 1966; it
carried the burden of emergency in 1975 imposed by PM Indira Gandhi and
smoothly brought in the change through democratic switch over under PM
Morarji
Desai; it mandated democratically Indira
Gandhi again in 1980-81; it faced the after-math of mindless violence
eliminating to of our PMs – Indira and Rajiv, it witnessed the unfortunate
happenings of Blue Star action on Sri Darbar Sahib in Amritsar and also sad and
condemnable happenings involving the
Sikh community in Delhi and other places in 1984 in the wake of assassination
of PM Indira Gandhi; withstood the after
math of Mandal Commission among other important and telling events like the
Babri Masjid- Ram Janam Bhoomi issue in the process. India faced foreign challenges
on and across borders. We the people of
India prevailed as a united India. It could be done only because of the
constitution. It is a clear message of the Election 2024, nobody should try to
change the constitution and its lofty fundamentals – Equality, Justice, Liberty
and Fraternity. Political class must understand this; sooner the better.
ü Coalition Governments – The ground realities of multi-racial,
multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-lingual society have surfaced in the
natural process of political evolution. There is nothing to worry about.
Fortunately enough for us our fore fathers and
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constitution makers led by
Babasaheb Ambedkar were not oblivious of these aspects of the polity and
society. Our constitutional framework is fully geared to handle and live with
the emerging situations. It seems, the days of so called ‘stable governments’
with radical and fundamentalist agenda have gone giving way to ‘functional
governments’ with consensual and pragmatic approaches to govern. We need, as
Babu Kanshi Ram asserted “Majboor Sarkar not Majboot Sarkar” to carry forward
the agenda of the depressed and marginalized segments of the society. There is
no difficulty in this as under this premise, Majboor Sarkar means that the
vested interests in the system of ‘graded inequality’ should not be given
unbridled powers to neglect and ignore the interests of the underdog. Let the
coalition governments function with a sense of carrying along all as PM
Narendra Modi said “Sab Ka Sath; Sab Ka Vikas; Sab Ka Biswas”. These coalition
governments would be an appropriate instrument to carry forward the policy of
accommodation with fair play – Jis Ki Jitni Sankhya Bhari Utni Us Ki Hisedari.
This approach would end the exploitation and high-handedness of the vested
interest.
All said
and done, let me conclude this long piece. The coalition government of NDA
under the leadership of BJP is being formed in terms of the mandate of the
Elections 2024. The dance of democracy will also halt on June 9 with the
swearing in of the new government under the stewardship of PM Narendra Modi and
the
country will look forward to prepare itself to face the challenges of the
future. I only hope that the ruling dispensation has understood the message of
the people as PM designate Narendra Modi said at the NDA meeting, “A bahumat
(majority) is necessary to run a government. That is the only principle of
democracy. But sarvmat (consensus) is very important to run the country. With
this I wish all success to NDA – New India; Developed India; Aspiration India
as termed by PM designate Narendra Modi. I wish the developed India also
remains a democratic India and fraternal (Samras) India to remain on rails in
the years to come. We need to contemplate and learn from the poetic assertion
of Allma Iqbal to transform our democracy from political democracy to social
and economic democracy as visualized by Babasaheb Ambedkar.
मस्जिद तो बना दी शब भर में ईमान की हरारत वालों ने
मन अपना पुराना पापी है, बरसों में नमाजी बनने न सका
(हालांकि मस्जिद मोमिनों ने रातों रात बना दी थी
हमारा दिल बरसों से पुराना पापी है इबादत करने वालों को नहीं बनाया जा सका)
इकबाल एक उपदेशक है, मन बातों में मोह लेता है
गुफ्तार का ये
गाजी तो बना, किरदार का गाजी न बन सका
(इकबाल एक अच्छा
सलाहकार है, पलों में दिल को मोह लेता है
बातों में तो वह
हीरो बन गया, लेकिन कामों में वह एक नहीं हो सका।)
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