Three
Cheers For Indian Democracy
By Ram Puniyani
24 May, 2004
Issues In Secular Politics
Defying
all the carefully predicted psephological projections the BJP led NDA
has faced a total rout at the hustings. As the electoral process began
an
atmosphere was created through the biggest political ad campaign, India
Shining. A rosy picture of all and sundry being happy and basking in
the shine of prosperous India was backed up by the newly coined word
of Feel Good. The BJP went on to assert that its performance during
last six years, and also that the nation blessed by the leadership of
Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whose smiling face was flashed in the print
and visual media ad-nauseum, was exemplary. The assertion of BJP was
such that many people came to believe that BJP led coalition is romping
home. The efforts of all the BJP leaders in association with the work
of RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal to ensure the BJP win were too obvious.
This might have been the most expensive election campaign seen by Indian
yet. While BJP kept talking about Bijli, Sadak, Pani
(Electricity, Roads, water) and development issues, its affiliates,
RSS, VHP etc, kept giving the message of Hindutva in no uncertain terms.
This campaign also saw the wooing of Muslim and Christian minorities
by various means, including even a Fatwa from Shahi Imam.
So what happened,
why a low profile campaign of Congress and its allies yielded better
results? If money spending and creation of hype could win democratic
elections BJP would have come through comfortably. And that's where
democracy comes in. That's where the downtrodden steps in at the time
of elections to tell the tale of her woes. That's where the real issues
of survival, civility and daily life come in. And this right of vote
and giving one's opinion comes in not just for the elite and the urban
middle class, but also the poor women and men who have to struggle hard
to get water and bread. That's where the struggling peasant comes in
who is on the verge of starvation despite slogging for all the days,
that's where the unemployed youth comes in, made unemployed by the atrocious
implementation of globalization and the other developmental policies
of the Government, and that's where the minorities come in writhing
in their pain and humiliation flung on them by the onslaught of communal
politics.
BJP strategists
went on the assumption that you can fool all the people all the time,
and so forgot the ignominies they had heaped on the weaker sections
of society. Could the Muslim minority and the average sane person have
forgotten as to how, on the pretext of Godhra train burning, the violence
was unleashed in which thousands perished, in which Kausar bano a pregnant
women was tortured and her unborn baby done to death? Could people have
forgotten that a freedom fighter called Ahsan Jaffery was hacked to
pieces for
the crime of being a Muslim? Could the average Muslim have forgotten
as to how two nations are being created under the terror unleashed by
Narendra Modi, who has come to be addressed as Hindu Hridaya Samrat
(Emperor
of Hindu Hearts)? Could people have forgotten as to how the blatant
violation of Human rights is going on in Gujarat and other BJP ruled
states, day in and day out? Could the people have forgotten as to how
obstacles are being posed to the deliverance of justice
to the victims of Gujarat? Could people of
India as a whole forgotten that it is Mr. Vajpayee, whose face is beaming
in Shining India campaign, who has kept mum and violated the propriety
of Indian constitution and Indian ethos to protect his colleague, the
RSS Swayamsevak, Modi, and to promote the Hidnutva brand of politics
which is his core agenda.
Apart from the wounds
of Gujarat the Nation is victim to regular Hate speech by the likes
of Togadia, who have made it a regular business to spew poison against
the Muslims, Christians, the human rights activists and all those who
are not supporting the RSS agenda. While people cannot keep protesting
day in and day out about the violation of India's being by the practitioners
of Hindutva, in the heart of their heart most of the freedom and democracy
loving Indians are disgusted with the doing of Sangh affiliates. The
nation watched with horror, that instead of putting Togadias and Sighals
behind the bars innocents are being harassed in the name of POTA. Interestingly
in Gujarat where Modi has mastered the art of creating cleavages and
divides between religious communities, of all the POTA detenues all,
barring one are Muslims
and the one other is a Sikh? Can such blatant practice of communalism
go unnoticed? It does show the helplessness of human rights groups that
they cannot fight against it beyond a point. And that's where we thank
the democratic elections. Communalism of BJP, overt and covert has been
the major cause of people turning against it. BJP's promotion of its
affiliates
by default and on purpose is also blatantly clear to the electorate.
And who is feeling
good? The victims of Godhra train burning, who were used politically
by BJP and than left in the lurch, unattended? Who is feeling good the
victims of Kashminri terrorism, the Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims who
have been either killed or had to leave the valley due to the prevalence
of terror in the valley? Who is feeling good the relatives of Gujarat
violence who have been turned into penury and now they are being ghettoized,
courtesy the aggression of VHP etc.? Who is feeling good the Pastors
and nuns who have been beaten and humiliated for their 'crime' of working
in the remote villages?
While the data about rate of growth and other statistics is bandied
about, the poor and unemployed must have felt deeply insulted by the
India Shining campaign. While they cannot take care of their daily minimum
needs India is being projected to be shining. Can there be a bigger
insult to them. In major cities the closure of factories and massive
loss of employment has changed the pattern of millions of lives. The
so-called growth has been without any rise
in employment. Can people forget this when they enter the polling booth?
The country also
witnessed that those who claimed to be patriots, honest and all that
were caught with their pants down. A BJP president is filmed taking
bribe. How is this handled? The journalists who unearth this malaise
are harassed and closure of their web site is ensured by various mechanisms.
Millions are eaten up in the coffin scandal and Kargil tragedy sees
the loss of many soldiers' lives. There is a total partisanship in the
administration and honesty and norms are thrown to the winds and the
guilty are protected to the hilt. Rot is setting in different aspects
of India's polity and administrative
machinery. Social welfare schemes related to education and health are
collapsing. The sufferers of all this are of course the poor and deprived.
And they have voted against the policies, which are ruining their lives.
The new government
has to see as to why it has been voted to power. The massive, rather
the best ever victory of Left parties does indicate a lot. It is
these parties, which have stood steadfastly for secular values, against
casteist politics and for the welfare of the poor. One hopes that the
new coalition takes these into consideration while drafting the common
minimum program. The strength of Indian democracy is there for all to
see. One also has to remember that the biggest weakness of Indian democracy
is that the right wing party, BJP is a mere political front of fascist
RSS. RSS and its progeny like VHP Bajrang Dal and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram
are extra electoral bodies, not answerable to electorate. And it is
they for whose protection BJP is engaged in the political arena. And
that's why there is a small sigh of relief that for some time at least
these extra electoral bodies will not erode the roots of Indian democracy
so rapidly. If the new coalition can ensure that Hate speech and propaganda
is dealt with firmly this malaises of Indian democracy will be curbed
and it will come out brighter and better.