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Indians are Unhappy: Need for Principled Politics

BETWEEN THE LINES

Kuldip Nayar writes from New Delhi
WE Indians arc unhappy. Wc find the government Inadequate. the leadership Inept. Wc feel helpless. Aa wc look to words the future. we arc filk-d with doubts. Wc fear more troubles.
Yet not long ago. we were an optimistic lot. Wc took the worst of happenings in our stride. We were not daunted. Wc never allowed the gloom to overcome us. We were eon fl dent wc would be over the hump soon. And now everything seems so distant and so dismal.
The mood of despair has gripped ua because wc have failed to solve our probk-ms — economic, political or social They were initially small and manageable. But wc allowed them to pile up. It was be licvcd that with the passage of time they would disappear Some rulers even tinkered with them. But none had pa tlencc or Insight lo de»l with them. Now they look forbidding.
The worst part Is the violence they have set into motion. Violence has become the arbiter. It has permeated the society and has taken the shape of even barbarism as Is seen in Punjab. Can democracy be preserved in this atmosphere? And even If It is pre served, docs il add up lo anything meaningful? This Is what C>)tt1clans. academicians, wyers. doctors, technicians Journalists and others have lo ponder over.
The governments al the
centre and tn the slates have tried to contain violence by brutal policing, for them, all demands and aspirations are a law and order problem. More stringent measures and harsher laws arc supposed to tackle the unrest. But the situation has worsened. The pco pie. faith in the very parlta mentary system Is waning. They are coming to believe that there Is no orderly way to overcome their difficulties.
Therefore, there Is less respect for the law, which tn any case has lost sanctity because of ovcrdclayed justice. High handed and arbitrary actions are carried out with Impunity The ethical considerations in society have become generally dim. Tyrants have sprouted at all level. — tyrant, whose claim lo authority is based on their capability to terrorise the people.
It is no use picking on one political pnrly. although the ruling Congrcss(l) must share the maximum blame. All leaders have contributed to the mess wc arc tn today. The result Is not only lack of faith In them but Insensitivity and a paralysis of the will to do the right and proper things. The style of nihilistic violence is being passed on lo Ihc next Sncralion. it is survival of the test; methods have ceased to matter.
And whatever ihetr public face, political parties continue lo indulge In the same old game of gaining ascendency through manipulation. They have double standards. They
■wear by the ballot box but employ .uch methods as foster undemocratic behaviour. For Ihetr pretty end., they have brulallacd the society.
How do wc turn Ihc tide? If wc do not do so. wc will flounder for the next 20-30 years 1n a chartless, meaningless series of disaster, and inhuman acts.
Terrorism has to be met by Ihc people, not the government alone. A determined nation can face ft. The response should be that of defiance and
not mere Individual security. It is going to be a long, relentless batik- but the country can win If It arts unitedly. Our problem Is Ihal wc have no clear cut policy either on Punjab, Kashmir. or for that matter, on any Issue which torments the nation.
The trouble is not with the facts. The troubk- Is that clear and honest inferences have not been drawn from the facts. I*unjab Is a Sikh problem and should be tackled as such. If Ihc 1984 accord between the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and the late Sikh lender Harcharan Singh Long-wa) had been implemented, ihc .lory of Punjab would have been different. Kashmir is a problem of the valkys alienation and any solution has lo be •uch aa retrieves the people. If the then Governor Jagmohan
had not encouraged defer lions 1n the Jammu and Kashmir legislature In 1984 to dismiss Farooq Abdullah, the slate chief minister at that time, the Insurgency would not have taken roots.
The Assam problem has arisen because of New Delhi s neglect. If the agreement between the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and Rajiv Gandhi had been signed, the militant ULF would not have gained ground. Similarly, the
problem of poverty in the country la because of overpopulation and faulty economic policies If there had not been bureaucrats' bungling and the politicians' dishonesty, India would not have become a supplicant nation.
But the Ifs of history arc at best hypothetical and at worst subjective Wc have to live with the blunders of yesterday. True, there must be accountability. But by merely apportioning blame or by procrastinating. wc will not solve the problems. Time has come, to quote John Kennedy, for the people to feel what they can do for the country, not what the country can do for them.
The nation needs a period of purposive and principled polities, against sclf-aggrandis enx-nt. Il may be asking for the moon, but political parties will
have to give up outbidding each other tn making promises when doing so distorts the political process. We have to work jointly towards a concllt allon in the country Mere lipservirc faith in ihc consensus. now seen in the country, may not do.
The National Integration Council has been a farce. It is being used to confuse the people. It has not Initiated even an honest debate on key issues, much less provide a forum for discussion of their solution. A peoples movement needs to be built to reignite confidence In the democratic system There has lo be an atmosphere where violence Is abhorred and where those at the helm of affairs realise that the critics have some share of the truth.
The greatest need of the moment is to restructure our institutions — economic, petit teal and social — and give a new purpose to politics in the country. There are no instant solutions to problems arising out of basic social change: there arc no effective ways of resolving them satisfactorily except through an open but the value-based competitive political process. Failure to recognise this will be grave folly, for. In a society experiencing change, regimes tend to freeze the situation rather than transform it for the bet-
The task, therefore, is the task of bridging the gap between the centres of decisionmaking and the people. Parliament and legislatures on the one hand, and the Central
Government and the states' administrate structures on the other are too distant from the public The system does not deliver the goods arly more. It has become too centralised too bureaucratic and too authoritative.
Probably there is no other way except lo decentralise power in such a way that the people remain sovereign. All rulers tend to misuse author 1ty There is a case for reviving the proposal by Jaya Prakash Narayan. Indias Gandhite leader, of recalling elected representatives from parliament and assemblies If one-third of the electorate so decides The Scandinavian eoun tries follow this practice
Once the elected represen la lives know that they are not for the full five year-term and that their exasperated voters may call them back, there Is a reasonable chance of power residing In those who are at the grassroots and who. at present, are neglected. Than the manner political parties admit undesirable elements Into their ranks will not do much harm because the people will be able to assert themselves whenever they find things going away.
There Is still a chance to save the nation from the pool of blood which ft otherwise may have to wade through. This cannot be avoided If political parties throw values to the wind, make compromise on the fundamentals and damage the very moral ethos which one thought would be safer as the days went by.