This article is written by my friend Shandilya Prashant .... His views would reflect the voice of every Indian this is what I felt when I read it... I wished to share with my other friends as well....
Some questions and their answers:
After Anna Hazare’s victory a number of questions are being now raised, particularly related to the defence of democratic values and institutions, the question of accountability of civil groups, the alleged dictatorship of civil groups and so on and so forth. So let’s attempt all these questions individually. Some of the questions that has been raised are as follows –
- The method would undermine democratic institutions viz. Parliament, separation of power, rights of executive
- It is akin to dictatorship of the civil right groups as they are unaccountable. Moreover, its blackmailing by the Civil Groups.
- This would set wrong precedent. Further the democracy has self corrective measure and hence no need for such acts (to an extent that democracy is only form of Government with self corrective measures – Neera Chandhoke) – e.g. non performing governments are voted out.
- It was a demonstration by a few people and has no democratic legitimacy.
- From where does the civil societies derive their legitimacy. Further, the civil societies (NGOs) themselves are corrupt.
- the masses that gathered behind Anna were mostly apolitical (i.e they have neither read the Bill, nor were aware of its implication…in short they were sheep - Tavleen Singh)
- Anna has degraded the common Indian voters
- The allegation of nepotism in the drafting committee.
- The proposal in the draft are autocratic or even hysterical
- The Bill cant provide for children’s education and medical (Kapil Sibbal)
- There are no women/Dalit in the drafting committee (Renuka Chaudhari/Paswan)
Mat kaho aakash me kuhra Ghana hai
Ye kisi ki Vyaktigat aalochana hai
There are no clouds in the sky, which is so bright and clean and if you happen to see the darkness then it could be well, your personal opinion.
This couplet of Bhartendu Harishchandra, a comment on the then socio-political situation, so aptly summarizes the prevailing situation in today’s India aka Bharat. If the ‘saviours of democracy’ were to be believed, the democracy is an end in itself, that there should not be any act or attempt which is not strictly in accordance with the ‘book of democracy’, that there are only minor problems with the system which would be resolved eventually-if not automatically and that all the attempts by the civil societies (CS, may for now read Anna Hazare et al) are autocratic, designed to grab power without responsibility and are in gross violation of democracy and democratic principles to the extent that if not checked immediately, they may end up destroying democracy.
1. So lets begin with the first assumption, that this movement in particular and such movements in general are detrimental to democracy, as they undermine the ‘established’ procedures of democracy. It seems that these ‘saviours of democracy’ once read about democracy in the books and taking it as sacrosanct, became so orthodox that for them democracy has become an end in itself, which is even dearer than the “demo” (people) itself. They do not talk about democracy. They talk about the ‘concept of democracy’ which they once read in the books and never got to see what actually it is in practice. They have become almost dogmatic about it, no less than the religious radicals who can not tolerate a word against their respective Gods or religions.
Democracy is not a static concept. Its not piece of cloth, which we imported from west, and which has to be wore as such. It is a dynamic concept. It’s a living concept. It evolves with societies. Societies adopt democracy and adept itself to it. So to keep saying the movements by civil societies are against the established norms of democracy is stupidity at best and dangerous at worst. In fact it seems that such allegations themselves aimed at strangling democracy by denying it the very oxygen that it requires in order to grow with a society.
Further, in what way this demonstration was detrimental to democracy? Is it that they (Hazare and others) demanded to enact the law themselves, bypassing Parliament? Did they ask to deprive the Parliament from debating it? No. In what manner is it an interference with the Parliament’s right to draft and enact laws? Let us ask a simple question…and mind you, a practical one - who actually drafts the bill to be presented in the Houses – bureaucrats. So what is wrong, if one such draft comes from the CS? How is it a dilution of democracy? Secondly, our democratic system also does not adhere to the principle of separation of power, one of the fundamental principles of democracy. In our system, it is the executive which drafts the bill. And, dear friends, to your surprise, the democracy is still functioning, isn’t? So the intelligentia never found a problem with these changes, which we adopted as per our requirements. Likewise, this episode may also prove another milestone in “our democracy”, and if not, this would not survive. So why crying so hard over such minor change, unless of course there is some vested interest?
Another argument is being forwarded that it would establish a wrong precedence. That, what would happen if from tomorrow all and sundry start fast unto death for all kind of demands? As it has been noted earlier, the intelligentia’s theoretical debates are generally in vacuum. How many times you have come across such movements in last sixty or so years? Two – the JP movement and now Anna Hazare. So why fear that this will become a usual phenomenon. By all means it would not. This time a series of scams necessitated this movement. Every morning when you wake up with the news paper, you are made to feel so much hopeless and helpless. Scams after scams of such magnitude with such impunity. Ladies and Gentlemen, drastic situations demand drastic measures. These all objections are theoretical in nature. I dare any one of them to just replicate this movement; and forget about generating such mass support. It would just not happen. People came out on street (according to one, few dozens J) not because an old man with some other folks was fasting for some demand. People supported the movement because it was Anna Hazare who was fasting along with people like Arvind Kejariwal in support of a demand to curb corruption. People have seen and known Anna Hazare and his deeds, and he was not hallucinating (as another respected journalist observed) to feel that people across India does have faith in him. So lets not ask hypothetically what will happen if everyone start doing this…and lets ask, who will do this? Who can generate such mass movement, if the cause is not just which appeals to the masses? And if the cause is such and the Government is so insensitive, then by all means one should resort to this, to help the very democracy survive.
Another question is being raised by the legitimacy of the CSs in general and Anna Hazare in particular. And, as a corollary, they are unaccountable, to the extent of being dictatorial!! That Anna and their ilk have not fought elections and therefore lack legitimacy. Let us ask these people, have they fought any election before presenting their views in defence of democracy or did they put their views for referendum so that they can claim to legitimacy? No. they derive their legitimacy from the very concept of democracy and rightfully so, without fighting election. Then how come the CSs are dubbed to be unaccountable if they do not fight election? They also constitute a significant component of our system, which is ever so evolving.
It is also being said that the CSs are unaccountable. However, on one bothers to explain what is implied here by accountability. A govt institution is accountable because it has been endowed with certain rights and it is run by the public money. Likewise, Parliament is accountable to its electorate because it obtains its right of existence from them. However, media is not accountable in similar manner. (And unfortunately, in our system media is not accountable at all, but that is another issue). However, the accountability of media and so is of the civil society is ensured through the direct participation of people. If a media house start ignoring the mass sentiment blatantly, it would cease to exist. And if a civil society tends to be autocratic, it would loose all the mass support. So why fear !!
Interestingly, it is also being dubbed blackmail. It seems that they do not understand the meaning of blackmail itself. Blackmail is when a person (or a group in this case) tries to take undue advantage (apparently personal) owing to possession of information of an act of omission or commission which is socially/legally not acceptable. I wonder, what were the ‘black’ deeds of govt, of which Anna Hazare wanted to, or as they are crying, did take undue advantage? Is asking for an effective Lokpal is being considered such an undue advantage?
It is also being argued that democracy has corrective measures. It would remove all the anomalies by itself, one day. However, it has not been explained what are these corrective measures, how do they take place and how long it may take. Would it happen that one fine day the corrupt politicians would have a change of heart by the magic of democracy? For the last sixty years it has not happened. By that token, the corrective measures of an autocratic system like Egypt is far effective – people there threw their despotic Government after thirty years only!! It is also said that the an ineffective govt is voted out. And? What if the next of the kind also does not perform and the next and the next…what alternative one is left with? Arvind Kejariwal, during an interview, said that they exhausted all democratic means – they wrote to PM, to Super PM (my expression, meaning Sonia Gandhi), tried to meet ministers, bureaucrats but no one responded…what options he had? None of these saviors of democracy has explained.
There are also allegations that the so called CS (NGOs) themselves are corrupt. Unfortunately they have stopped just short of explaining the corruption in CS. Most of the corruption involves misuse of funds by the NGOs meant for various schemes of development. However, in virtually all cases, the misuse of the fund takes place with the connivance of the govt officials themselves and if we manage to curb the corruption in govt, it would automatically remove corruption from NGOs as well.
A lot of noise was also made on the presence of father-son in the drafting committee. Then there was Renuka Chaudhari demanding a woman member and Ramvilas Paswan demanding a Dalit member in the drafting committee. Lets first deal with the issue of nepotism. Media, as always hungry for some spices, made a huge issue of it. However, no one bothered to explain that it was the same father-son duo, who away from the public glaring, when neither Renuka Chaudhari nor Dalit Masiha Paswan even thought of the bill, spend time and energy while drafting the bill. Now that it all becomes popular, one of them should quit to avoid the criticism of nepotism. Funny. Moreover, as Kejariwal himself explained, there are no material gains to be have from the committee…so what nepotism?
One very experience and reputed journalist lamented that the masses, the ‘few dozens’ so called candle-bearing middle class, were apolitical, that they have not read the draft of the Bill, that they do not completely understand the entire implication of the bill and so on. To an extent the observations are right. However, it reflects all the more on the faith Anna Hazare commands amongst people (whom the same journalist called hallucinating to be like Mahatma Gandhi). Could we ask that all the people who responded to Mahatma Gandhi’s call were fully political? Were they all aware and understood the concept of non-violence and Truth in its entirety and understood the implications of the call made by Gandhi? Highly doubtful. Yet they responded, not because they were ‘very political’ but because they had faith in him. And moreover, the whole process in itself has an educating purpose. The number of people knowing and caring about Lokapl, before and after AD (Anna Domini – after Anna), in itself is a proof that such movements are more educating in a very short period than an entire session of Parliament (which more often than not is sacrificed for the sake of the tussle between the ruling party and opposition).
In a separate and rather personal attack on Anna Hazare, quite a few media persons have taken ‘strong exception’ to Hazare’s statement that Indian voters cast their votes for material consideration, alleging that it is degrading the “common” Indian voter. Well, probably here lies the difference between common man and intelligentia. What most of us would consider a genuine frustration born out of the corrupt practice in our electoral system, the intelligentia construes it as an attack on the common man. A class apart indeed! Positively, most of us have either said or heard similar sentiments number of times. Not to mention the plethora of news coming out about distribution of saris, cash and other things before and during elections. Not going very far, in the very recently held state elections, several news items were reported by the same media houses about cash being recovered at various places, meant for election bound states. Brother of D Raja (of 2-G fame) was arrested, for distributing material things during Tamil Nadu election. So does it amount to the degradation of the common voter? Or the common voter, like the ‘concept’ of democracy, has also become so sacrosanct that you can not raise a finger at him, in spite of the proofs being thrown at you all the time. Calling a spade a spade in democracy could be detrimental to the democracy !
Then there are some objections, like one expressed by noted Supreme Court lawyer and HRD and Telecom Minister Kapil Sibbal, that the bill can’t provide for children’s education and medical facility to poor. You couldn’t be more right sir. So let’s scrap the bill and lo and behold – we have all children in school and all poor getting medical facilities. A small issue however remains. Since so far we didn’t have a Loakpal, how come they were deprived of these benefits? Probably you just forgot sir, no? Well, it’s never too late. Let’s scrap the bill, and by the magic wand of Mr Sibbal, all is done. I’m positive that Anna Hazare would also agree to this proposal. Another related argument is that the Bill, or for that matter no Bill, could remove corruption completely. So? So throw away the efforts. By same logic, NAREGA has not been able to provide job to all needed, in spite of the fact that it provides guarantee!! Likewise, Mid Day Meal Scheme also failed to bring all children to school. Therefore, these too should be scrapped? You know the answer better.
Of these criticisms certain valid concerns has also been raised, mostly related to the provisions of the bill, including the process of selection of Loakpal and the powers that it would enjoy. However, the proposed Bill is only a draft and there is always a scope for improvement. But to reject the whole effort on this pretext does smell of some thing rotten. We must give a chance not only to this movement but also to this new phenomenon in our ‘experiment with democracy’ before rejecting it out rightly at the alter of the dogma of democracy.
I am Thank ful to Shandilya ji for putting his views on my Blog...
Thank you very much... !!!!
