The Hindu : The politics of our times

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Leader Page Articles

The politics of our times

By Neera Chandhoke

Parties and political formations are more concerned about the perks that power brings with it, than the larger issues of the polity.

IF SOMEONE were to ask what we as ordinary Indians have got out of the three years of the coalition headed by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, the answer would be: precious little. It is amazing how political parties come and political parties go, but the face of Indian politics remains the same — insensitive, unresponsive and unaccountable.

We continue to be confronted with the same scams in the allotment of petrol pumps, the same confusion over Pakistan and the same dilly-dallying over whether to privatise or not to privatise. On second thoughts however, there is one area in which the present Government has scored over its predecessors. It has managed to prise open all the issues that we thought had been settled some time ago, the issue of how people in a multi-religious society can live together in some prospect of peace, the issue of secularism and minority rights. And this carries its own troublesome consequences.

For, in the process, the implicit but often explicit stances of the Government have legitimised a disturbing strain in the Indian polity. Today we see the institutionalisation of extreme intolerance and brutality in civil society, not only towards religious minorities but also towards the Dalit community. On the one hand we witnessed the participation of large sections of civil society, including Dalits and women, in the wholescale and horrendous massacre of Muslims in Gujarat. On the other we witnessed the shameful lynching of five Dalits for no other reason than that they were skinning a cow. Whether the cow was dead or alive is not the relevant question here, the question is: what premium does the Sangh Parivar put on human lives irrespective of their caste or their professional calling?

After all, the five Dalits brutally beaten to death were at one point of time human beings who like all of us had hopes and aspirations, friendships and loves, disappointments and optimism. That they were lynched to death in such a barbaric and bestial fashion, and that the VHP, whose members carried out the lynching, defends the act in the name of Hindu shastras, bears testimony to the violence and disregard for human life that has overcome India's civil society today.

But then civil societies are never independent of the state. To put it bluntly, communal riots and caste violence do not happen if the state does not permit them, and communal riots and caste violence take place only if the state permits them. In other words, civil societies respond to the messages that are sent out by the state.

Therefore, the one fact — that Narendra Modi has been publicly and often vociferously defended by the highest Ministers in the Government — is enough to embolden the Sangh Parivar and its designs for a majoritarian India.

And that this design is not only religious but also casteist is evident. Is it not time that Mayawati and her party re-think their alliance with the BJP in Uttar Pradesh even if the Bahujan Samaj Party has to lose the power it yearns for? For, nothing can compensate for loss of human life, neither power nor the rewards of ministership. The sanctity of human life trumps and should trump any other consideration. It is time that Mr. Modi, Ms. Mayawati and all the sundry partners of the BJP learn the one primary lesson that every Class 12 student who studies political science is taught: human life is sacrosanct.

The politics of the present Government are flawed for one simple reason — it has failed to acknowledge the salience of the right of every human being to life. And therefore it should go, if not now, in the next two years.

But then we are constrained to ask: which party will replace the sundry coalition? If there is one thing that has rocked our belief that the Congress should come to power at the Centre in the next election, it is the immature behaviour of the party that should have known better. I refer to its demeanour post-Jammu and Kashmir elections. We all know by now that the election results in Jammu and Kashmir were both unexpected as well as welcome. For the first time the State has thrown up a regional party — People's Democratic Party — that may prove an alternative to the National Conference which had been discredited some time ago.

Therefore, it is both logical as well as proper that the leader of the PDP should become the Chief Minister, in the interest of propriety as well as in the interest of pragmatism.

Despite the fact that the PDP has got four seats less than the Congress, it is proper that it should give the State its new Chief Minister simply because it is in a better position to both understand as well as represent the interests of the State. It is also in a better position to carry out a dialogue with the so-called "separatist elements" simply because it is of the region, from the region, and for the region.

When regional parties have been accepted on the widely held premise that they can represent the special interests of their constituents more competently than national parties, why should the PDP be an exception? Like other regional parties, it should be given the right to negotiate between national and regional agendas.

Besides, the Congress, which is after all a national party, is too constrained by its "national" agenda to negotiate with troubled and troublesome groups in the Kashmir Valley. Its concern about its own image in the national elections two years hence will impede any attempt to resolve the issues that bedevil the Valley.

In fact, it is a matter of surprise that the party should not recognise that the chief ministership of Jammu and Kashmir is a "hot seat". In short, the Congress leadership should have the wisdom and the foresight to give the top position to the PDP. After all, the Congress has the confidence that it rules 14 States, and confident people can afford to be generous. Besides, generosity and display of political maturity may pay dividends for the party two years from now. What is important is not that a party which has the larger number of seats should get the chief ministership, what is important is that the Chief Minister should be someone who is capable of addressing the problems of the region.

The Congress, instead of being obsessed by petty concerns with power, should be aiding attempts to resolve the Kashmir problems by supporting the party that has emerged as a regional alternative. It will be a pity if this historic opportunity is lost and the people of the region feel betrayed once again.

If we think about the Indian polity today, it is evident that parties and political formations are more concerned about the perks that power brings with it, than the larger issues of the polity. The Sangh Parivar shows complete indifference to that fact that its cadres are on a killing spree, and that the right of every human being to her or his life is being violated in the most inhuman fashion.

For this reason, the BJP as the parliamentary wing of the Parivar has been stripped of all claims that it is legitimate. But the party that can replace it is enmeshed in internal strife, which prevents it from adopting a sage and politically astute role. And we ordinary Indians are condemned to eking out our lives in these inhospitable, inhuman and senseless political environments. Who or what will bring hope?

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