INDIAN POLITICAL SCENE
Dr. R. Gangadhara Sastry
Indian democracy as conceived by the founding
fathers. Our highly unique Constitution is five decades old by now. And hence,
according to a section of scholars the constitutional scheme and democratic
parliamentary mechanism as well, require a close scrutiny with special
reference to its successes and failures - especially in the light of the
working of various democratic institutions such as - the legislative, executive and judicial
bodies, the Election Commission, the Finance Commission, the Planning
Commission and various such other bodies. The suggestion - according to many
other experts, certainly deserves all commendation and should be taken up for a
serious public debate.
Yet, if there is any motivated attempt aimed
at reviewing the document - the
process need not be addressed as an attempt to review, but could just be to
correct certain anomalies. Above all, the NDA government has not by now
succeeded in convincing the nation that it doesn’t any longer continue to be a
prisoner of Hindutva philosophy. Internal contradiction coupled with its
failures do not lend it the required moral authority to tamper with the
document. Evidently, during the past five decades of its working, the
Constitution has been put through a variety to tortuous processes of amendments
by various successive governments, more to attain their own partisan and party
agendas than to promote national welfare, and as a result of all that, the
sacred document has begun to lose its sanctity. Whatever it be, any attempt to
change, modify amend or review the Constitution should be taken up only in the
public glare and all modalities of such an operation should be totally
transparent and involve a deep cross-section of highly accomplished intellectuals
from all walks of life.
India today enters the new millennium with a
wild variety of complex and notorious intricate social, economic and political
problems that are eating into the vitals of the Nation. Though India has made
long strides in industry, agriculture, irrigation, education, social welfare,
science and technology - it is not to be ignored that there are as many as 300
million illiterates. Nearly fifty percent of the people are poor or below the
poverty line, and at the same time fifty percent of our land has not been put
to proper cultivation. Lakhs of villages do not have safe and protected
drinking water facilities, no approach roads, no schools, no public health centres and - “Social and economic
disparities have widened and in the fair name of democracy, caste and
anti-secular forces have been further fortified”. Regionalism, linguistic
chauvinism, communalism and fundamentalism are there constantly at the vicious
game of destabilising the nation and terrorising the masses. There is also no
denying the fact that the country ought to come to grips with various other
problems of regional, national and international nature.
Constitutional document - even without being
resorted to any reviewing process could be given the required strength, through
incorporation of recommendations made by Commissions and Committees appointed
by various governments of India in the past. Highly valid and valuable
recommendations offered by the Administrative Reforms Commission and the
Sarkaria Commission would be of immense help to any government in furthering
the efficient functioning of the Constitution.
Presently, as the nation has accepted the
philosophy of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation as part of its
economic life - the constitutional scheme of socialism and political
sovereignty as a corollary of economic sovereignty are at risk. Opening up of
our markets to various countries in the world, has its own tremendous impact on
the social, economic and political aspects of life of the masses in the
developing countries and efforts are clearly visible on the part of the
developed countries to dictate terms and conditions of trade and commerce to
the rest of the world to the disadvantage of the developing countries. It is a
praiseworthy achievement that India has successfully sent the right signals on
behalf of the developing countries to all the developed countries during the
recent Seattle Third Ministerial Conference of the WTO. Therefore, hereafter
India should necessarily adopt a policy of cautions optimism.
Appointment of Governors, Article 356,
Reservation of Bills for President’s consideration, President’s powers and
functions, distribution of funds between the Centre and the States, along with
many other issues have become notoriously political in nature. Of late, the
problem relating to the position, powers, functions and privileges of the
representatives of the people also has begun to assume dangerous proportions
with enough potential to wreck the legislative bodies and hence, should be
looked into immediately without any further delay. The position of the Speaker
- either of the Parliament or that of any state Legislative Assembly deserves a
very close scrutiny as to present him from becoming a democratic dictator. His
role especially in deciding the position on splits in parties, ‘defections and
disqualification of members’, should be treated as a priority issue to be
tackled efficiently at the earliest.
Accountability, ability,
sincerity and commitment on the part of the members of all representative
bodies and other groups should necessarily be governed by a strict code of
conduct. As the campaigning methods, procedures and various techniques adopted
by the political parties for their respective candidates are degenerating the parliamentary
democracy into a hopeless farce, measures should be initiated to make the
democratic exercise more meaningful and rational.
Finally, we need to
look at the concept of ‘secularism’ as conceived and promoted by the members of
the Constituent Assembly. It has lost its meaning and place of pride over the
years as it has been reduced to a political ploy for gaining votes. In the
words of a learned commentator. “In modern India ‘secularism has been converted
into a mischievous slogan by unscrupulous politicians and their journalistic
cohorts. Secularism as a concept is commonly understood today as a force
contrary to moral and spiritual values”.
At the international
level, the loss of face suffered by the government on accounts of the
mismanagement of Kargil and Kandahar have bitter lessons for India to learn.
However, it should be of some consolation to India that the American Assistant
Secretary of State of South Asia, Mr. Karl Inderfurth had conveyed his
country’s strong message to Pakistan - saying that Pakistan should take all necessary measures as immediately as possible to desist from
supporting cross border terrorism with India. While making the point clear that
Pakistan was there at the back of the hijacking drama, America has demanded
that the democratic process should be initiated by those in power in Pakistan
at the earliest. Again, the American President’s visit to India boosts up
India’s image and would as well certainly grant the most required moral and
psychological support to it to tackle many other international problems from a
position of strength. Of late, India is being dragged into dealing with the issue
of Karmapa Lama’s crossing over into India from China. Though the issue is
highly sensitive, India appears to have been handling the situation discreetly
by keeping all options open.