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India Is Angry:WHITHER JUSTICE?, by Poonam I Kaushish, 11 June, 2011 Print E-mail

Political Diary

New Delhi, 11 June 2011

India Is Angry

WHITHER JUSTICE?

By Poonam I Kaushish

 

India is angry, very angry. It has reason to be against the backdrop of our power-that-be on-going nautanki we stood witness to over the last 10 days. A political and moral crises the likes of which never seen before. A rage over the Government and Congress’ inability, ennui, failure and apathy to rein in corruption. Culminating in a huge political vacuum, political and moral in governance. Worse, bereft of ideas, it is unable to grasp the mood of the public which demands answers and seeks justice.

 

Indeed, laughable is Manmohan Singh’s diatribe when he talks of his Government's determination to act against corruption. Given that the State’s actions are proof of its determination not to end this scourge. Its ten-day long shenanigans swinging from deafening State silence to submission and savagery to scornfulness.

 

Starting with sending an entourage of four Ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to Delhi’s airport and imploring yoga guru-turned civil activist Baba Ramdev to desist from carrying out his anti-brashtaachar crusade. Down five-hour torturous negotiations at a five-star hotel. Followed by the ‘murder of democracy’ on 4 June midnight by unleashing a brutal lathi-wielding police force on sleeping hapless women, aged and children at Union Capital Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan.

 

Call it 21St Century India’s Jalliawala Bagh British-like violence, 1975 Emergency  revisited or Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre or what you may, but at the end of this mayhem, like a Cheshire cat, trust our netagan to tom-tom who the master was. Never mind, that the blame for India’s frenzy rests squarely at the UPA II doorstep.

 

Raising basic issues: Who took these hair trigger decisions? Isn’t it the State’s responsibility and duty to protect its citizens? If the State harms the public who will redress its grievances? At whose desk does the buck stop, Sonia or Manmohan Singh?

 

Needless to say the State’s action was capricious and cavalier, to say the least. Unlike developing nations where each citizen is a VVIP in India the aam aadmi is expendable, a mere statistical number in a burgeoning population. Juxtapose how US played ‘blood money’ to get CIA operative Raymond Davis accused of killing two released from a Pakistani jail. While in Delhi, a healthy 51-year old Rajbala now quadriplegic in Ramlila Maidan’s pandemonium lies untended in coma.

 

The tragedy of it all is that instead of finding a solution to civil society’s demands to end corruption, our leaders at best tried to play Team Anna Hazare against Team Ramdev. At worst, directed their energy to thwart these demands. Failing to gauge the public mood, our netagan forgot that this time round the aam janata yearns for change. Despite 64 years of Independence our polity has yet to get its act together and become citizen-centric, the very intent of seeking Independence

 

 

Undeniably, it is our elected representatives duty to legislate and govern but equally inherent is the people’s right and duty to correct them and insist on a coarse correction. Over the years, our polity has been over-powered in the false bluster of the Orwellian syndrome of we-are-more-equal-than-others that they treat good governance as an option rather than a duty which can be side-stepped easily.

 

They allow anything so long as it does not upset the applecart of the political-bureaucratic alliance which feeds on corruption. Preferring to rule by law than govern. Serving the people is merely a pretext, a preface for their acts of mis-demeanor. Any wonder that they harshly trample and crushed voices seeking reform.

 

Till such time that our polity does not pay for its negligence and malice against the aam aadmi the India Growth Story will be stuck in the marshy eddy of self-deception and corruption, dubbed an uncouth and uncivilized nation. A colonial predatory State, meant for the benefit of a few at the cost of the many.

 

Sadly, Sonia Gandhi and her cohorts can no longer feign ignorance of being kept out of the loop by her Government. Or indulge in a cacophonic tu-tu-mein-mein between her and the Government for adopting a carrot and stick policy. As her HRD Minister disclosed the draconian measures by the police on 4 June midnight were cleared at the very top.

 

Given her limitless political authority, Sonia’s reaction smacks of second thoughts. Also, it was she who set the precedent of giving sweeping powers to civil society activists by setting up the all-powerful Supreme Unconstitutional National Advisory Council headed by her.  Questionably, is she waiting for a young child to remind her, that like the Emperor, she wears no clothes!  

 

As long as the Prime Minister continues to be perceived as helpless pummeled between the aam aadmi pressing for action against corruption and Sonia’s Congress which sees the Coarse-correctors as a greater evil than corruption itself, the present crisis will continue. Underscored by the de facto and the de jure centres of power, read Sonia and Manmohan Singh contributing to a political and moral void.

 

What next? The time has come for our leaders to break the walls of silence and take immediate action lest the country sliding into self-crated chaos transcends into a lynch-mob society. The need of the hour is to apply corrective balm to a vandalized aam janata, connect with its hurt people and assert its authority interspersed with emotional discourse.

 

The recent decimation of Karunanidhi’s DMK in Tamil Nadu thanks to his brood being enmeshed in the unsavory Rs 1.76 lakh crore 2G Spectrum scam holds out ominous portends. Wherein popular outrage against this brazen loot devastated the south’s First Family.

 

With a 50 per cent population comprising Gen Next, India has moved from a tale of grievances and gripe to a nation which is ambitious and determined. Sans the chalta hai attitude it will not swallow the daily humiliation of being bestowed hand-me-down-favours which is their right by a self-obsessed Government they elected.

 

The out-of-the-system aam aadmi who has neither the contacts nor where-with-all to manoeuvre his way through the myriad file-pushers is sick of not having a level playing field when it comes to inter-course with a mantri, MP, MLA or babu.  Enough, he shouts, I will not take it lying down!

 

Is the worm slowly turning? The wheel coming a full circle? True, India's Jasmine Revolution moment is yet to arrive and its Tahrir Square may take a long time to happen but both the Anna Hazare and Ramdev show of public support underlines that a beginning has been made.

 

The aam aadmi craves a course correction. Back to the days when he is truly the master and the leader the jan  sevak. Time to put an end to ‘corruptocracy’ and ‘connectionocracy’. They want reform, of governance, a change in the mindset of our mai-baap sarkar, even a hope of changing the system will do.

 

Clearly, the State needs to grasp that an aspiring nation is not seeking retribution but evenhandedness, self-respect, honesty and integrity. A battered citizenry demands a self-righteous, competent and morally sensitive Prime Minister who can ease its pain, make it not only realize its aspirations but live them. Any attempt to stifle a new Aspirational India’s call for an end to corruption and change would be opposed vehemently. Will Manmohan Singh and his brood heed? ----- INFA

 

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

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