POLITICAL DIARY

New Delhi, 8 November 2008

USA: Yes We Can

INDIA: CHANGE? NEVER!

By Poonam I Kaushish

It has been a week of mea culpas, home truths and tutorials on real politik. Devastatingly and brutally brought home by the stark difference between two democracies, USA and India. If President-elect Barack Hussein Obama’s breathe-stopping historic victory showed us what makes USA the world’s numero uno. The continuous petty politricking by are netagan exposes how we continue to dig ourselves deeper into the cesspool of repulsive politics.

Paeans have been written on this Afro-American with a Muslim middle name who came in from the cold, breaking all race barriers to capture not only his country’s but the world’s imagination. Surmised in three simple words: “Yes we can.” Riding the crest of victory on the wings of change underscored by hope, to reclaim the great American Dream. Indeed, US had changed for ever.

Envy aside, can we ever emulate America? Can our electoral system throw up an Obama?  Can we caste aside are differences of caste, creed and race and be Indians first? Perhaps, shed our moribund ideology, politics of hatred and intolerance? Importantly, can we change? Never.

And that is the tragedy of India. While Obama epitomized what patriotism and nationalism is all about in his acceptance speech, “our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared…. It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled …..We have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.”

We on the other hand, continue to recklessly further fragmentize our society. Caste and religion are the new bywords to electoral power. And minorityism, reservations and regionalism are the flavours of the season. Anyone and everyone is busy wooing the minorities in the garb of reservations in the educational institutions, recruitment in Government services and more and more sops. All to woo the Muslim vote-banks.

Bringing things to such a pass that one is secular if one is pro-Muslim and dubbed communal if one ever talks of the majority. Being Indians first never comes to our mind. Think. Just see how the Samajwadi Party and some Congressmen have been busy asserting that the killing of the Indian Mujahideen terrorists in New Delhi’s Jamia Millia by a police brave heart might be a ‘fake encounter’ and demanded a judicial commission .  And to ensure that the Muslims don’t take this amiss the pseudo-secular polity now wants the Hindutva Bajrang Dal banned too. But the voices are muted as one can’t afford to alienate the majority community either. Their bottom line: Politics is all about I, me and myself.

The latest is the bogie of regionalism unleashed by a small-time Mumbai cub Raj Thackeray whose loud snarl on non-Mumbaikar outsiders has let loose regional terror not only in Maharashtra but is reverberating throughout the country specially Bihar, UP and Haryana. With a free-for-all. And a plaintive Prime Minister asserting “What can I do?”  Nothing more nothing less. All working overtime to bend and twist the law and even to reinterpret it to suit their political ends. (The Union Cabinet gave precedence to Raj over the Assam carnage.)

Needless to say that the entire “anti-national” exercise of compartmentalizing India is indicative of political bankruptcy. The Congress, which is heading the UPA Government at the Centre, is directionless, caught between the majority-minority cross-fire. The BJP which promised Ram Rajya is rewriting the Ramayana. Boxed in by grandiose pretensions of being a ‘party with a difference’ it is in fact a party with differences. The Left parties are divided over economic policies and most of the regional parties are faced with simmering discontent. All hurting for satta.  

In America, there is no politricking – and no populist accusations or excuses. Obama, paid glowing tributes to his Republican rival McCain. Said he, “He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader….. I look forward to working with them to renew this nation’s promise in the months ahead.”

Also, he made plain that “the road ahead will be long and steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but ….I promise we as a people will get there. There will be setbacks and false starts. But I will always be honest with you….I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation …..block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.”

How do we handle a crisis? By promptly initiating a blame game. The Opposition accuses the Government of dereliction of duty and demands its resignation.  The powers-that-be cleverly save their skin and deflect criticism by appointing a committee to probe the causes of failure. Enough to satisfy everyone’s conscience that each has done his bit for the nation. 

Take the global financial crisis. Our erudite Finance Minister continues to hum, “Don’t panic. We are not affected.” Really? Then how does he explain that the growth rate is declining, unemployment is increasing and there is slackening of industrial expansion. Will false hope take away from the enormity of a deepening recession that is staring us in the face.

Equally disquieting is the Government’s response to terrorism itself.  Our answers of being pro-active goes like this: the Prime Minister calls an emergency Cabinet meeting and avows we need tougher laws. The Home Minister fights terror by changing his clothes three times in three hours. The UPA allies’ counter-terror by demanding that if the ban on SIMI has to continue then a Hindutva outfit too should be banned. All hot air. And never mind that Parliament attacker Afzal Guru continues to be alive, notwithstanding the Supreme Court awarding him death.

Importantly, can India ever produce an Obama? Not in the foreseeable future given how our politics is all about deals, side deals and underhand deals. Recall, how a regional small-time Karnataka politician Deve Gowda became Prime Minister. And now BSP’s Mayawati intends sitting on India’s gaddi by garnering her Dalit vote-bank. She is banking on winning about 40 Lok Sabha seats from UP which would elevate her to being ‘kingmaker’ of the next Government at the Centre. 

Else, politics is all about belonging to a political lineage. Remember, we may call ourselves democratic but we are more feudal than ever before. For Congressmen rajniti is all about paying obeisance to the “First Family”, the Gandhi’s. The Saffron Sangh is sub-divided between the various organizations and the local chieftains. The regional Made in India satraps rule their respective parties dictatorially. All chor-chor mausere bhai!

Not only that. With elections to five State Assemblies beginning later this month all are busy offering freebies galore. Rice, colour TV, loans, food subsidies et al. The on-going “rice wars” bears this out. If one party promises rice at Rs 3, the other reduces it by Rs 2. Never mind that the Government does not have the funds.

More. All promise stable and clean Governments hoping that none would demand to see their dirty laundry! All assuring they will be accountable to the people.  Cut out morality from political speeches and you confront a large vacuum. Speaking volumes for the out and out disdain with which our ruling oligarchy holds democracy.

Things have come to such a tragic pass that it is now difficult to recognize India as the same country which Emerson described as the “summit of human though.”  Today, the still small voice of humanity is lost in the cacophony of warring castes.  Never before were prejudices mistaken for truth, passion for reason and casteism for right.

How many Indians are proud to be Indians?  Very, very few.  What is there to be proud of?  Corruption, casteism and crime.  Of scums and scams, religion and riots, muscle and muzzle.  The tragedy is we have no Obama’s, who promise a change with a ‘yes we can’. Instead, we are saddled with only petty, self-serving politicians.  Statesmanship is only in the memory of a distant past.  The common man is caught in the crossfire between the loot and plunder, bureaucratic subterfuge and political chicanery.  Where might is still right… And we call ourselves a democracy! ---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)