EDITORIAL Political bankruptcy and parliamentary poll — Dr Akhil Ranjan Dutta
That the Indian representational democratic system is becoming more and more bankrupt-both politically and ideologically has been proved once more with whatever we have been witnessing on the eve of the next round of parliamentary election scheduled to be held from mid-April 2009. Many things have been happening around except for a vibrant political debate that can address the agony of the common masses. The governments, opposition, media, Hollywood, Bollywood and all other dominant forces have been trying to divert peoples attention from the substantive issues having great deal of implications in their day to day life and livelihood. If one scrutinises the developments in the country at different levels for the last one year and so this ‘allegation’ proves to be absolutely correct.
Let me put some issues in retrospect. July 22, 2008 trust vote was preceded by lots of debates resulting in withdrawal of support by the Left parties to the Congress led UPA government on the issue of a nuclear deal with the US. The Prime Minister took the whole issue as a ‘personal prestige of a gentle man’ and the nation was taken into his ‘custody’. Whatever happened in Parliament on July 22, 2008 in the name of trust vote was a complete mockery. There were allegations of ‘horse trading’ to win the trust vote. Indeed the act of our representatives was not better than the traders-bargaining to win discarding all values of democracy.
This was preceded and also followed by some crises related to internal security. Series of bomb blasts took place in almost all important metros and cities in the country. Every time the ‘foreign hand’ was suspected and this was highlighted by the media in an un-proportionate manner. Some news channels even behaved and acted more than the government by putting the officials of the government of the ‘foreign countries’ in the dock. The substantive issues of people’s insecurity, corruption and non-accountability of the government officials and above all the fallacy of the militarist approach of the government were not even debated. Some media houses propagated for an immediate war and blamed the government for not considering the ‘war path’ with due earnest. How can a democracy be safe under such ‘media terror’? Fortunately, the print media restrained itself to a large extent from this ‘war campaign’.
At the regional and local levels we have passed through a series of conflict and bomb blasts. The communal conflict in Darrang and Udalguri in August-November, 2008 between the Bodos and the immigrant Muslims was debated with an immature political wisdom. The deeper roots of the problem were not even highlighted. The manifestation was taken as the cause. This was preceded and followed by hype on ‘illegal migrants’. Suddenly civil society forces became active to take the responsibility of ‘detecting’ and ‘deporting’ the foreigners on their shoulder. It created tension and confusion and allowed the government to do away with its responsibility in this regard.
Finally, it is the Slumdog Millionaire winning eight Oscars has emerged as the new obsession on the eve of the election. The whole country is enthused by the global recognition of India’s talent and capacity manifested in lyricist Gulzar and composer AR Rahman’s music and Resul Pookutty’s sound mixing that brought Obcars to India. However, the film was neither produced nor directed and nor even edited by Indians the categories that received the higher recognition. What is Indian was the plot-the teeming slums of Mumbai and its misery. With music, magic and reality it created a huge sensation in the country and abroad before it was nominated for Oscar. The good in the film is that it has exposed the fallacy of India’s claim of high and inclusive development under ‘globalisation. It is also good that the government has not put any ban on it. Rather, the government as a whole from President, Prime Minister, Sonia Gandhi to everybody had high praises for the achievement which they have attributed to the Indian film industry ‘which is a reservoir of multi-disciplinary’ talent. But, what is pathetic is the way the slumdog becomes a millionaire. It is through the tactic of Kaun Banega Crorepati the great gambling show which had been very popular in India in the recent times. The whole project is based on ‘romance’ rather than on reality. It is indeed impossible for anyone to re-collect and relate a question to one’s personal experience to find out the true answer and to become a ,millionaire. Nevertheless, the objective of exposing the crude reality in India has succeeded. But, the question of addressing the structural dimensions of poverty was avoided in an intelligent manner. The movie can entertain and can bring a sense of complacency but it does not provoke to go for deeprer penetration into the dynamics of poverty and crude reality. Amier Khan’s Tore Jamin Par at least questions the coercive and regimented educational system in India and also explores an alternative. Slumdog Millionaire does not have mission for alternative. It finds solace in the existing gambling of the market forces.
The media will keep people’s attention confined to the Slumdog Millionaire in the coming days until some new sensation steps in. This will provide the governments the safe passage to do away with their responsibilities. For example, on the eve of the election the Union Government came up with the interim budget and it has increased the allocation for defence by 35 per cent. This was neither questioned nor debated. There is rare possibility that such issues will be addressed during the election process.
We-the citizens have now become the victims of the ‘temporality’ and ‘adhocism. We are made hostage to the ‘immediate’ events and before we succeed in finding out the ways to overcome the ‘immediate event/incident/accident’, we are surround by the next ‘immediate’ incident. We live in a situation which can be defined as ‘permanence of the temporary’. Resultantly we do have a tendency to ignore the dynamics of the long trajectory that we have been passing through. Let me cite a few examples. The Union government published its first National Human Development Report in 2001. The UPA Government which came to power in 2004 with a pledge to commit itself for the common men did not bother to bring out the second report in its five year tenure. The RTI had emerged as anew sensation towards transparency in the country. But, the State government of Assam had not bothered to appoint the State Chief Information Commissioner after the first incumbent had resigned to assume a new responsibility more than a year ago. The Assam Public Service Commission, the statutory body responsible for recruiting the important civil servants of the State government has been working without the constitutional ritual of taking oath by its Chairperson and members. NRHM is a new hype in the State today. However, the regular health care system has been completely neglected.
To be precise, the political process in the country is trapped in severe bankruptcy. Not merely the State is bankrupt, the anti-establishment voices are also very weak and equally bankrupt. Under such circumstances the next round of Parliamentary election will also a very routine and procedural affair. It will have no impact on the substantive deficit of the democratic process in the country. Therefore, it is an ardent task on the part of the conscious and accountable sections in the society to transcend the media hype and Slumdog millionaire obsession. It is also the responsibility of the people’s movements to assert their voices more strongly. (The writer is reader in peace and conflict studies, Department of Political Science, Gauhati University)
