Democracy: The Lifeline for Independent India is in Peril
Nilotpal Basu
WE are into the independence week. Spirit of celebration is in the air! Is it really so or a hallucination. But in our journey towards the 79th Independence Day, it will be useful to revisit those heady days in the past which shaped the future of interdependent India.
Understandably, notwithstanding the clash of conflicting visions we came to a common understanding that if independence was to be consolidated, lessons of the freedom struggle had to be assimilated: unity through diversity, democratic engagement, freedom and equality of religious belief, recognition of cultural linguistic and regional differences through democratic, secular, socially just and federal republic. There was no way that Indian nationhood and new nation state could be particular religious identity driven. Naturally, those forces who were pursuing such a vision fell back from sharing the idea of the new republic. But this was not enough. Clearly four foundation pillars had to be recognised for the new republic. Economic and political sovereignty, democracy, secularism and social justice and federalism. It is with this recognition that a Constituent Assembly comprising elected representatives was set up who believed in pursuing these and draw up the Constitution to realise these objectives.
After painstaking and protracted effort, the Assembly finalised the draft Constitution. Ambedkar as the chairman and the tall constitutionalist that he was, had boldly announced - “On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognising the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social structure and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this Assembly has so labouriously built up.”
He invoked John Stewart Mill to alert us to the evil of hero worship, something Ambedkar has steadfastly spoken and written against at other times as well. He quipped that while “bhakti”, or devotion, may lead to “salvation” in religion, in politics it is a path to “degradation and dictatorship”. Finally, and most importantly, he stressed the need for India to be a “social and economic democracy”, rather than just a “political” one.
The magnitude of the task that the Assembly performed was recognised by the world in the post war environment of decolonisation. What Anthony Eden, the prime minister of Britain, said at the time of the emergence of the Indian Republic is relevant in this context. He stated, ‘Of all the experiments in government, which have been attempted since the beginning of time, I believe that the Indian venture into parliamentary government is the most exciting. A vast subcontinent is attempting to apply to its tens and thousands of millions a system of free democracy... It is a brave thing to try to do so. The Indian venture is not a pale imitation of our practice at home, but a magnified and multiplied reproduction on a scale we have never dreamt of. If it succeeds, its influence on Asia is incalculable for good. Whatever the outcome, we must honour those who attempt it.’ The challenge was to flesh up a democratic and secular republic with a massive population who were diverse at multiple levels. Evaluating our independence and the story of setting up the republic cannot be undertaken without referring to this backdrop.
INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Independent India through its Constitution was striving to build a democracy which would be accountable to the people – the sovereign. The question of democracy was a crucial concern and designed to create vibrant and robust parliamentary system of governance to actualise the universal notion of government by the people, for the people and of the people. The accountability of the government had to be ensured through its answerability to an independent functioning legislature which at the national level meant the bicameral parliament.
It is through this answerability that the executive, the government of the day, was tasked to answer to the sovereign, the people. Despite the deviations and aberrations here and there particularly in the period of Emergency in 1975, there has been some degree of success. Perhaps India emerged as the only republic which achieved its national liberation in the wake of the Second World War and progressed with parliamentary system which remained insulated from military and civil dictatorships. The prevailing international situation was definitely a contributing factor. But the situation today has changed dramatically with the emergence of the ultra-right wing globally and the fascistic RSS providing the ideological direction to the present government. Corporate communal nexus promotes majoritarian ideas. Enactments to translate assaults on the secular structures are aggressively pursued. Equality and secular principles on citizenship are given a go bye. Legislations are also pushed undermining the rich cultural and linguistic diversity of the Indian society, inequalising social principles and of course removing safeguards on human and democratic rights.
An important function of the Parliament is to exercise the oversight on budgetary outlays. However, since 2014, and more so since 2019, when the BJP gained absolute majority on its own, lakhs or crores of budgetary grants were passed without discussion and scrutiny. The instrument of joint parliamentary committees to study proposed legislations and department-wise budgetary proposals has been virtually disabled. Attempts to virtually convert the Parliament to be a rubber stamp of the government, are going on.
The systemic safeguards created through independent constitutional positions like president, vice president, speaker etc., were decided to suit the political and ideological pursuits of RSS -BJP. The rules of business of the legislatures, evolved through years of practice were virtually dismantled, drawing public criticism of the presiding officers. The principle of checks and balances which is an integral part of parliamentary democracy became conspicuous in their default. The important example in this drift was the formal passage of the three Farm Bills virtually without any discussion. Subsequently, the massive farmers protest manifested the degree of disconnect between the legislations and the interest of the people. In the end, the government was forced to withdraw those bills.
One of the major areas of legislative assault on democracy was on issues concerning democratic and human rights, the control of independent media and dismantling of restrictions on reinforcing corporate influence. This in effect signalled the eclipse of a free and independent media.
The weaponising of criminal laws, enactment of new draconian laws in the guise to snuf out dissent and repressive structures like Enforcement Directorate (ED), National Investigating Agency (NIA) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and even the Election Commission of India (ECI), all these cumulatively thoroughly undermined the independence of the legislature on the one hand, and the critical functions of the larger society on the other. The government displayed an overwhelming sense of arrogance and audacity embodied through the persona of the prime minister who stayed away from the Parliament on crucial debates and discussions.
UNDERMINING CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY INSTITUTIONS
This period has seen an assault on judicial independence by time and again delaying the process of judicial appointments and undermining an independent judiciary. There have been instances where judicial orders by even the apex court have sought to be reversed through legislations, particularly on the question of ECI. Similar attempts have been made to weaponise bodies like ED by amending the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Unfettering of the CBI and NIA and using them as instruments against the political opposition, is seen. The re-writing of the education policy to give a fillip to communalise the hierarchies of governance in UGC and apex research bodies have been common place.
A similar assault on RBI has been on evidence. Unilateral withdrawal of the reserves has also undermined the Central Bank’s capacity to intervene. Both Raghuram Rajan and Urjit Patel, former governors have in their memoirs pointed out as to how the government refused to act against corporate defaulters and went ahead with demonetisation by denying the legitimate role of RBI.
MEDIA
Media has been a major playground for majoritarian assaults. Protecting hate crime and gender crime perpetrators has been advanced to create an atmosphere of fear and terror. Independent journalists have been harassed and intimidated. Any criticism of the government and the prime minister has met with severe responses which included vilification and even slapping of false cases and eventual prison life. Any criticism has been more often than not dubbed as anti-national or termed as being urban naxals. Ambedkar’s foresight on ‘Bhakti in politics and Bhakts’ sounds so contemporary and is proving to be the death knell for critical views which forms the bedrock of a democratic system. Sycophancy is the prevailing order of the day.
INDEPENDENCE OF EC
Free and fair elections is another cornerstone of any functioning democracy. In order to ensure this, the Constitution provided for an independent EC insulating it from governmental interference. Over the years, it evolved as a multi member which acted in tandem with political parties and earned the reputation of being robust. It earned a reputation across countries. Not that there were no disputes or even criticisms. But the EC was found to be responsive and amenable to initiating corrective actions. The EC even went to the extent of opposing the obnoxious electoral bonds to pave the unlimited anonymous corporate donations which proved to disproportionately benefit the ruling party, not to speak of the consequent corruption and financial crimes.
But now that is gone. Today, growing evidence of the EC becoming second fiddle to the ruling party prevails. The conduct of the Maharashtra and the current SIR in Bihar are cases in point. Rejecting the order of the Supreme Court in the matter of appointing the election commissioners, the government has strengthened its stranglehold on the EC.
TOWARDS A NEOFASCIST ORDER
Democracy in India stands imperilled today. How such a pass has come about in various facets have been outlined. The basic challenge flows from the fact that the RSS- BJP who are at the helm of affairs did neither share the vision of freedom struggle nor the republican constitution. Their vision has always remained wedded to Hindutva ideology with the objective of creating a fascistic, sectarian and centralised nation state which recognised religious identity as the defining feature. This coupled with the neoliberal paradigm which is faced with a crisis completes the neofascist characteristics of the present regime. Therefore, the nature of authoritarian assaults are far more insidious, systemic and institutionalised. So, the struggle for defending democracy cannot be carried out without fighting the divisive and pernicious ideology. Or else the democratic secular republic and principles of social justice and federalism which together form the very ‘Idea of India’ itself will be lost.
