All is not well with the Republic and our Republican Democracy. An imperceptible ailment rather ailments have developed into our body-politic, which are sappingand corroding the structure, both from within and without. Certain decomposition, certain degeneration has set in, which is bound to fracture the system, sooner or later.
But that is not the tragedy. The tragedy is the political leadership, because of arrogance and inaptitude, is not prepared to give credence to the whistle-blowers. The truth is the political leadership itself is the cause of the malady. It ceased to be a model soon after the demise of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who had taken his office as the First Servant of India.
Leaderships
Most of our intellectuals are politicians, either of the western thought, or the local Rightist Reaction, are brain-washed thoroughly by the authors of Saffron.
Less said the better about the religious leadership of the majority community. The chiefs of four Dhams or the Jagadgurus and the Shankaracharyas or various Bhagwans and Maharishis do not seem to bother about the rot that has set in.
As far as the Muslim leadership is concerned, because of the innate bias, it remains eternally on the defensive or busy in the rehabilitation of the riot victims. Then, because of prejudice, nobody listens to it at national scale: In the meantime, the moth, the rust continues to eat into the very vitals of the nation.
What the thinking sections of our society do not understand is that our national persona, the very idea of democratic India, the very concept of plural Bharat, is under assault. At the root of this phenomenon, you would find divergence of views on the concept of nationhood. A thorough national debate on the issue can help crystallise or ameliorate the situation.
At the national leadership level, one finds a vacuum and a hiatus. There is no comprehensively commanding central authority worth the name. The sub-leaders or regional leaders, catapulted to power by circumstances, cannot lead the giant nation that we are. Experiment of the United Front, National Democratic Alliance and the current United Progressive Alliance is before the nation. None of them produced a coherent structure of governance.
AMORALITY
As far as quality leadership is concerned, it looks as if the womb of mother-India has gone dry, which no more produces the likes of Jayaprakash Narain or Abul Kalam Azad.
If Azad’s name surprises you, read a part of his speech delivered in 1940: “I am a Muslim and proud of the fact. I am indispensable to this noble edifice. Without me, this splendid structure of India is incomplete. Everything bears the stamp of our joint endeavour. Our languages were different, but we grew to use a common language. Our manners and customs were different, but they produced a new synthesis… no fantasy or artificial scheming to separate and divide can break this unity.’’
Can any level-headed person take exception to any coma or semi-colon of this speech? The helmsman should be a no-nonsense person, confidence-building, affection-proliferating and awe-inspiring.
Today our politics has degenerated to abysmal depths of self-aggrandisement and perpetuation in power, by hook or by crook or by both.
Amorality instead of morality is the mantra of the politician of the day. It is more manifest in our foreign policy. Instead of taking sides with the victim, we remain neutral. This shallowness the nation has seen in the case of our policy towards Iran and Iraq. Now India has apparently decided to ditch Palestine for the sake of a few thousand dollars.
Expediency
Expediency has today replaced the time-tasted values and principles. There is no question of compunction when the question of power is before the disputants. Just three examples: The Congress alliance with the Telangana aspirants in Andhra and the Congress proximity with Naxal groups in Chhattisgarh. The Congress is daggers drawn at the CPI-M in Kerala and West Bengal. But at the Centre, they are partners. In the process the Congress is suffering. What has happened in Karnataka and Goa is less said the better.
The overall national behaviour towards woman makes one sit-up. She is safe neither in her house nor outside.
According to an IANS report (January 2008) every hour 18 women fall prey to brutality. To quote the report: Every hour that ticks by in India inflicts more brutality on women, with two rapes, two kidnappings, four molestations and seven incidents of cruelty from husbands and relatives, reveal the latest National Crime Statistics.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (CRB), on an average, the number of crimes against women is swiftly increasing. Among states, Andhra Pradesh topped the lists of crimes against women with 21,484 cases, accounting for 13 per cent of the total incidents in 2006. Uttar Pradesh was a close second, with 9.9 per cent of such crimes.
LIVE-INS
There is another dimension of her victimisation. She has been, at least in metropolitan cities, led into believing that “line-in” is better than a formal “marriage”. Now the Supreme Court has observed that a man and a woman, who have lived in for a long period of time could be considered as good as married. It has said that children born of such relationship will be considered legitimate. The apex-court has upheld the property rights of a woman, who was born to a live-in couple.
Suffice to warn here that today the majority of Americans consists of the “live-in” couples. Marriage is at a discount there. Marriage is looked down upon as it involves responsibility and accountability, while live-in means free sex. The ultimate sufferer is poor woman and her children.
On the communal rather anti-Muslim and anti-Christian front, who is a greater belligerent – BJP, VHP or Shiv Sena – is the question. The Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, on January 22, publicly demanded burning of the Sachar Committee Report. Not long ago, the VHP torched Christian houses and places of worship in Orissa. Muslims are facing social boycott in the Kapasam Tehsil of Chittaurgarh district of Rajasthan after Eid al-Adha, where VHP and Bajrang Dal charged the minority with slaughtering a missing cow. Muslim houses, shops, fields, standing crops, tube wells and vehicles of Muslims were reduced to ashes. The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind State president Er. Mohd Salim, who led a fact finding team, expressed the view that the violence had a distinct pattern of Muslims being “selectively targeted”. “Villagers told us that the groups of rioters roaming on motorcycles were carrying with them patrol cans and lists of Muslims’ houses and shops,” he said. According to the team, the pattern of violence also suggests that communal elements had deliberately spread rumours of cow slaughter to provoke the majority community against Muslims and attack their fields and business establishments to destroy them economically.
All this, we are inclined to feel, is not the news. The news is not even taking official, public notice of the anti-minority events in the BJP-ruled states.
Reason? Because law and order is a state subject! The cynics among Muslims feel now terror is a state subject.
Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao had also not intervened in the Babri Masjid demolition because “law and order is a state subject.” This is what he had in his defence!
In Maharashtra, Andhra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, unconcerned, innocent Muslims have been arrested on the suspicion of subversive activities. But Central Government did not react, as “law an order is a state subject.”
Does the Union Home Ministry under Mr. Shivraj Patil thinks this lame argument goes down the throat of the sufferers or the world at large?
A QUESTION
The Congress-led dispensation of Maharashtra has not, till date, given permission to prosecute the twice rather thrice sifted accused in the Mumbai riot case. To quote Jyoti Punwani (Indian Express, January 24): Perhaps the most vivid example of the blind alley Mumbai riot victims find themselves in is CR 718/92, Dharavi Police Station, described by the Commission as the very first violent incident of the riots. Contrary to popular belief, the first stone was not thrown by Muslims, angry at the demolition of the Babri Masjid. It was thrown at namazis in Dharavi, by a victory cycle rally of Shiv Sainiks, celebrating the demolition, on the evening of December 6, 1992. The (Srikrishna Commission) Report devotes two pages to the rally, taken out in defiance of the police, its incendiary slogans, and the police’ s delay in registering a case against the organisers, all Sena corporators and local leaders. Guess what? The Congress government has still not given permission to prosecute these worthies, and surprise! (R 718/92 does not feature in the recent list. So where do Mumbai’s riot victims go for justice?
Had the Supreme Court, the highest palladium of Justice, not transferred the Bilkis Bano case from Gujarat to Maharashtra, the poor lady would not have received justice. A pregnant Bilkis was gang-raped while 14 persons of her family were done to death by mobs, who received friendly help from the Gujarat police in 2002. Now after six years, 12 accused have been found guilty and got life imprisonment.
The landmark judgment has definitely firmed up Muslim faith in the Indian judiciary, although several police personnel, who helped in the destruction of evidence, have yet to face the music.