Of Enduring Value

The entire monsoon session of Parliament having been washed out on account of the BJP’s stand on the issue of ‘Coalgate’, some sections of the media have echoed the PM to describe this as a blot on our parliamentary democracy. This is largely correct as the development was unique with the main Opposition party publicly declaring that its members won’t allow smooth functioning of both the Houses till the PM, as the Coal Minister, taking moral responsibility for the scam, tenders his resignation. Even if the demand had support from sizeable segments of public opinion, the BJP leaders themselves were well aware that such a demand could not have been met by any government enjoying a reasonable majority in the legislature.

However, at a later stage the BJP leaders did try to adopt a slightly different posture. As the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha explained, the party stuck to its demand for the PM’s resignation but did not want to make it a precondition for a debate in the House. Instead it set two preconditions:

cancellation of all allocations of coal blocks without recourse to bidding, and an independent and impartial probe into the entire episode. But the Congress, which launched a direct assault on the CAG in the matter, was not prepared to accept this proposal. Hence the ruling party too was responsible in large measure for the deadlock.

Whatever the reasons for the disruption, it was the nation as a whole which was the loser, neither the Congress nor the BJP (since both have several skeletons in their cupboards to conceal).

Meanwhile the state having slapped the charge of sedition on a young cartoonist, there are strong reactions from across the political spectrum and a remarkable unanimity is being seen in favour of removing Section 124-A of the IPC. Instructive, in this context, is what Jawaharlal Nehru had said on the subject during a parliamentary debate way back in 1951. In his view, “that particular Section... should have no place... in any body of laws that we may pass. The sooner we get rid of it the better.” By no stretch of imagination can Aseem Trivedi—like Binayak Sen or even Arundhati Roy—be held guilty of sedition, even if some people take offence to his cartoons.

At the same time the people’s movements—reflected in the struggle against the Kundan-kulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu and the ‘Jal Satyagraha’ in Madhya Pradesh—have provided fresh manifestation of the mass character such initiatives of vital concern for the society are taking defying the attitudes of the powers that be.

The last few days have also witnessed the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) celebrating its 100th space mission with the launching of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from Srikharikota thereby offering testimony of the strides we have taken in space technology, one of the vital areas of science, since 1975 (when Aryabhata, the country’s first experimental satellite, was sent into space from the Soviet Union). That indeed is something we need to celebrate. And in this period we also lost the ‘Milkman of India’ Dr Verghese Kurien, an outstanding visionary, at the age of 90—a man of socialist outlook (implacably opposed to liberalisation) with an extraordinary technological approach—who brought about the ‘white revolution’, yet another achievement this country can justifiably be proud of.

Alongside the people’s movements at the grassroots it is the milestones laid by silent performers like the ISRO scientists and Dr Kurien that will endure, not the misdeeds of the petty politicians wallowing in mega-scale corruption hogging the headlines but subjecting this nation to ridicule and disrepute.

September 13 S.C.