Democracy, Development, Politics

We are very proud of our Democracy. We are equally proud that “We the People†have given unto ourselves a Constitution that ensures the noble aspects of democracy. We have even incorporated Socialism and Secularism into the Constitution. We have a Parliament to which women and men above the age of 18 vote for the candidate of their choice. We boast of the “Pillars of our Democracy†, the Legislature, Executive, Judiciary, and Press which we consider as Independent. Even when large sections of our people were illiterate and communication systems were far less developed, as at the time of election to the first Parliament, we developed devices to make them exercise their right to vote. We cannot say to what extent they were involved, but they did participate. Over years our election machinery has be-come more sophisticated and perfect.

This has not happened in other countries which became free of colonial rule in the post-Second World War period, around us or further away, not forgetting the experiment in South Africa after the apartheid regime. The Indian Parliament has enacted a large number of legislations with the intention of making the society free and fair. It is neither easy nor necessary to list all the laws passed over the years. Yet let me highlight a few like the law against untouchability, dowry, child marriage and child labour, violence in general and violence against women and children both in the domestic and public domain, and also to improve the social and economic status of women, labour in general and those in the unorganised sector in particular. Reservation in education and employment was guaranteed to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as well as the Other Backward Communities and Minorities.

The majority political party in the first Parliament was naturally the Congress party; but there was Opposition even then, the main being the undivided Communist Party. Doubts about the efficacy of the legislations to bring in social justice and change were there from the beginning but the trust in the majority party, which was in the forefront of the freedom struggle, and its leaders was strong in the people at large. As time passed doubts turned to criticism which got expressed in speeches as well as in the press. Human rights and civil liberties became part of the vocabulary. The technologies meant for physical movement and also spreading messages, ideas and the like were, when compared to the present, almost non-existent. Still people moved, talked to people, answered their questions and even organised the people. Recently, while reading a book I was surprised to know that Gandhian groups and Communists were active in the snow-clad Himalayan villages before independence. I will not say that they had a clear ‘roadmap’. They worked for common good. They cared for the common people.

The first challenge to our Democracy came when a non-Congress government came to power in 1957 in the newly formed State of Kerala. With-out going into what happened to that government, it was the end of the Congress hegemony in Indian politics. Much has been and is being written on this phenomenon. Though it would be interesting to see the number of political parties that have emerged since then in the country as well as their formations and reformations during the last decades, it can safely be said that “we the people†did not initiate the drive. In the process personal, caste/community/religious interests have come to the fore. Economic interests naturally have come to assert influence.

Development

THOUGH we like to call India the largest vibrant Democracy, it is qualitatively far remote from what it set out to be in 1951. In this the process of Development certainly had a major role to play. When we became Independent we were mainly an agrarian population. British jurisprudence and their policies had made dents in that sector. The level of living of an average Indian was low. Illiteracy was rampant. Though malnutrition was not a word much heard of at that time, it was widely prevalent. Disease and death went unnoticed. Independent India’s development agenda took notice of all this. Our Five Year Plans recognised the economic and social inequality in the country. There were not only poor and rich people, but less and more developed areas as well. Whether transport—road, rail or water—, means of communications like the post and telegraph office, educational institutions or hospitals, every-thing had developed according to the needs of the empire. Reducing disparity, between people/regions, and reducing poverty were naturally the main concerns of Independent India. An examination of the Plan documents in connection with a paper published elsewhere showed that shifts in the above objectives began by the Fourth Plan itself. From the beginning there were voices from within the country against the path we chose. The period also coincided with the growth of the non-aligned movement which the post-colonial Western world saw as a threat.

The decades since then paved the way for our “welcoming“ what is commonly called “globalisation†. It had made its entry into many countries, including some of our neighbours, but our resistance to foreign investment “with strings attached†lingered. We debated on poverty and the way to count the poor. Social transformation gave way to “welfare†measures. A decade before the end of the twentieth century, our government not only stated their views against the “old-fashioned /conservative“ stand of our earlier governments, but proclaimed their policies in favour of foreign investment entering sectors where they were earlier not permitted. This shift helped Indian private companies too. PPP or Public Private Participation began to get respectability. It had wide ranging implications.

The worst hit sector was agriculture, the major employment-giver and also the provider of mini-mum security to people and families at large. The new development policies were centred around ‘contract farming’, construction including residential and office/business buildings, tourism, wider roads, superfast trains, and airports to cater to the increasing number of flights, all of which wanted land, the government-prompted bank loans for building houses and buying cars. All these created some jobs but the havoc was greater. Encroachment on land, land-grabbing, and dis-placement of large numbers of cultivators all over India have virtually turned the agricultural sector upside down. Our governments and political parties remember the farmers when they kill themselves. The remedies they offer are loans/ loan waiver, insurance and schemes like that. They have never examined or acknowledged that all the above are the result of the policies they initiated in the name of development. The government and scientists who agreed with the policies laid down by the establishment encouraged the farmers to use more and more chemical fertilisers and pesticides whose prices went on rising. Governments failed to provide storage and marketing facilities during harvests. The farmers everywhere had their traditional knowledge about their occupation which took into consideration the health of the soil, cleanliness of water, air and the environment though they did not use jargons. They were fed with notions such as greater productivity. higher prices and increased wealth. The endosulphan victims of Kerala, cotton growers of Maharashtra endorse what I am trying to say.

The government, along with their utterly wrong policies on agriculture, failed to create in sufficiently large numbers jobs in non-agriculture sectors. I do not know whether our Prime Minister has ever seen the 22 or 23-year-old boys roaming in the country in search of jobs. They are from Assam, the State that has sent him to the Rajya Sabha, and nearby States. Far away from family, friends and culture, these kids do any job and generally accept what is given. They live in miserable conditions and send home money for the parents and siblings to survive. We have laws to protect the rights of migrant workers. What we often hear is about accidents at the construction of high-rise buildings and other work sites like road, cracker factory etc.

Along with the collapse of agriculture the government not only failed to generate employment in huge numbers, but converted most of the lower order of government jobs—like those of gardeners, peons, cleaners and even drivers which had permanent status with allied benefits—to ‘contract’ status. This has taken away the minimum security that level of people enjoyed. Even in the case of a slightly higher order of jobs, posts were reduced and/or vacancies not filled. This has increased the number of the educated unemployed. Strangely there was never any discussion about reducing the staff at the higher levels of a public service. Despite the fact that protests were raised by trade unions affiliated to all major political parties, the government went ahead with their policies.

On the other side of the above developments the salaries and allowances of those in the organised sector went on increasing. The government policies resulted in the cost of living going higher and higher which hit the common people most. Others, including the elected representatives, got compensated each time the prices of essential commodities went up. All these resulted in the disparity between the upper and lower layers of the society. They had wider implications for the society. For the implementation of the new ‘development’ programmes a section of the poor got drawn in to do dirty works. This has created various “mafia†groups to make available sand, gravel, wood, drinking water, whose shortage is increasing, drugs and liquor, to name a few. Sand, bricks etc. are essential for construction and related ‘development ‘ activities. In Kerala rivers have dried up because of sand mining. Even small hills have disappeared because of scraping for sand. Goondas or “quotation†groups, as they are known in Kerala, have come to stay. They are very much in need where there is a clash of interest, like ownership of land or other property, non-repayment of loans etc

Development is meant to create assets and their fair distribution among the people. This not only has not happened, but the message the people got was that their worth in the society was deter-mined by one’s economic status and consumer habits. Governments encourage this. Even in a State like Kerala, hailed for high educational levels and political awareness among the people, the ‘development path’ means wider roads, fast mov-ing cars, hoardings and advertisements every-where displaying gold, clothes, household goods, and other non-essential things. The people cannot be blamed. They are seeing the above every moment of the day. There is nothing that makes them think otherwise. They willingly accept all kinds of ‘vulgarity’ which the people had abhorred till some decades back.
As a people we have lost most of the qualities we had, like simple living, willingness to share, respect shown to law and authority, honesty in public life etc. The inner peace and stability of the society have been destabilised. These become visible and get manifested in various forms and scales. Corruption at higher levels, against which Anna Hazare raised his voice, has to be seen in this context. Though much drama had been enacted, the Jan Lokpal Bill has not been passed. I am not against such a Bill, but believe that unless the root cause of corruption is identified and destroyed much of the ailments the society is suffering from will not be dealt with. The people who are expec-ted to put a stop to these have their ways of double-speak and also devious ways to cheat us.

For that our Development agenda and goals have to be totally changed. We have to hear the demand for an “Alternate or Different†world coming from different countries including the USA, whom our government appears to be following. The people there are raising slogans worth listening. “America beyond Capitalism†is the front page announcement of the latest edition of an American journal I regularly read. The lead article of the issue says “how thousands of Co-ops, worker owned businesses, land trusts and municipal enterprises are quietly beginning to democratise the deep substructure of the American Economic System†. Does our government know about these developments? In that case whom are they trying to help by their pro-US establishment policies especially after the setback, perhaps temporary, which the government experienced in the case of opening our retail trade to FDI?

I do not wish to expand on this. However, I wish to remind the authorities of their primary responsibility to us. They have created chaos in the economy and society by their policies which have created discontent, unemployment, loss of livelihood and life and also distrust in the government.

Politics

TO a section of people in the country politics became an inconvenient word when they thought it stood in the way of their manipulations. This is what happened to the demands made by Anna and colleagues. So long as they were fasting to end corruption or get the Jan Lokpal Bill passed they were respectable as a “civil society group†. But when they announced that they would cam-paign against a particular party in the coming elections they became political. What I want to tell friends, especially in the media, is that the demand for a corruption-free India itself is political. Discussing these issues over the TV channel or in the newspapers is also political. My complaint is that it has not reached wide enough. Whether Anna’s audience was smaller in Bombay than at Ramlila Maidan does not bother me. I am unhappy that there are still people in this democratic republic who know nothing about Democracy, Parliament, Legislations or Develop-ment. In a recent issue of the daily Hindu, I read an article on the dead bodies of “Vrindavan widows†which are cut into pieces and carried away in sacks by sweepers. The article lamented on the total absence of respect or concern for “dignity†shown to those women even after death. Thou-sands of women, children and men, though alive, are left to lead a life without dignity.

Till they become aware of that, our Democracy, Development and Politics are faulty and not some-thing to be proud of. Each of us can contribute towards that end and should.

The author is a renowned economist and concerned social activist based in Thiruvananthapuram. She is the former President of the National Federation of Indian Women.