Rural and new urban voters will ultimately save India from
the venal governing class, avers Gautam Sen.
Structural and
sociological factors are major reasons for the far-reaching socio-economic
debacle India has ended within its sixty-fifth year of independence. I have
argued earlier that the adoption of a parliamentary system of government was a
huge error of judgement. A more insulated, presidential form, would have
allowed balancing of diverse sectarian demands under the overarching umbrella
of a national vote, constraining accentuation of deeply-rooted faultlines in
Indian society. The parliamentary system has given full play to every socio-political
division and real or imagined grievance instead of allowing them to be
addressed with a combination of measured policy assuagement by rulers and
accommodation by the ruled.
The attempt to
resolve every perceived injustice completely, which must inevitably eventually
result in endless bloodshed, is in grave danger of being achieved in India. Its
long-suffering, meek people have now developed a taste for wilful truculence
and its self-seeking educated has filed for moral and intellectual bankruptcy,
forgetting self-restraint and sacrifices are imperative for nationhood. India's
ruling national elites themselves are well on the way to abandoning all
pretence of governing their fissiparous country and are engaged in shameless
personal enrichment. In this hapless melee a deeper dynamic is nevertheless in
play and understanding it might provide a better grasp of the likely fate of
India.
The political
elites of India, including its vast bureaucracy, have become somewhat detached
from purposive governance that seeks to achieve national societal goals
essentially on their intrinsic merits. Huge spending targets are not evidence
of goal-oriented purpose when they are unable to connect effectively with
implementation. They indicate a certain inertia and imprisonment by past
choices that listlessly and powerfully propel movement without real direction.
A clue to this reality is provided by the disjuncture between a Planning
Commission, unable to provide direction, and reckless foreign spending by its
most senior official. He might have paused to reflect on the dire poverty of
most of its citizens, whose interests are supposedly the organization's raison
d'etre, since his political bosses constantly resort to Mahatma Gandhi's pious
injunctions on self-restraint.
India's governing
classes may be grimly rational in behaving with egregiously self-serving
abandon, stealing and lying. Offered an uncertain future as rulers, though
highly privileged and rewarded, and unable to truly impact on policy outcomes,
this was always a likely scenario. Indeed, idealism is driven out quickly and
any misguided souls entertaining aspirations to assist the nation advance are
likely to fall by the wayside. In time, opportunists and crooks have come to
dominate Indian political life and plunder the country, as the shocking
statistics on the criminal backgrounds of legislators underline. In the final
stages of decay, few upright politicians remain to curb the damage that
relentless looting and dishonesty precipitates. And that seems to be the stage
India has reached under UPA 2, ironically led by a man initially celebrated for
his shining rectitude. The exaggerated analysis above is necessary to
illustrate the inference that India has acquired pronounced symptoms of having
become, in essence, a predatory state. Such a predilection is usually a matter
of degree and the Indian polity has slid dramatically towards the end of the
spectrum characterised by predation of late.
The second
dimension relates to economic entrepreneurs large and small having two
contrasting types of relationships with India's governing elites, on a spectrum
that ranges from collusion in joint plunder to obligations to bribe in order to
operate as economic agents. Although both relationships can prevail
concurrently, the consistent position on the spectrum is likely to depend on
size, with the larger conspiring conjointly for mutual gain. Smaller players
are consigned to the end that mostly necessitates bribing the governing
classes, directly and indirectly (money bribes and excessive charges for
services like transportation and energy, etc.), to operate.
Some formally
constituted private economic enterprises are in fact owned, indirectly at arms
length, by members of the governing class themselves. These profiteer massively
by obtaining lucrative government contracts and siphoning off major
nationally-owned resources like land and mines. Other essentially private
economic operators benefit from similar larceny, but many also position
themselves strategically in the marketplace through licensing and other
privileges granted by political benefactors. It enables them to extract vast
revenues from consumers through entrepreneurial activities, which they share
with the governing class. The extent of economic growth is a spin-off from this
operational reality and the critical cross-over point that determines its rate
is the forbearance of the governing class in plunder because excesses lower the
growth rate.
The third dimension
of India's political interstices is occupied by external protagonists. They
pursue their short and long-term goals with greater freedom as the Indian state
atrophies and the governing class is preoccupied with individual political
survival and personal enrichment. The external agents within India include a
vast number of social NGOs and economic entities. The former are often anything
but innocuous charities seeking to relieve poverty and promote empowerment, as
they purport. In fact, many engage in cajoling and bribing politicians and the
government in order to operate freely and achieve sinister objectives. Their
activities range from longer-term goals like religious conversion to create
extra-territorial loyalties, of which the Koondankulum episode is one poignant
example, to suborning governments to win contracts and influence policy
decisions. Manipulating economic policy decisions creates highly profitable
opportunities entailing lucrative contracts awarded by state enterprises and policies
that allow dubious investment vehicles like Participatory Notes.
More worryingly, in
recent years, important national policy perspectives seem inexplicably poised
to discard long-held certainties, without adducing compelling arguments for
them. There are grounds for suspicion that such puzzling behaviour is a product
of the susceptibility of the ruling elite, many of whom harbour criminal
backgrounds, to blackmail by well-informed external players and their dedicated
Indian associates. Blackmail has become a hugely significant problem in the
Indian polity, endangering its very survival.
The hapless
majority of India comprises the fourth dimension of its polity, facing awesome
impending outcomes of which they are perhaps only vaguely aware. There is nothing
to be said of a largely purchased Indian media which foxtrots to the tune of
assorted venal paymasters while avowing improbable high purpose and concern for
the ordinary citizens of India.
Unfortunately, the
vast anonymous masses are vulnerable to mobilization by prize rascals who have
developed pushing the right buttons of instinctive prejudice and resentment
into an art form. Yet, there are gratifying signs that they do not unfailingly
deliver the desired goods. A majority of the criminals who had put themselves
forward at the recent Uttar Pradesh assembly elections were rejected and the
crass hate-mongering earlier of Nitish Kumar's opponents in Bihar also suffered
ignominious setback. Perhaps the dire necessity of daily survival eventually
sanitizes the mind, even if false promises initially confound judgement.
It may also be
anticipated that the ordinary voter across the length and breadth of India,
struggling to find their daily roti or rice, will deliver a resounding verdict
on the serial revelations of incredible corruption that ultimately rob them of
the basics of survival. Middle class India itself doesn't yet count, partly
because many don't vote though they seem to have a pretty shrewd idea of what
is happening to their country. Their numbers are growing rapidly, with India's
urban population predicted to exceed 600 million by 2030. The diverse
constituents of urban India share an understanding that reasonable governance
is essential for tolerable living, as Gujarat's voters have repeatedly reaffirmed
by voting for Narendra Modi. They and rural voters, with whom the majority of
these recent migrants to urban India have much in common, may be the saving of
India. Together, they will be in a position to choose a government they deserve
and its genuine nationalist credentials will surely be a pregnant issue.
Dr Gautam Sen taught Political Economy at the London School
of Economics and Politics.
No comments:
Post a Comment