Author: Sandhya Jain
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: September 26,
2000
At least in one respect,
the Marxian dream has come true in India - the state has withered away.
It's an all-India phenomenon, not just in the blood-red villages of Bihar
or West Bengal. What's more, it's given us the dictatorship of the
proletariat. Some of us are now beginning to realize that this was
never meant to be dictatorship by the proletariat; it all along meant dictatorship
over the proletariat.
Two decades ago, a lonely
but indomitable woman walked miles into the fields of little-known Belchi
to express solidarity with the low caste victims of an outrage. The
move was widely perceived as an act of sagacity that put Mrs. Indira
Gandhi on the political comeback trail. No doubt it did that, but
it had a much larger significance. It was the response of a true
leader to the aspirations for justice and succour by those who had been
trespassed upon. It was, above all, a powerful legitimation of the
right of the poor and downtrodden to have dreams and aspirations.
Throughout her long and troubled political innings, Mrs. Gandhi always
retained this sensitivity towards the poor, particularly towards women.
She would never have kept quiet had the scandalous purification of a Kerala
temple following the marriage of the Hindu son of a Christian mother taken
place in her tenure; she would make her displeasure known.
This aspect of nurturance
by a tall leader has vanished with her demise. It is a trait that
comes from within, and cannot be artificially created. That is why
Signora Sonia Gandhi fell flat on her face when she tried to do an Indira
amma by arriving at the site of a gruesome massacre in Bihar at the advice
of her spin doctors, because she followed it up by propping up the very
Rabri Devi government that she said had no moral right to rule.
Bihar, of course, has
since gone from strength to strength as a metaphor for the rule of the
goon and the gun. Massacres continue at village level, and private
armies are establishing 'spheres of influence' with impunity. Girls
have been abducted in broad daylight while fetching provisions from the
market; anti-social elements have entered the school bus of the institution
in which the Chief Minister's own daughters study, and molested young students.
Recently the inmates of a girls' hostel in the state capital were held
hostage at gunpoint for three hours one evening, and social activists insist
a gang rape is being covered up.
Concerned citizens across
the country now increasingly feel that the situation in Bihar can no longer
be accepted with equanimity. But not a single political party or
leader deems it fit to take note of the situation there. One appreciates
that the Centre is shackled in the use of Article 356, but one cannot understand
the continued silence of Mr. Vajpayee, his government or his party,
especially when the Congress president feels obliged to remain mute.
At the very least, an important woman leader of the party or alliance should
have been deputed to talk to the girls.
In West Bengal, it is
now an open secret that the government of Comrade Jyoti Basu wholeheartedly
endorses the Maoist dictum that power flows through the barrel of a gun.
Village after village is learning painful lessons in political compliance.
Yet if the gutsy Ms. Mamata Banerjee had not spoken up so loudly,
it is doubtful if Bengal would even exist in the Centre's political geography.
Of course, Defence Minister George Fernandes has since argued her case
powerfully, and Mr. Basu has displayed his petulant bhadralok-fisherwoman
tantrums. But as far as one can make out, there has been no attempt
to engage the Congress about the situation in the state. It is shoddy
diplomacy to throw an open challenge to Congress to endorse President's
rule across the front pages of newspapers. If the Centre means business,
someone should call upon the Congress president. It cannot assume
that she will agree, rest on imaginary laurels, and still talk of good
governance!
In Karnataka, the Raj
Kumar abduction saga continues to simmer with no end in sight. What
is worse, in all these weeks, the governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
have not seen fit to chalk out any alternative strategy, when it is clear
that their journalist-emissary has failed to negotiate the film star's
freedom, and the Supreme Court has ruled out release of detenues.
Nevertheless, Mr. S.M. Krishna continues to chant the surrender
mantra, while Mr. M. Karunanidhi behaves as if there is no
agenda other than the smooth succession of his favourite son to his political
legacy. Now, with the veteran actor's wife having taken ill, the
situation has the potential to turn nasty, at least in Karnataka.
Yet all through the prolonged melodrama, the Centre has not seen fit to
even raise the issue with the state governments. Nor has the BJP
or any NDA partner expressed an opinion; it is as though the states are
outside Planet India.
Other publicity-conscious
leaders have also maintained silence. It would be interesting to
know the views of former Prime Minister V.P. Singh, who did not hesitate
to release terrorists in exchange for Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's daughter,
and had no qualms about retaining him as Home Minister after the sordid
episode. One is also curious to know if there is any re-thinking
in Congress in view of the prolonged stalemate on the issue, especially
since the Supreme Court has overruled the abject surrender that the Chief
Minister 's had in mind.
In the national capital,
the situation is hardly any better with the sensational abduction of a
jeweller's daughter in broad daylight, and her release after payment of
what is suspected to be a king's ransom. According to some press
reports, the release was negotiated by the son of a prominent city politician,
who was otherwise unknown to the family. The reports did not identify
the person, but hinted he was no honest broker. Again, the political
elite cutting across party lines, maintained deafening silence; there are
no assurances to the family or shocked citizenry that the guilty will be
punished and the crime rate brought under control.
As for the telecommunication
crisis, were it not for the newspapers, one would never have realized why
the STD lines aren't working. Even after the press berated the nation
that is leading the world information technology revolution for not being
able to maintain basic telephone services at home, the Government has been
less than forthcoming about the extent of the problem. So much for
transparency and freedom of information!
What is happening in
India is a creeping callousness of the political class as a whole that
makes it indifferent to the plight of the people when it feels securely
ensconced in power. That is why there will be no genuine response
to regressive attitudes towards depressed sections, as recently witnessed
in a Rajasthan school where Dalit children were suspended for demanding
access to the same (and solitary) source of water as upper caste students.
Sometimes complacency becomes seductive that it holds parties in thrall
even when the writing on the wall flashes neon lights. Yet it would
be a mistake not to sense the tension simmering below the surface; it could
break out with unpredictable consequences on an unsuspecting polity.
