Author: Sunanda K. Datta-Ray
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: August 20, 2011
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110820/jsp/opinion/story_14397536.jsp#
There was a time in Calcutta High Court when
any ruling that the company law judge gave in open court was promptly negated
by a division bench judge in chambers. There must be many other similar instances
of confusion caused by overlapping jurisdiction even when the parallel centres
of power are not unfriendly. N.R. Narayana Murthy the other day blamed the
slowdown in decisionmaking and consequent stalemate in economic reforms on
having "two leaders in the whole set-up".
Inevitably, promotions and banishments are
attributed to what people perceive as the stronger of the two power centres.
There are rumours of the other centre having to withdraw its candidate for
plum jobs and of major policy decisions like the 123 agreement being delayed
for clearance. Duality isn't altogether new. Some of the Emergency's miseries
were laid at the door of what became notorious as the extra-constitutional
centre of power right in the prime minister's own house. The contending interests
of the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and Jaslok Sabha were jokingly held responsible
for the chaos that accompanied the restoration of democracy in 1977. Even
a prime minister who might modestly regard himself as primus inter pares and
whose government's overall authority is circumscribed by the compulsions of
coalition politics cannot be seen to share authority if he is to command the
respect of 1.2 billion Indians and deal from a position of confidence with
populist rabble-rousers.
This is especially necessary at a time of
crisis when Manmohan Singh's masterly economic management must be seen to
be matched by equally subtle and yet decisive political control. There's nothing
personal in this; it's the system that must be saved. Jawaharlal Nehru's tussle
with Purushottamdas Tandon had less to do with ideology than with proper relations
between government and ruling party and the visible distribution of power.
That's why Rahul Gandhi's reported assumption of authority within the party
on his return from nobody-knows-where is welcome. Political theorists might
question the legitimacy of the four-member committee and ask why Ahmed Patel
is a member when the prime minister or a seasoned Congressman like Pranab
Mukherjee are not. But considering the polity as it is and not as it should
be, Rahul's involvement may help to re-establish the proper hierarchical order
in relations between the party and the government.
Sonia Gandhi's mystery illness - newspapers
abroad mention "skin or cervical cancer", "a history of weak
lungs" and "diverticulitis, a condition which often leads to infection
in the tissue that surrounds the colon" - offers an opportunity to review
India's governance. The secrecy that surrounded the ailments of China's Dowager
Empress and Bhutan's Shabdung may have been necessary for stability under
monarchical opaqueness but is an unsettling factor at a time when democracy,
which in India is peculiarly feudal at the best of times, is challenged from
many quarters.
Attacking from one flank in a recent lecture,
Santosh Hegde, the former judge who claimed the chief minister's scalp as
Karnataka's Lokayukta, denied India's parliamentary system any representational
value and blamed "the intoxication of power" for distorting Abraham
Lincoln's noble concept of democracy. Power is monopolized, he lamented, by
a venal and arrogant elite. Across the board, Baburao Hazare, a former army
truck driver now propped up by no one knows who, seeks to usurp the functions
of the parliamentary system and replace democracy with mobocracy in the name
of a mythic civil society.
Manmohan Singh's credentials lie in banishing
for ever the stereotype Indian as an emaciated, half-naked figure with a begging
bowl that once featured in thousands of cartoons all over the world. The decisions
P.V. Narasimha Rao and he took 20 years ago expunged from memory all trace
of those bleak years of the Hindu rate of growth when India depended on PL
480 wheat to feed itself and was periodically ticked off for not being sufficiently
grateful. Manmohan Singh's stewardship has since resulted in a thriving economy
that is cushioned against the worst blows of global recession. It's naïve
to say business has prospered in spite of the government because the previous
44 years showed that business cannot prosper without the government.
True, corruption takes heavy toll of prosperity
but the uproar against it is possible only because, despite large pockets
of abject poverty, the country is forging ahead. Yet, it's not the tangible
signs of affluent modernity (small things like promptly delivered gas cylinders
or easy telephone connections) that generate a sense of satisfaction in this
65th year of independence. The real pride lies in the self-evident proof of
Narasimha Rao's assertion in Singapore in 1994 that the answer to the problems
of democracy lie in not less but more democracy. Though some of Hegde's strictures
are undeniably valid, his dirge isn't new. More to the point, nothing he says
indicts the parliamentary system or suggests a superior alternative free of
blemishes. His indictment is of the singer, not the song. If he is right,
the same characteristics will undermine whatever system is adopted.
Until that deluge drowns all, we can take
pride in a robust form of representative government that can reflect the popular
will, give effect to public aspirations and act as a buffer against the bloodbath
of Tiananmen Square or the turmoil of the Arab Spring. Britain's rioting and
looting demonstrated that the most esteemed institutions even in the mother
of parliamentary democracies can be in peril.
India's protective mechanism can succumb to
internal weakness or external assault. The former lies in the duality mentioned
earlier. The latter danger arises from the simplistic belief that a lok pal
with authority over the prime minister will miraculously wish away all the
manifestations of a cash economy that are such a daily irritant. Even Hazare
doesn't have a magic wand to bring about miracles. But in his ignorance of
parliamentary governance or the cabinet system, Hazare may not know it. He
would not otherwise have asked of Kapil Sibal, "Who made him a minister?
It comes as a surprise to me."
The whole parliamentary system which he is
trying to take over probably also comes as a surprise to him. An Opposition
has every right - indeed, a duty - to ferret out the government's weak points
and attack there. But democratic decisionmaking (already weakened by the dual
system) may not be able to stand up to the blackmailing pressure of outsiders
who act as the Opposition's battering ram while professing to champion lofty
causes.
The internal malaise, which also concerns
power and ambition and also weakens the government at a time when the nation
cannot afford weakness at the top is probably more lethal for it can become
institutionalized as in pre-1950 Nepal where the Shahs reigned while the Ranas
ruled. Being the self-effacing man he is, Manmohan Singh may not seek any
advancement but public evidence of the right balance is necessary for stability
as well as for his government's effectiveness. The term, Fourth Estate, was
used in 18th- century England to indicate not a lusty press, but King George
II's remarkable wife who was keenly interested in literature and philosophy
and exercised considerable political influence. A contemporary couplet went,
"You may strut, dapper George, but 'twill all be in vain;/ We know 'tis
Queen Caroline, not you, that reign."
The nation's thoughts are with Sonia Gandhi.
Undeterred by the self-defeating and counter-productive veil of secrecy that
surrounds her whereabouts and medical condition, Indians everywhere will offer
their prayers for her quick and complete recovery. It would be a boon if,
when she returns, the wisdom of her "inner voice" recommends a withdrawal
from public affairs in her son's favour so that India is at last spared the
Calcutta High Court's dilemma of one judge being able to negate another judge's
decisions. A government is not a dual control car for the initiation of learners.
