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Politicians have
hijacked freedom India, the world’s largest democracy and an emerging power of the 21st century, is celebrating 60 years of Independence. "The Tryst with Destiny" theme echoed in the Central Hall of Parliament last night. But Jawaharlal Nehru’s ringing words to usher the dawn of freedom seemed coming from a distant past. To a new kind of audience in the high-domed chamber, that has seen the making and unmaking of much of recent history, the words and the idiom must have sounded somewhat unfamiliar. In just 60 years, the language of politics has changed. Suggestions of sacrifice, struggle of the people to break out of slavery and a long slumber and the idea what freedom should mean for the "loneliest and the lost" must have seemed out of place for the ears of many who are caught in the ways of the political rat race. Celebrations over, the politicians will now be back at the games they play in the pursuit of power and all that goes with it. They have neither time, nor inclination, to spare a thought for the idea that power ultimately is meant to serve the people, and to build a new India where freedom should mean something for the poorest of the land, where the helpless can live a life of dignity and self-respect, without fear and want. So busy are the politicians in their wild power chase, they don’t have a moment to spare to ponder what they have done to the Constitution, one of the better charters for governing a nation of India’s size and complexity. Parliament, the way it is functioning, no longer resembles the one that not long ago used to make us all feel proud. The bureaucracy, a rusted version of the steel frame, despite 60 years of freedom remains distant from the people, almost callous and indifferent and generally insensitive to their pain and despair. The judiciary, the last hope of the citizen with a grievance, has on occasions shown a flicker or so of conscience and dispensed justice, but seeking redress has become costly for those who need it most. What is worrying is the assiduous attempts the governments at the Centre and the State governments have been making to pack the courts for the advantage of the politicians and those who help them come to power. In fact, politicians of all sorts have hijacked the democratic system to run it for their own convenience and not for serving the people. If any organ of the State chooses to block their way, they try to bend it to their will by means fair and foul. It has not been difficult for the politicians to co-opt the bureaucracy to their ways. The judiciary has often been outsmarted by the elected representatives who wantonly pass amendments to the Constitution and park the new laws in the notorious Ninth Schedule, making them out of bounds of the courts. All in the name of the people! It is hard to ignore that Parliament and State Legislatures have been infiltrated by representatives of the corrupt, the casteist and the criminal for no other reason than that the politicians in their lust for power feel no shame in supping with those who ought to have been shunned or be spending their time in jail. The tragedy is not that the evils afflicting society and the emerging system are not known, but the indifference of the leaders across the spectrum to the damage they are doing to the political system is abysmal. Enjoyment of power is wrecking the system from within. Because of the sequinned glitter of the Shining India and the 9-per-cent mood, the rulers are unable to foresee that the despair among the jobless, the increasing social unrest in different parts of the country and the eruption of violence on various pretexts, may unsettle the political stability in the nation poised for taking major strides for becoming a 21st century power. Either the political leaders – irrespective of their dispensation – are unable to see the dangers ahead, or they don’t want to touch the vital questions they are sure that they cannot tackle. The people have already waited for 60 years. For how long more? |
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