Sunday, March 01, 2009
The kaleidoscope of Indian politics By Ghulam Muhammed
Thursday, February 26, 2009
The kaleidoscope of Indian politics
Gone with the wind are the days, when in the words of an Urdu proverb, sweat smelled roses. Congress ruled the roost for decades as a secular, socialist, democratic political giant. Today it is neither secular, nor socialist, nor democratic. While the ground under it was giving away with inexorable certainty, it is desperately fighting to keep a semblance of the old glory. In hindsight, the Congress game was a masterstroke when it all began. In one stroke, it got the Muslim factor off its shoulder by agreeing to Pakistan. Its secular compromise was a good double-faced chimera that lacked any deep conviction even in the Brahmin dominated highest echelons of its decision making High Command. The whole panoply of divergent groups was successfully managed by Pandit Nehru and later by his daughter Indira Gandhi. But as she consolidated power in the family rule, it sidelined so many fellow travellers, that a backlash was literally embedded in the very nature of the whole political scenario. As in society, where a handful of rich cannot go on long without the overwhelming have-nots staging a revolution in any shape whatsoever, the political haves had been so ruthless and so callous about the debris of their demolition machine, that a revolution in one form or another was written right across the face of the nation.
The coming Parliament election is poised to give trigger to all these desperate forces to mount a revolt against Congress hegemony. All Congress’s last hour populist actions are turning out like pouring water on stony landscape. Even budgeted people’s money is not spent and held back, possibly as per some internal agenda of the party managers. In so many ways, Congress has practically lost the trust of the people, who see it only as a money grabbing machine. Haves are all in Congress corners, and have-nots are all gathering around like a hanka like shikar group. A kaleidoscopic scenario of ever changing alliances is chipping in on Congress’s secular, socialist and democratic territory. New alliances are reaching out to more distance past to resurrect their own golden days. The Marathas are banding together to confront another Abdali coming from the north. The lower castes are straining at their leashes and poised to mount a concerted onslaught in the name of freedom from caste bondage. The Congress government, though trying to give out a picture of stability and continuity has given out so much to the demands of its new strategic partners, that a new national order will be decided not by the people but their masters from abroad. Major moves are formulated and await the go-ahead from bosses in foreign lands. India for all practically purposes has become a servile state for others to take command and put to work.
On the other hand, the gathering political storm against Congress is not to liberate the nation from its bondage from the external operators, but a vain attempt to snatch a portion of the pie that is being gobbled by a group of mafia like characters that are so familiar to the people. Tehelka in this week’s issue has come out with a mild warning to the money-bags that are amassing unimaginable wealth, while nearly 60% of the people are suffering from abject poverty. Their idea of charity and humanity is under global test. They cannot build high-rise castles and top it with helipads, unless they are preparing to use the helipad, like the American forces used the US Embassy roof in Saigon, for their last flight out.
These counter forces that are ganging up on Brahminical formations may be constrained to seek undesirable help from the same sources that are bent to hijack India Inc. and may end up pushing the nation into further depths of misery. India as a proud and independent nation cannot survive the dual onslaught on its integrity, both internal as well as external.India of Nehru and Indira will end up becoming a smoldering satellite state threatened by disgruntled people within and rapacious people from without.
It should be acknowledged that at least after nearly two decades of liberalisation phase, Indian administration is preempting major changes that may be demanded by their strategic partners, and are making up their own mind to streamline their interaction with the people at large. However, the gradualism is too slow, too ineffective, too cosmetic, too self-centered, too exclusivist, to address the massive problem of poverty facing the nation. None of the major players have yet come out with any major earth-shaking plans to redress the differences between haves and have-nots. Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the most celebrated disappointment on this count. His idea of progress in trickle down fashion is the worst example of gradualism that the nation is being made to suffer. Manmohan government has failed both in planning and in execution of any substantial measures to uplift the people from dire poverty. The stress on rural employment is too late in the day, too little and too fraught with corruption to deliver even a fraction of what little it has planned. The nation is being kept embroiled in security issues, while the people are sinking into deeper and deeper morass. While India is diverting attention of the people from why of 26/11 to who of the 26/11, it is not prepared to take the blame for some of its own bungled moves at the behest of the USA. India has no business to go into Afghanistanand Pakistan imbroglio. It is time to openly admit to the people that 26/11 has something to do with India’s unadvised foray into that Wild West, from where no outsider has come out unscathed. And that is old history combined with geography. That lesson should have been learned even by the KG level students of Indian diplomacy.
Now with a very clever twist of the events, Pakistan’s wobbling Zardari government is using the 26/11 dossier gratuitously sent out by India, to try and brow-beat its opponent with the threat of India coming down hard on them. Zardari is not doing any favours toIndia. In fact he is doing favours to his own shaky regime by using India as the bogeyman.
An overview of the three neighbouring states, from Afghanistan to Pakistan and India, would see a common factor bedeviling the nations: USA.
Yesterday, it was Afghanistan, to-day it is Pakistan, tomorrow it will be India.
Why should people of all these nations suffer, for the stupid mistakes of the USA and the conspiracies of Israel?
That is the backdrop to the coming elections, where only those political groups could serve the nation, who can focus on the internal problem of poverty and the external problem of entanglement of US and Israel.
If past record is any guide, Congress is worst candidate to meet the bill. It is too complacent and too overconfident to even attempt at any major initiative. This leaves wide possibilities for other groups to form coalitions, before and after the election, to usher in a new vigorous agenda, not necessarily better than Congress, but a first step towards ousting the old parasites.
Muslims in some ways, the bedrock of Indian democratic stability, are especially in terrible flux. New attempts with new understanding and experimentation with coalition formulas are afoot in Muslim circles all across India. This is not good news for Congress. Congress has again and again failed to achieve consensus in its own ranks, as how to deal with Muslims, other than with false promises. That may prove to be a costly mistake.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
www.ghulammuhammed.wordpress.
