Special edit
We have the right to good governance
by Hari Jaisingh

The happenings in 51 years of free India are now part of history— history that candidly tells us how and where we have gone wrong. For the past one year The Tribune has been recapturing the glorious and not-so-glorious moments of the past. It has been giving glimpses of the successes and failures as seen by some of the country's best thinkers and analysts on the different facets of the nation's life and society through its fortnightly Golden Jubilee supplements. It was part of our humble effort to provide our readers not only a peep into the past misdeeds but also suggest correctives and alternative courses of action so that the dreams of millions of our countrymen are fulfilled in the next millennium.

As it is, the people feel betrayed. They feel sore that the ruling groups operating at various levels have hijacked the system and the instruments of governance to their advantage. The New Class or the ruling elite has fragmented society on the basis of caste, subcaste, class and religion which goes against the very spirit of the Indian nation. There is "a peculiar double-bind" in Indian politics. While the ills of religion have found ready political expression, its strengths have not been tapped for improving the quality of public life. This has changed the face of politics, especially since new entrants have no qualms about making political use of religion instead of the "religious use of politics". This has damaged the old concepts of secularism and communalism.

A divided India has come handy to unscrupulous politicians. The vote bank politics shamelessly pursued by them has made the country a social volcano. Look at any area. There are glaring failures. The system has been sabotaged from within. But no serious attempts are made to arrest the drift and plug the loopholes. The nexus of politicians and administrative functionaries with criminals is total. The N.N.Vohra Committee report brought this bitter truth to public notice. But no political leader or party has shown the guts to break the vicious circle.

Can't we break the back of a criminalised polity? My simple answer is yes, provided we muster enough courage and political will to think of India as a nation of the people, by the people and for the people and show determination to uplift the under-privileged and deprived sections of society.

A nuclear India has surely given the country a new sense of fulfilment, howsoever limited. In a way, power flows from the barrel of the gun. It might dazzle the people and the outside world for a while, but all that glitters in terms of nuclear deterrence may not be gold. The real power has to flow from economic wellbeing of the people. The India with 40 per cent of the population living below the poverty line is not what we had bargained for on the morrow of Independence. Nor did we wish to see the glaring gaps between the haves and the havenots.

Distortions are a million.The nation's priorities have got mixed up. No leader talks about the burning issues of exploding population, the deteriorating quality of education, inadequate and substandard health services, growing ranks of jobless youth, awful conditions of power, communication and road, etc. The bureaucracy is insensitive; so is the ruling class. Nothing seems to move forward. India is caught in vice-like red-tapism of non-action and mental blocks. Corruption and corrupt practices have only added to the citizens' woes. They feel helpless amidst the growing tentacles of criminalised politics and administrative functioning.

We must challenge this decaying order and demand the right to good governance. We want India to be stable and strong. For this purpose, we must evolve a new system of governance, say, the presidential form of government, so that the processes of decision-making and follow-up action are speeded up. In fact, the real challenge before the leadership today is to shift the national focus away from self-destructive fanaticism towards economic rejuvenation and social equity.

The choice is clear. Soft options cannot take the country far. We must move fast and make India an economic super power. Nothing is impossible. We cannot live with those facets of the past that hamper India's "tryst with destiny". Of course, India's civilisational roots and rich multi-coloured traditions can be a source of inspiration. It can be blended harmoniously with the process of modernisation. We need not be apologetic about our failures. Our objective should be to draw appropriate lessons from history and energetically march to the 21st century. We are a great nation, heir to an ancient civilisation. Only an economically strong and socially cohesive India backed up by a clean public life can earn this country the attention and respect it deserves in the comity of nations.