Yogendra Yadav has hurled a stone at the placidly humming bee-hive of ‘I’m all right Jack’ species of academics,mandarins and those battening on conventional intellectual trade, provoking an angry buzz of outrage and spite.Not unexpectedly. These people have a vested interest in proving that despite all wear and tear the present framework of liberal.democracy further relieved of the add-ons of social democracy is capable of meeting every challenge it is facing today.Funny that they have not faced squarely the vital question:How is it that three quarters of a century on from independence Indian democracy has been severely drained of energy and momentum,yielding place to a vigorous brand of fascism drawing inspiration from outdated religious and social codes? Inequality has soared to dizzying heights.Crimes like rape and murder have become as common as road accidents and sensation-mongers are jaded.Starving families are driven to suicide and we are supposed to sing ‘how great is my country,’ Hence the urgency of Yadav’s implied question :what has gone wrong?Has our thinking about politics got thrust into a box without any room for play,any scope for renewal?
The question is fundamental.and inexorable.Has the economic base developed to a point where the pressure of underconsumption and mass impoverishment threatens production and hasty compromises lead to increase rather than deflation of that pressure.The state,itself a product of the play of economic forces,has now developed to a stage where it is unable to accommodate and manage them competently.Hence the endless mini-revolts,the unbelievable and ever-growing tensions and the vertigo
of blind scuffles and social squabbles challenging its thin hegemony.Manipur was a wake-up call.But the bells peal in vain,and the drummers think the parade is still worth it.
Unwilling to look at the total picture the hacks and hucksters of intellect take to picking on pettigogging details here and there and chortle in triumph.The judicial approach to dowry deaths changing from ‘innocent until proven guilty’ to “guilty until found innocent’, or the precious boon of Right to Information in an ethos where suffocating pressure to block information co-exists with umpteen channels dishing out disinformation,and like a circus strongman a constitutional authority casually bending constitutional obligations while judges look on unwilling to call a halt or too scared to rock the boat.Yet you think you have proof positive of a vibrant resourceful democracy turning challenges into opportunities!
This inveterate and small-minded opportunism is determined to look away from the looming crisis.What it betrays after all is a poverty of imagination,of political creativity when the politics of the country has entered into a blind alley and the state has passed into the hands of a group who confronted with overwhelming problems of the people try to ‘solve’ them by downgrading the needs and capabilities of the people themselves.Witness the crisis of the farming sector and the initial response of the BJP government and a pliable higher judiciary.True the confidence is now shaken and Rahul Gandhi does show a refreshing interest in possible alternatives.But he is at the moment hemmed in by too much of the old gear to break completely free.True,it is no child’s play.But the need is so overwhelming for the many as against the fortunate few that somebody has to take a first step.Hence the crying need for a new way of thinking to get us out of the rut.That cry needs to be taken up.
Addendum:
What kind of liberal democracy or constitutional mandate is it where cow vigilantes are allowed to catch and kill on the spot alleged cow-smugglers and beef transporters without due process of law with total impunity?How do police personnel who collaborate in such murders retain their jobs and go scot-free?
Hiren Gohain is a political commentator
