An Open Letter for the Re-Discovery of India

An interesting centre page article in a leading daily holding the Nehru-Gandhis responsible for keeping  India backward in order to nurture a poor and ignorant vote bank is an oft repeated attack  of the BJP on  Congress in its single- point focus on “Congress mukht Bharat”.  It tugs at the heartstrings of all loyal congressmen and women, though no one denies a kernel of truth in that vicious attack. The only defence is that kernel of truth had no dishonest intention behind it as far as our first prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru was concerned. Nehru believed in Socialism, having been schooled in the Fabian philosophy. He modeled the economic policy for India on Fabian socialism whereby the state owned, operated and controlled means of production, in particular in the key heavy industrial sectors such as steel, telecommunications, transportation, electricity generation, mining and real estate development. Private entrepreneurship was not encouraged, rather it was constrained by permit-license quota and high taxation. Nehru’s policies were borne out of his genuine desire to uplift the poor. In the early years of Independence, India could boast of many irrigation projects, mining projects(on a personal note, I could testify that  my father had constructed hydro electric projects, dams and reservoirs, lignite mining project, a deep water port at the confluence of the Mahanadi river and the Bay of Bengal- between 1949 and 1962), steel plants , scientific research laboratories etc. There was also the Indian renaissance of art, culture, science and learning. It was Nehru’s vision of a Democratic Socialist State combining participatory democracy with economic and social justice for all.   But too much of State’s power and too little of individual enterprise resulted in increased corruption and decreased production and growth rates. What was followed by Mrs.Gandhi during her two tenures lasting around 15 years was seemingly poor oriented(Garibhi hatao, Nationalization of Banks, abolition of the Privy Purse to the erstwhile royal families) but intentionally power seeking to get the votes of the marginalized people. It was this trend that has led to the vituperative attack on the Congress not so much for its failure to control poverty, but for its perpetuation of poverty despite some of its mega schemes like Aadhar- linked MNREGA programmes. While it is easy to be led away with the BJP slogan that Congress  deliberately sustained poverty, the fact is there has been substantial rise of the lower classes into the next rung of lower Middle class, lower middle to middle and middle to upper middle. But the status of the  marginalized poor in the remote corners of the tribal belt and in some of the interior Northern States like Bihar, UP and Odisha has not changed  and this has  given the whip hand to every political party to include in its manifesto its commitment to wipe away the tears of the last person. It is not the Gandhis alone who use poverty as a magic wand to win over the poor, every single party does it. The only difference is BJP has a higher decibal above that of other parties-in particular that of Congress. The truth is everyone speaks of the poor, promises to care for them better than others but  once in power everyone forgets them till the next elections.

The bitter and irrevocable truth is Congress has lost its status as a strong opposition party though it is still the single largest party with 44 members in a house of 543.  The Humpty Dumpty duo of mother and son has had a great fall and not all the loyal congressmen and women can put them back to power. Congress is today bereft of all strategy to corner the ruling party despite the BJP’s gradual and strategic unfolding of its fascist tendency. The happenings in the different Universities-in the North (JNU),in the South(IIT, Chennai and Hyderabad Central university),in the West(FTII)  and in the East(Jadhavpur University) have revealed the slow rising of the hydra of the Fascist Right as opposed to the- pampering the poor- policies of the Nehru-Gandhis that are left centric. The repeated imposition of sedition charges on dissenting voices and scribes, charging them as anti-national is a political sleight of hand. We have many chilling incidents that have taken place in the last year and a half–the mob lynching of  innocents on suspicion of their  eating  and hoarding beef at home, the Ghar Wapsi attempts to forcibly convert non Hindus to Hinduism, the burning and sacrilege of the churches, the murdering of rationalists for their advocacy of reason over superstition- and above all the silence of the PM on all these happenings cleverly manipulating on the political stage  the good cop-bad cop theatre to give the impression that the PM is totally disassociated from the “fringe’ elements behind those violent incidents.. The new binary of “national” an “ anti national” is effectively used to allege that the Congress and the Left parties are conspiring to disintegrate the nation.  But if there is no opposition to counter the nation’s fast slide towards hatred of “the Others” (those who are not with the party in governance), it may slowly result in the whipping up of Xenophobia or religio-cum ethnocentricity. All the poll promises of the BJP before the elections have stayed as promises as there has been  no sign of  “ achche din”, no end to the spiraling price rise, no seizing of black money to fill the bank accounts of every Indian with 15 lakhs of rupees, no thaw in Indo-Pak relationship, no visible development despite all the slogans that are unleashed daily if not hourly.  Even the promise of a corruption free government has become suspect as evidenced in Lalit Modi’s case involving a high profile Cabinet Minister and Chief Minister. The murky dealings in the Delhi District Cricket Association had cast a shadow on the unimpeachable integrity of   the undeclared  No.2 in the cabinet.  But with the deftness in articulation, BJP has successfully side stepped all the promised manna and has invented new nationalistic slogans to assuage the discontent that is brewing over the absence of that promised manna.

A true democracy is one which gives the opposition to play the role of a watchdog and offer constructive criticism to the ruling party in the interest of the nation. But when the opposition squanders away the mantle (however narrow it may be) that had been given to it, there is no hope for the nation to escape governance by oligarchy covertly hoisted on democratic principle. Simply sniping at the ruling party with repetitive phrases like “suit-boot ki sarkar” or making personal attack on the PM( as if to show that we pay you in the same coin which you used to oust us) has no impact on anyone, least on the ruling party. The Congress is led by mother and son where the mother suffers from the handicap of lacking fluency in Hindi and for that matter any Indian language except Italianized English and the so,n the handicap of no experience in the art of governance and also not gifted either with charisma or with eloquence which even the ordinary BJP worker has in abundance.  What is attempted is intemperate cavillation without getting to grips with major social, political and economic issues and providing an alternate strategy for those issues bungled by the ruling party.  The foolish attempt to stall the Parliament as a tit for tat measure has not won the party any gain; on the contrary only more of sardonic sneer.

Unfortunately the mother and the son understand neither the grass roots level approach to relate to the masses nor the political chicanery needed  to counter BJP’s shenanigans, so adroitly employed by its spin masters.  The saying in Tamil that I do not know to build a nest, but I know to bring it down is also not working for the Congress. It cannot seek the moral high ground because in the past some of its actions were neither legitimate nor morally defensible as every action of the present government that is questionable is countered with a repetitive taunt of the pot calling the cattle balck.

Where does it leave the country?  Is there no hope for India? How long do we  wait for the BJP’s promise of acche din? After almost two years since BJP returned with a thumping majority, isn’t there a creeping unease that the BJP bubble may burst sooner than later! But what holds as hope for the BJP to sustain itself in the corridors of Delhi is the TINA factor. There is no countervailing force to unseat the BJP.  The question that is relevant today is can the Congress reinvent itself?

The answer will be a resounding ‘NO’ if the Congress holds to the mother and the calf. The two may be personally honest andcome frm Nehru’s pedigree to keep the interest of the nation above personal interest, but frankly they simply do not have it in them to inspire such confidence or to build the party. The AAP had shown that it can appeal to the aam admi and garner votes. It has shown the spirit to fight obstacles that come in its way to govern as per its poll promises. It has the ingenuity to bring forth schemes that serve the people even if marginally- schemes such as piped water, odd-even scheme, upgrading of teacher training, setting up of  Mohalla sabhas and Mohilla clinics. Congress should take lessons from AAP for framing new strategies that satisfy the desires and yearning of India of the 21^st century. Foremost is accessibility. Accessibility to people is an asset ; a denial of it is to commit harakiri.

Like a bird molting, i.e., shedding of its old feathers and replacing them with new ones, Congress has to begin afresh, replacing the old guard  with new dynamic young people who have the vision, the integrity, the  power of articulation and above all the charisma to infuse dynamism within the party and among the people. Congress should start on a clean slate, accept its  past mistakes, re-engineer its positive programmes to meet the present day requirements, gain acceptance and credibility by being honest and truthful to the founding principles of Congress namely, democracy, secularism, scientific socialism tempered by intense humanism. To achieve this, Congress has to work out a new policy that combines liberal capitalism with democratic socialism.  At first sight, the two seem to be incompatible but on a deeper analysis, the two can co- exist as private public partnership. By focusing on thrust areas like roti, kapda and makan, medicare and education the government can ensure a Welfare State . The emphasis should be on a system, based on social justice and equity with minimum interference in private enterprise and business.  Unless Congress reworks its old slogan of Garibhi hatao with the new mantra of Natural Equity and makes people a partner in achieving economic, social, intellectual ad religious freedom, Congress will fade away into eternal sunset.

There is no dearth of high thinking and well meaning individuals in the Congress party. But what is missing is a rallying point like the one provided by Pt. Nehru. There may have been flaws in his policies that we see today in hindsight. To speak of Nehru only with reference to some wrong policy which were not intentional nor had any personal axe to grind is not only being unkind, but being ungrateful. It is ime for the Congress men and women to set up a new agenda of reforms, to seek a new leadership and  seek alliance with like minded parties to usher in a modern re-Discovery of India.