I usually don’t think about politics, but a recent re-reading of Freedom at Midnight and The Great Indian Novel gave some interesting insights into the current Indian political circus. As is usual with my insights, it isn’t really an insight. It’s just a general mess of thoughts, cleared up and come together in one statement – Our politics is messed up because we know how to protest, but not how to govern.
I believe this is due to our political legacy.
Freedom at Midnight relates how immediately after independence, our revered leader proved absolutely incapable of administering their new found nation. They knew how to protest, how to hold rallies against government laws, but they had no experience in making and enforcing laws themselves. So when the communal backlash of the partition refused to abate, they were forced to call in Lord Mountbatten to contain the violence. Only with his behind-the-curtains intervention did normalcy return. Jawaharlal Nehru deserves every bit of credit he is given today as a leader of Independence struggle, but he is not quite the role model of leadership and governance. He, however, is the paragon of politics whom our leaders choose to emulate today.
The second part of my thought process came from The Great Indian Novel and the Anna Hazaare movement. Both refer to periods where people took to the streets in direct opposition to policies of the government (Anna ji’s case being that of protests against an absolute lack of policies from the government). Both battles were fought on the streets, and both were wildly successful in mobilizing the public against the government (actual results notwithstanding). On neither occasion did the protesting party offer a viable administrative alternative (The Janata Party government formed of Shri Jaiprakash Narain’s movement died without a whimper).
This is not to suggest that protesting is wrong or that someone who can’t be a great prime minister should just shut up. Citizen activism has its part to play in the balance of power. The strange problem is in when concept of activism and its success are hijacked. It gives the impression that whoever can muster the most people on the street can govern regardless of who holds the majority in the parliament. It is a parallel democracy where “for the people” is taken literally to be the headcount of a rally. I am not well versed with the politics of many countries but I believe that this may be unique to the largest democracy in the world.
The problem is in the complete abandonment of governance in favour of protests. Neither the ruling nor the opposition parties today choose to use the parliament as the forum for decision making, nor are election the favoured means to oust a party that has lost the popular mandate. The chosen means of everything is a “popular” circus. But as a correspondent wrote about Baba Ramdev’s dharna, when you organize a circus, sooner or later the clowns will arrive.
The business of politicians is to make policies. This is best done by sitting down and deliberating, not by shouting on the streets. Our politics is messed up because we know how to protest but not how to govern. Our political role models did not know how to govern either, and their legendary status has left an incorrect but lasting impression that their way is the way. It isn’t.
I believe this is due to our political legacy.
Freedom at Midnight relates how immediately after independence, our revered leader proved absolutely incapable of administering their new found nation. They knew how to protest, how to hold rallies against government laws, but they had no experience in making and enforcing laws themselves. So when the communal backlash of the partition refused to abate, they were forced to call in Lord Mountbatten to contain the violence. Only with his behind-the-curtains intervention did normalcy return. Jawaharlal Nehru deserves every bit of credit he is given today as a leader of Independence struggle, but he is not quite the role model of leadership and governance. He, however, is the paragon of politics whom our leaders choose to emulate today.
The second part of my thought process came from The Great Indian Novel and the Anna Hazaare movement. Both refer to periods where people took to the streets in direct opposition to policies of the government (Anna ji’s case being that of protests against an absolute lack of policies from the government). Both battles were fought on the streets, and both were wildly successful in mobilizing the public against the government (actual results notwithstanding). On neither occasion did the protesting party offer a viable administrative alternative (The Janata Party government formed of Shri Jaiprakash Narain’s movement died without a whimper).
This is not to suggest that protesting is wrong or that someone who can’t be a great prime minister should just shut up. Citizen activism has its part to play in the balance of power. The strange problem is in when concept of activism and its success are hijacked. It gives the impression that whoever can muster the most people on the street can govern regardless of who holds the majority in the parliament. It is a parallel democracy where “for the people” is taken literally to be the headcount of a rally. I am not well versed with the politics of many countries but I believe that this may be unique to the largest democracy in the world.
The problem is in the complete abandonment of governance in favour of protests. Neither the ruling nor the opposition parties today choose to use the parliament as the forum for decision making, nor are election the favoured means to oust a party that has lost the popular mandate. The chosen means of everything is a “popular” circus. But as a correspondent wrote about Baba Ramdev’s dharna, when you organize a circus, sooner or later the clowns will arrive.
The business of politicians is to make policies. This is best done by sitting down and deliberating, not by shouting on the streets. Our politics is messed up because we know how to protest but not how to govern. Our political role models did not know how to govern either, and their legendary status has left an incorrect but lasting impression that their way is the way. It isn’t.
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