Opposition Sans Responsible Behaviour
Democracy, touted by intellectuals as the best form of governance, in fact, is one of the worst. The whole concept is based on Kafkaesque premises. It believes in the “wisdom of the majority”, ie, what the majority wants must be good for the whole. The fallacy of this premise can be easily proved. If school kids are asked whether they would rather study or play, the overwhelming vote shall be for play. Whether this is good for the kids is too obvious to debate. Democracy also depends on voting by all. Universal adult suffrage being the mantra for equality and the right to participation in decision-making. This premise presupposes knowledge, wisdom and nationalism present in all voters on attaining a certain age. This lends itself to voter manipulation by shrewd politicians and vested interests through bribe, lure, coercion and threat. Even if these manipulations are absent, the voters are auto-swayed by caste, religion, ethnicity or celebrity status of the candidate, leading to skewed voting.
Recently, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) party won all five seats it contested in Bihar without any manifesto or canvassing, merely because it fielded Muslim candidates in Muslim-majority constituencies. In modern geopolitics, government formation in one country impacts trade, commerce and economy of other countries. It tilts balance-of-power for or against a regional or global power. National elections are now events of international concern. The recent conspiracy of Muslim states and communists to oust a maverick Trump, who was single-handedly fighting China’s trade hegemony and Islamisation of America, is a case in point. The world shall soon realise the puppet-stature of Joe Biden, installed by powers inimical to American interests and opposed to what Donald Trump stood for.
The uselessness of parliamentary democracy, as a tool of public administration, is further established when one examines the role of the Opposition. There are two kinds of elected governments – the far fewer ones that work for the good of the people and nation and the more common ones that do not. The latter enjoy their term, line their pockets, promote nepotism and ignore the citizens and the state. The public throws out such governments in the next elections in a cyclical phenomenon known as the “incumbency factor”. When, however, a good government comes to power, the role of the opposition is reduced to somehow discrediting the government and making it fail. If the opposition does not do this and simply works as a “responsible Opposition” supporting the government on its every good initiative, it can kiss its chances of returning to power an enormous goodbye.
Any system that thrives on incumbency factor for enabling the opposition to come to power is intrinsically flawed, relying on negativity. The opposition in India, for the last seven years, has been engrossed in finding some weakness, corruption or misdemeanour on the part of the Modi government. Not finding anything worthwhile, the opposition has been forced to invent such charges, questioning the Rafale deal, blaming demonetisation for economic decline, denouncing Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), ridiculing Goods & Services Tax (GST) and even doubting actions of India’s armed forces against enemies. One cannot blame the opposition for resorting to these tactics. No sensible Ppposition can afford to support a good government without punching nails into its own coffin. The real problem lies in the fundamental structure of parliamentary democracy and how governments are formed therein. Further, unless voting is compulsory, most elected governments do not even represent the majority populace; just the most votes of those that voted!! In India, with hundreds of political parties and 30-40 candidates per constituency, a 25-30% vote share is enough to make a candidate successful. What kind of majority opinion of people is this?
Admittedly, monarchies and other forms of autocracies suffer from abject nepotism, leading to incompetent, haughty and boorish rulers ascending the throne. Alas, democracies are not insured against this malaise either. Dynastic rule in democracies is not the preserve just of the Nehru-Gandhis in India. The Kennedys, Fords and Bushs of USA, the Trudeaus of Canada, the Kenyattas of Kenya, the Rajapakshas of Sri Lanka, the Lees of Singapore, the Parks of South Korea are glowing examples of nepotism in democracies, globally. Not all nepotism is so prominent. Most beneficiaries occupy cushy positions with no responsibility and a plethora of perks. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, remained state governor, ambassador and India’s representative to the UN for 30 years from the moment Nehru became prime minister of India – all appointments requiring no qualification but affording a life of lordly perks and privileges. That Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit never went to college and had no training for a diplomatic or administrative assignment was no obstacle. She, after all, was Nehru’s sister!! Other nepotic beneficiaries of Nehru-Gandhi family are too many to recount.
Suffice to say, democracy is much less than it is made out to be.
Now, that the necessity for any Opposition to discredit a good government, for its own survival, is established, it is easy to understand the present outbreak of Covid in India – the so called second wave. The pandemic that has ruined many economies, killed lakhs and redefined the way we live life, has proved a boon for Opposition parties in India. Every death, every closure of a factory or business establishment, every fall in market index, every exodus of migrant labour helps the Opposition cause. Just as seedlings are cultivated in nurseries before planting in the field, the Opposition used two of the most densely populated cities of India – New Delhi and Mumbai – both in Opposition ruled states, as nurseries to cultivate and proliferate the waning Covid virus. It allowed the virus to flourish and spread by not implementing precautions strictly and not taking any action against violators. Captive news and social media flooded the environment with fake news, old pictures and videos to create and maintain panic. It hoarded essential supplies like remdesivir, vaccinations and oxygen to create artificial scarcity. It occupied hospital beds with fake or minor Covid cases, enhancing the panic. Eventually, it forced the government to order lockdown that paralyses the economy, forces labour migration and pours misery on the population. A study of the spread of the “second wave” would show its germination in Opposition ruled states – Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi, Rajasthan and Punjab – spreading to neighbouring states of Gujarat, UP and Karnataka. Notably, peripheral areas of India like Ladakh, Odisha, the North-East, island territories, etc, have remained conspicuously unaffected by the second wave.
All this to discredit a good government so the Opposition has hope of winning the next election. One cannot blame the Opposition for these tactics. The system of parliamentary democracy is to blame. These tactics do not work in authoritarian dispensations as in China, North Korea and communist countries. Despite all its ills, alas, democracy still emerges preferable to autocracies, so long as bad governments keep coming to power and incumbency factor keeps rotating the Opposition. This way, Opposition does not have to resort to anti-national activities to oust a good government.
How does it affect India’s security?
After near six decades of a self-serving dynastic rule, India has got a prime minister and a government that is working for the nation. Basic fundamentals of a welfare state – health, education, welfare, cleanliness, probity in public-life, national pride, et al – are being revived and rejuvenated. The economy, hitherto dependent on imports, is being made self-reliant. Infrastructure development, sorely lacking so far, is getting a fillip with fast-paced development of highways, rail tracks, village roads, airports, railway stations, etc. Communication facilities are being improved with broadening of roads, bridges, tunnels and making rivers navigable. The woefully and deliberately neglected sector of land-revenue records is being tackled. Every known loophole of government-abetted corruption is being plugged by reducing cash transactions, linking PAN and Aadhar cards and making them compulsory for major transactions, tightening of high-value and simplification of low-value bank-loan procedures, direct-bank-transfer (DBT) of all government monies to beneficiaries, simplification of income-tax filing system and introduction of GST have all frustrated the elite and the powerful corrupt.
There is little hope for the Congress to return to power and no other party has the geographical signature to claim a national stature. The alternative to BJP, therefore, appears to be an unhappy amalgam of regional leaders betrothed to widely divergent ideologies, coming together with the sole aim of keeping the BJP out. No polity can survive with a negative agenda or a keep-BJP-out manifesto. Such an amalgam is itself a threat to India, as has been proved by the dismal performance of the Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra. The unity of purpose required for adhering to a focused foreign policy or a concentrated drive for economic development is bound to be diluted to accommodate the demands of the constituent parties. If each prong of a star pulls it in its own direction, the star is unlikely to make much progress in any direction. Coalition is a synonym of compromise. The biggest sufferer shall be India whose best interests shall be compromised at the altar of political compromises. This has been experienced during UPA times as well as during NDA times when BJP was not strong enough on its own.
A politically weak India shall be putty in the hands of India-baiters. The emergence of India, in recent times, as a force of some stature – eye-balling China at Doklam and Galwan; looking USA in the eye on matters of trade and purchase of military hardware from Russia; not kowtowing to Russia, EU, UK or any other power on matters of national interest; shaking hands with Palestinians as well as Israelis; joining hands with the Quad to contain China’s hegemony in South China Sea, et al, shall subside when a weak prime minister takes the helm in the Lok Sabha.
The emergence of Modi as a world leader of some clout is not only a thorn in the side of the Opposition in India; it is a looming threat to the established world order established by the USA, China, Russia and the EU. Hither-to-fore, a non-entity, India appears to be throwing her hat in world affairs in an unignorable way. The necessity to discredit Modi, thus weakening India is, therefore, not just a domestic requirement, it is fast becoming an international urgency. Small wonder then, the western media, the Islamic world and the communist machinery are flush with anti-BJP propaganda – declaring it divisive, unsecular and communal. This must be seen from the perspective of a frustrated Islamic world that has failed to convert India into a Muslim state for 800 years as well as from the exasperation of the communists who have not progressed beyond West Bengal and Kerala in over 70 years.
India was born a Hindu state, on Partition on religious lines at Independence. Socialist Secularism was thrust on her by a bipartisan Congress party, via a sly 42nd Amendment to India’s Constitution during the Emergency, on 2 November 1976. This notorious amendment also curtailed fundamental rights of the citizens. Since then, under the garb of secularism, the governments of Nehru-Gandhi clan have surreptitiously eroded the Hindu edifice in India and strengthened Muslim infrastructure. The bias towards Muslims has been executed brazenly and without any limit. Driving out Hindus from Muslim-dominated areas, as in Kashmir and many pockets in UP and the national capital region (NCR); populating Hindu areas with ever increasing Muslim “refugees” from Bangladesh, as in West Bengal and Kerala; fully subsidizing Hajj but no concession for yatras; taxing Hindu temples while funding masjids; paying salary to mullahs but not to pandits; autonomy to Muslim educational institutions; liberal grant of land for mosques and madrassas; ensuring Ram Janambhoomi issue remains unresolved; questioning the very existence of Ram and Ram Setu, etc. Though born as a Hindu nation on 14 August 1947, Bharat was gradually being turned into Hindustan by the Nehru-Gandhis – a Muslim clan dressed in Hindu garb.
The fallibility and fundamental flaws of parliamentary democracy cannot provide a solution to the situation Bharat finds herself in. A compromise solution may well be the American model of presidential democracy. A leader like Modi as “president of India” would have achieved wonders for the country if he had not been hampered by pitfalls of the parliamentary system. Of course, a despotic leader like Indira Gandhi, who promulgated emergency, denuded fundamental rights and brought in self-serving amendments to India’s Constitution, could exploit such a system even more effectively.
India has a long way to go before she can become Bharat. Unfortunately for the Muslims, she shall never become Hindustan even if it means she has to endure Mahabharat 2.0. Time has come for India, ie Bharat, to revisit its parliamentary system and adopt a presidential system with some improvements from the experiences of the Americans. Democracy may be terrible but brooks no competition from even worse alternatives.
