Opinion Striking at the foundations

The other “powder keg”,though it burst on distant shores,has very close and direct linkage with our national security. It has thrown awkward questions in the midst of our internal turmoils. The concerned,have therefore,already begun to ask,pointedly and with a sense of sharp urgency: Would the government please,unambiguously enunciate what,in its assessment,are India’s vital national interests? Also,what assessment or conclusions does the government arrive at after scrutinising the Wikileaks cables? It is not good enough to say,“we will react after assessing all.” We need to know now,it is the nation’s right,more particularly when we have a paralysed government,an immobile ministry of defence and a near invisible and muted ministry of external affairs.

In the totality of the questions thrown up,this tantamounts to an unprecedented challenge to India’s statecraft,our internal and external security,certainly so in the face of this poverty of response from those that are responsible for meeting the challenges effectively,convincingly. This is not a what is routinely projected as a government versus opposition matter. It is,in reality,now almost a contest between the core responsibilities of government’s leadership and the functional integrity of the organs of state. Unarguably,a “responsible government” must have an inherent and a discernible logic in its decision making; a logic that is consistent with the nature of the challenges that we collectively face; and it must then meet this challenge by adapting political and parliamentary conventions in such a creative manner that we effectively address the immediate,simultaneously permitting a healthy growth of our political capacity to enable a broadening of the experience of our legislative institutions. This is always a slow and a gradual process,and it is always in pain that advances are made in this venture: from precedent to precedent. But clearly a decision has to always be,indeed must be,made; for to not decide is in itself a failure,and such indecisions,particularly in the face of patent wrongs are in themselves acts of gross corruption.

But what is it that lies at the core of this challenge of corruption that now afflicts us all? Not,as is commonly understood,just “money corruption”. For this is more easily identifiable,can be censured without much difficulty,of course,given the will to do so and is always the most visible public face of this ailment. But what is always more debilitating is this corruption of character of the spirit of those institutions that are meant to sub-serve public good. The current impasse in Parliament and our sense of a worsening social and political anomie in the country is,to my mind,perhaps the most challenging question that our republic has faced since inception. And I do repeat: this is not simply an opposition versus government,or a Congress versus BJP question,or even that demeaning and rather jejune verbal slanging of who is “more corrupt”. We are now witnessing a diminution of our national values,a slow strangling of its institutions. Who is responsible for this? That is the central question that 2G and fraudulent land dealings and such other acts of public malfeasance have thrown in our faces.

I reflect in silence about this present turmoil and question myself in Kabir’s immortal words,freely translated: “I searched all round for wrong-doers and found none; but then lo! When I looked inside myself I found none more evil then I.” This is not,cannot be,an exercise in finger-pointing or routine fault-finding,it is a challenge to our collectivity. For surely somewhere there is a very great continuing failure that has now corrupted all organs of our republic: “all”,please reflect for a moment on that,“all organs”. And these “all” have,in varying degrees,become corrupt and dysfunctional.

Our legislatures now stand immobilised,they no longer legislate. Surely,this must have consequences. What are they? Certainly an erosion in our collective “izzat”. Then the elected and the permanent executive,the latter sheltering behind the shield of “permanence of service” emulates the political and now excels at inventing shortcuts,at new modes and methods of extracting “suvidha shulk”,“convenience tax” — and then cheats again by not “deciding” even after extracting tax. Corruption of the judiciary paralyses the entire system of justice,it criminalises law,consequently governance in the country becomes a permanent illegality. The lower judiciary is now such an expropriatory tyranny that the citizens fear to even approach it. The fourth estate,the media,is judgmental,polemical and in Henry Kissinger’s parapharased words “ubiquitous and clamorous”,becoming a kind of a “subdivision of public entertainment,led by this intense competition for ratings”,presenting all “news” often as a morality play,in which,of course,it is always absolving itself and always being free of moral constraints. Whilst all this is happening,it is ironical that rising GDP figures and declining food inflation remain inconsequential for they are seen as mere abstractions. What is not an abstraction is the “fifth pillar” of the republic: “trade,industry,commerce”. This,too,is prey to a corruption of spirit,emulating the conduct that assails all elsewhere. And let us accept that it is corruption in this sector that provides the needed lubricant for “corruption” elsewhere.

This is now a crisis of our national character,of our national spirit,it has very serious consequences. If not arrested and reversed now,it will wound us,corroding our national will. Further governance,after all,is all about “Iqbal” and “Iqbal” is about moral authority. It is this “moral authority” of our state that is now in grave decline. Consequently,our government loses its standing,its voice,therefore,it no longer remains a “responsible government”; for it no longer commands “responsible” representation: after all this is not just a numbers game. Such a situation leads to grave diminution in the authority of “office”,the seal of governance gets sullied,its functioning sclerotic. In consequence,the executive and the political parties too then become unconstitutional autocracies,turning our democracy into a farce.

All this has other and even more telling consequences. Even a cursory glance at events of the past fortnight would inform us how “suddenly” this crisis descended. But sudden it surely was not,for it was long in the making,cooking slowly but unceasingly over the fire of political chicanery. When the poison had spread sufficiently and had corrosively induced blindness in Delhi’s political society,it suddenly descended upon us,as if without warning. But there had been enough warning,only we were unheeding,deaf,and “eyeless” in the capital?

Soon after the glamour of a high-profile foreigner’s visit,the government,seemingly in a show of decision-making (too patent,too facile) acted: a flurry of action followed on some hapless officials who had so misorganised (for they were misgoverned) the Commonwealth Games. With equal smugness,some housing racket in the commercial capital of the country,otherwise so routine,then hit the capital. But by now a session of Parliament had arrived. The autocracy of the party sacrificed yet another hapless political inconvenience,cynics smirking that his was for “different” reasons,not on account of the Adarsh scandal. But then came the game-changer,travelling on the shoulders of a petition: the Supreme Court commented trenchantly: it required the prime minister to “submit an affidavit on 2G”. This transformed the scene. Legal “horses” were suddenly changed and in midstream. Parliament,as it would and must,now bayed for the blood of the guilty. The government failed to recognise the issue or rise to the occasion,or even respond in a manner that could lower parliamentary ire. And then as if all this was arranged on cue,an avalanche of diplomatic cables descended; competing television programmes and columns of newspapers followed. Because nobody had foreseen such a coincidence of events,which is why other spectres now unnervingly showed up. And that is also why this sudden challenge to the character of our governance,a corruption of the spirit of political leadership,a loss of its “Iqbal” has become so fraught with a welter of consequences.

Diminished governance,challenged internally,enfeebles national security — this is almost an axiom. For clearly,a paralysis of governance and institutions endanger the nation’s security. We must not,cannot,overlook that India currently lives in precarious international environs. To such an environ has now got added our political and internal turmoil,such as has not been earlier witnessed. Who will meet this challenge resolutely,convincingly,and how,for when the “trumpet” itself sounds so uncertain,who will rise to battle for India. Eh!

The writer is a former finance and external affairs minister,and a BJP MP in the Lok Sabha