Sixty years after independence, is India going Zimbabwe way? I am not a prophet of doom, nor a pessimist, but while reading about Zimbabwe where there was an upset election, I have come to the conclusion that if remedial measures in our electoral system are not taken, India will soon be the Asian Zimbabwe.
Since its independence in 1980, Zimbabwe, formerly Southern Rhodesia (British colony in Africa), has been a country of tragic disappointment, marked by war, genocide, poverty and famine.
"At the root of it all was ruinous leadership," says TIME. Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) was once the most prosperous nation of Africa. Whites plundered it during the colonial rule. Zimbabweans wrested it from the Whites. Sadly, under Robert Mugabe's 28 years of bad rule, the country was ruined. Africa's post-independence leaders wrested their country back from colonial rule only to plunder it afresh. I am afraid the same is happening in India, though no one leader is ruling us and for that long.
Long years (40 years from 1947 to 1977) of uninterrupted Congress rule, by our pre and post-independence leaders, has done no better than what Mugabe did in the initial year of his rule to his country. Fortunately, for the first 16 years, we had a great visionary leader of Himalayan stature and integrity in Nehru and some others. Unfortunately for the country, the slide began thereafter. In fact, if our country is still surging forward, it is because of what Nehru gave us by way of establishing institutions for research and development of science and technology, giant public sector heavy industries for steel, machines, medicine etc., at a time we were importing food articles. After Nehru, politics of service made way to the politics of power — of corruption and sycophancy. That culture continues to this day not only in Congress but also in all the political parties, including BJP which boasted of being different.
The result: India is one among the nations that have suffered more from the failures of the generation that led the country to independence. Thus India today is in urgent need of a type of leadership that will transform the country for the better. Such a leader must have good education, like Nehru and most of his colleagues had, ability to address the people in a simple but profound manner like Nehru, Rajaji, Rajendra Prasad, Dr. Radhakrishnan, Vallabhabai Patel and others; Vision, charisma, ability to take decision and also to implement them. And above all love for the country. Like the British. Right or wrong my beloved country.
Looking at today's political scenario, I am left wondering how could Mahatma Gandhi say that he would any day prefer a bad self-rule to a good foreign rule. And paradoxically, we are indeed getting a bad self - rule. Just last Friday our columnist Dr. Javeed Nayeem had rightly said that the greatest paradox in the world was the sorry state where Indians continue to elect the same corrupt and cut - throat scoundrels in election after election to rule over them. How true!
Sometimes, I have a feeling that we are our own enemies. The institutions set-up under our Constitution, with vision and a sense of concern for the nascent nation steeped in poverty, by our farsighted constitution-framers, were made to slide into non-performing ones by our self - serving politicians and the kowtowing bureaucracy. Sycophancy was their credo, the mantra for remaining in power or to get an office even after retiring from the office. The latest example is that of the former Chief Election Commissioner M. S. Gill, who was made Rajya Sabha member and now, in the just expanded Central Cabinet, made a Minister. Wonder how impartially he would have conducted the general election when he was the Chief Election Commissioner! Same with many judges. Also, take the case of our former Governor T. N. Chaturvedi who was the Comptroller General of India. How many scandals of NDA leaders he must have helped cover-up or their misdemeanor and misdeeds as Ministers? Who knows? Was his appointment as Governor after retirement, a reward for past services? A payback time for the NDA? Well, the list is unending. Time, a law is passed to end this pernicious practice.
Americans do take care on such matters. When Franklin Roosevelt was elected for an unbelievable fourth term as President of America (1933 - 45), the law-makers (not the voters) woke up to the danger of empowering one individual for so long with so much of power. The Congress amended the Constitution and restricted the term of office to two for one individual. Imagine what would happened if it was not so. Our friend Bush would have come back as President for the third time to carpet bomb Iran!
These institutions will work purposefully if there is absence of corruption — both in the form of cash or kind (rewarding retired officials with new offices, for example). They will work if there is accountability by those who run these institutions — be it Legislature, Executive or Judiciary. They will work only if there is transparency. Sadly we have not set a benchmark or a red line that we should not cross. Which is why all our chief pillars of democracy are tottering and institutions are getting destabilised.
Naturally, though a leader like Nehru built beautiful and great institutions, we failed to respect those institutions. Paradox is that Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi was the first culprit. The result: stunted, erratic economic growth and social unrest. These institutions will work for the economic progress of the country and good of the people only if the rule of law is respected by the powers - that - be and the people.
Cry my beloved country!
