Forbearance and Virtue

Forbearance and Virtue

They defend their errors as if they were defending their inheritance

Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

Edmund Burke, British statesman and philosopher from the 18^th century, said “Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist,” and, “the greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse,” in an echo of Lord Acton’s famous aphorism on the corruptibility of power.

In context therefore, it is somewhat amusing to witness parliamentary procedure being used as a shield to hide behind, by the very people who have outraged the public long enough with routine and boorish flouting of parliamentary norms. So much so that, both spontaneously, and as a consequence of political mobilisation, large numbers of citizens have finally take to the streets in protest, not just in Delhi but all over the country, led by an erstwhile army driver inspired by the Mahatma and  his methods.

In the midst of the extensive and most commendable media coverage, one can almost see the manthan, the churning of the political discourse, with the possibility of a distinct shifting of gears. This is what happened economically, and irrevocably, in 1991 and may be happening, in the political context, today. And since the political classes are under attack, they are scrambling to find consensus and common ground amongst themselves.

Mr. Varun Gandhi, strangely, the only MP to visit the Ramlila Grounds to see what was going on for himself, described it, in pointedly dulcet tones, as a milestone and turning point that will be in the political history books 25 years from now.

This young man of 31, educated briefly at the London School of Economics, who may have come of age at last, may also have realised something profound, in the very midst of the cacophony and multiple versions of the Lokpal Bill jostling for political space. He too looks at this protest not so much as an anti-government matter but as one that goes well beyond what is being talked about right now, to what this popular movement actually stands for. It stands for change in the way things must be done by politicians in future.

It was equally, if not more of a pleasure, to listen to Mr. Arun Jaitley’s broad spectrum speech on the multifarious ways and means of nearly institutionalised corruption on the part of the system. He spoke in the Rajya Sabha on the 24^th of August 2011, broadcast live on most of our English news channels.

Mr. Jaitley is probably the most articulate, modern and cerebral amongst the top leadership of the BJP, particularly in English. His passionate delivery and well reasoned arguments are made with the finesse of a top-notch legal luminary that he is, and this brings great lustre to his role as the Leader of the Opposition in the upper house.

There is something of Obama at the hustings about his style, that suggests he could do very well as the international face of the BJP at the next general elections, rather than confining himself to back-room strategies as an  in-charge of the election campaigns in various states.

Along with Mr. Narendra Modi, the great “NaMo”, with his tremendous governance skills and overwhelming grass-roots support in his home state of Gujarat, you’ve probably got the new avatar of the erstwhile Vajpayee-Advani team that took the BJP from two seats in parliament, namely their own, to power for a full-term, and  thereafter on to being the principal Opposition and ruling alliance in several significant states around the country.

Certainly this duo has relative youth and vigour on its side, and both are also seasoned players at the forefront of their party administration. The third member of what could be a winning team, with a view to carrying along the NDA allies, while drawing others into the fold, should probably be Mr. Nitish Kumar, a proven success in his home state of Bihar.

Ironically, he too is in the NaMo mould when it comes to governance, but without the taint of alleged communal bias in his image. Bihar, of course, has a large and eligible minority voting population, and it has been important for Mr. Kumar to pass muster with this sizable constituency. In addition, as Mr. Kumar is a leading light of the JDU and indeed the NDA, and not the BJP, he can be very useful in the Opposition bid for power in 2014.

As for the ruling UPA, much of their aam aadmi plank has been eroded, both by inflation, and the humungous parade of corruption scandals following each other like floats in a Brazilian carnival. Besides, there is a generational shift afoot in the ruling family but the burden of experience still lies with seasoned cabinet ministers and party satraps decades older than the heir apparent and his junior ministering contemporaries.

It is going to be interesting to see how the Congress Party manages its contradictions in this regard, and its effective transition to team Rahul Gandhi. Courtiers can’t hack it at the polls, and stalwarts will not do so at the expense of their self-respect and power.

We have seen the grand old party languishing for many years in the wilderness after the passing of Mr. Rajiv Gandhi till Mrs. Sonia Gandhi came to head the Congress Party apparatus. And this is still the salutary writing on the wall.

In the paralysis of governance and political confusion at present, it is also becoming increasingly obscure as to what the priorities of UPA II are. It is no longer the aam aadmi, because nothing is being done for his benefit, so what is it?

As for a possible UPA III, like a sequel to a sequel of a badly scripted franchise, there is some real doubt now on whether it can attract large audiences to the box office/ballot box.

The larger point however is to do with the Burkian concept of forbearance or patient self-control when it comes to the oppression of the people’s aspirations, however inchoate. Law and order cannot descend into a Stalinist pogrom time and again and certainly not in our main cities while showing the face of ahimsa to Maoists, seditionists and separatists! Our Home Ministry has a quixotic idea of firmness if it wants to negotiate with savage and murderous Maoists and stamp on peaceful protestors under the full gaze of our national media.

As for the Burkian notion of Virtue, it is the public that is trying to teach the political classes the meaning of the word afresh. They truly think the politicos have forgotten its meaning, and so they can ignore this only at their own peril.

(1,098 words)

26^th August, 2011

Gautam Mukherjee

Published in The Pioneer Edit Page Leader Edit on September 2, 2011 as "The game has changed" and online at www.dailypioneer.com simultaneously.

The joys of the forward-looking statement

The joys of the forward-looking statement

One of the joys of writing pieces for the Edit and Op-ed Pages of a national daily broadsheet, is the facility and licence to make “forward looking statements”.

During my decades in corporate life, it was something of a taboo to do so with regard to the affairs of public limited companies. The fear was that it would cause sharp-hearing punters and heavier-duty investors to trade on the listed stock of the company based on such pronouncements, which could provide a straws-in-the-wind reckoning on which way it was likely to lean in the future, and what profits could be made by speculating on such inclination.

In America and the West, and lately in India, the procedure, hallowed and admired once in financial market circles for the derring-do initiative it showed, is now anathema, and labelled a criminal offence. “Insider trading” attracts the punishment of instant dismissal and criminal prosecution. If convicted, it will tend to get one fairly long jail sentences too.

Plus, there were the hierarchical requirements which specified who was or wasn’t an “authorised spokesman”, and just what he or she was authorised to speak or issue written statements on. Even top brass were not immune to such restrictions, on the principle one always has to serve somebody. Of course, they could also feign ignorance of lowly operational matters when it suited them, but that is quite another matter.  

Then again, all the information and persuasive pitching, was an attempt at opinion formation, which is also the objective of senior journalists and their not so distant cousins,  the politicos. The urgent messaging seeks to influence and convert, via the medium of the well-written or well-spoken word, timed well too, and accompanied wherever possible, by relevant images.

Otherwise, it would just be so much reportage, and though it is eminently possible to slant reports to suit one’s world view, editorial writing and appearing on TV talk-shows provides a rather freer format to hold forth according to one’s persuasion. And long has it been known that fancy oratory can certainly give birth to the occasional good idea too.

Politics, with its proximity to power via the EVM (electronic voting machine), has the inside track on this declamatory process in theory, necessary for the all-important gathering of votes, along with a liberal use of monetary and other inducements.

But, it is seen that too much of the political messaging in India lately is about feint and parry, essentially defensive manoeuvre, minimalistic in scope, and very little by way of the expected thrust of leadership and the grand sweep of vision.  Our Prime Minister, for example, seems reluctant to voice his opinions altogether, as if expecting to be ridiculed in the midst of his chaotic governance. When he comes out to speak to the public or the media, he gives the clear impression that he is doing so under pressure from his party.

In this prevailing climate of drift, most committed commentators sound like apologists of the UPA or the Opposition as the case may be, or indeed the Left, who uniquely manage to appear opposed to whatever is going on, whether they are in formal support of the Government, any issue, or not.

But with all this caginess as the prevailing order, it makes for a dreary narrative that rarely takes the India story or plot-line forward for the hopeful. That we are going through tough economic times both at home and globally does not help either.  

Civil Society comes across, alas, as mostly naïve, with a great deal of fury and thunder that still isn’t tantamount to effective intervention, though Mr. Anna Hazare may prove this perception wrong yet. At least it is trying to do something to clean up the mess, and for that intention and effort it deserves appreciation from those who do much less.

And to carry the corporate analogy forward, politics does not actually destabilise the polity with its manifestoes, however radical, even though most are rarely implemented. Election promises too are largely forgotten once in power. But the fact remains, a great deal of governance is about policy making and its implementation, and has to be both continuous and viewed from a long term perspective.

In a democracy, to find a Government that seems to say nothing at all about its future direction is both disappointing and distressing. Nothing that is, apart from occasional probing comments pronounced by the more quixotic amongst its spokespersons, aimed at shoring up its perceived vote banks. And then, there is the tactic of routine and boring denial in counterpoint to the criticisms of the populace, the media, and the judiciary and, of course, the Opposition.

Combined with a dysfunctional parliamentary session or two, even as it will be interesting to see how the political classes handle the current Monsoon session, the picture of rudderless drift and insouciant unresponsiveness is more or less complete. Not to mention the huge legislative backlog suffering from unforgivable neglect! Juxtaposed with a politician’s natural urge to be a little economical with the truth, it makes for disinformation in place of transparency.

Which brings us to the central point of the deteriorated quality of our democratic discourse. We have parliamentarians and state legislators, who do not uphold the grand traditions of parliamentary democracy, but instead trash them under the full public gaze and the media spotlight, like so many loutish schoolboys. We have institutions, set up by our founding fathers to be vigilant against subversion of the workings of Government, ruthlessly compromised by political interference, to the extent that they are more or less beholden to the Government of the day. A bureaucracy that is disconnected and suffering from the same malaise as the institutions. And we have a judiciary, also corrupt in parts, and wholly overburdened to the extent that it can barely dispense justice.

So where do we go from here? Is it the abyss of failure to implement the vision of our founding fathers, or are we on the verge of a renewal and modernisation in our functioning that will give us new hope and determination to succeed?

It could go either way of course, but the balance of power seems in favour of an electorate growing more sophisticated in its needs and wants. Much of the dissonance being experienced today springs from a society and nation in the throes of growing up. The elected representatives in our young republic will have to respond to this new and more demanding reality therefore, or be replaced by others, more attuned to the present day, and willing to do so.

(1, 096 words)

1^st August 2011

Gautam Mukherjee

Updated version of this post published as "India's road to redemption" as the leader edit on the Edit Page of The Pioneer on 20th August, 2011. Also published online at www.dailypioneer.com and featured in the ePaper and is archived under Columnists at www.dailypioneer.com