‘The choice we make in the election will decide whether India’s electoral democracy will live up to its lofty promise’. Photo credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Its election season. In search of a winning electoral strategy to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party’s dominance, the opposition must grapple with the inherent contradictions of the fragmented politics that has given rise to disorganized political parties, but now must come together in a unity of larger purpose. The state of a nation plagued by endless divisiveness, inhuman insensitivity to the human condition and mounting assault on constitutional fundamentals presents an extraordinary situation that deserves an extraordinary response. An objective examination of the state of ‘Naya Bharat and Shrestha Bharat’ exposes the country’s dismal social and political realities more than ever.
real india
The heartbreaking poverty, exploitation and disenfranchisement of the multitude reflect the reality of an emerging India, despite a growing economy which in the absence of distributive equality has only increased economic and social inequalities. The painful reality of a troubled nation is reflected in the fate of 35.5% of the country’s malnourished and stunted children, in the stony eyes of abandoned widows, mothers unable to bear the loss of their children to drug addiction and despair. The smiles of his innocent daughters have been lost forever because of lust and violence, and the unbearable grief of a father who is forced to watch his children starve to death.
A Dalit’s thumb was amputated because his nephew dared to pick up a ball while watching a cricket game, a husband and a teenager had to reluctantly carry the bodies of their wife and mother respectively, shocking giving events. Affordable transport is a grave indictment of ‘Emergent India’… Millions of lives lost to preventable diseases, Crores of elderly citizens robbed of their dignity in the twilight of their lives, Innocent love to hatred Denial of fulfillment and prejudice, brutal killings and endless acts of custodial torture, forceful incarceration of dissenters and dissenters, and ostentatious arrogance of power present a painful truth of morally impoverished politics that ‘ deprived of its essential purpose of illuminating ‘uprooted lives’ and addressing the ‘deep caverns of injustice’.
A poignant quote from English poet and essayist Anna Letitia Barbold’s poem, ‘To the Poor’, is a window into the common burden of injustice and deprivation that points to a deep wound in the nation’s soul. “Children of distress, who face bitter reproach, … who feel the iron of persecution in their souls, whose bread is pain, and whose water is tears”.
Freedom from the ‘freedom of suffering’, in which millions of fellow citizens continue to suffer, calls for a politics led by sensitive to the moral dictates of a dignified order founded in justice and liberty. The challenge for those who seek to lead is “not only to find a fork in the historical road, but to help create it”, such that enabling a national bond in shared empathy, crossing all divisions. Since leadership comes neither to the meek nor to servants who confuse devotion to conscience for loyalty to a higher cause, the essential need of our times is leadership that expresses the collective moral consciousness of the nation. and is sustained by it. And political choices motivated by personal loyalties must face Thomas Mowbray’s powerful condemnation of those who demand the loyalty of citizens above the dictates of their conscience. “… you will command my life, but not my shame: to whom I owe; But my fair name, in spite of death, that lives on my grave,…”
comment | India, democracy and the promised republic
The outcome of the upcoming state assembly elections and the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 will test our collective resolve to energize the country’s political system and re-establish a pluralistic democracy around a noble constitutional vision. Indeed we collectively have a duty to rebuild our democratic universe around the ‘meaning of first things’ and remind ourselves that passivity in the face of wrong divides the soul against itself. Clearly, resistance against the tyrannical tendencies of an emerging Leviathan state requires a passionate involvement of citizens, especially intellectuals, who must remind themselves of the limits of interpreting the world without changing it. Nor can we forget the immutable truth of history that a pervasive sense of injustice bears within it the seeds of disruptive retribution and that the progressive progress of human civilization is graced by the triumph of right over wrong.
unfinished dream
In a political season full of possibilities, our aspirations for the country are expressed in The Line of Mercy as a place where laughter rings, where stories adorn life, where The Caves of Justice are true and deep. Where the fire of light and wisdom burns, Where love is not a deadly poison, Where freedom and kindness do not hide their wings. Realizing this vision requires willpower, patience and determination. The choices we make in elections in favor of dignity, justice, inclusiveness, fraternity, sensitivity to popular perceptions and accountability of power will determine whether India’s electoral democracy can deliver on its lofty promise.
Ashwini Kumar is a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India and former Union Minister of Law and Justice. Views expressed are personal