Decaying democracy

Democracy is widely recognised as the best form of polity. The war cry of liberty, equality and fraternity articulated during the French Revolution became the bedrock of democracy. Abraham Lincoln very aptly described it as a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Mahatma Gandhi’s emphasis on morality added a new dimension to the concept.
We need to introspect and see to what extent we have strayed from the values of democracy. By and large we have upheld the concept of liberty, except during the aberration that was the Emergency, but equality has taken a merciless beating. Dynastic rule is a feudal legacy and is the antithesis of the concept of equality. I recall my student days before Independence when we used to have a large number of students from Nepal studying in Patna University and in Benares Hindu University. A few of them, including B.P. Koirala (later Prime Minister of Nepal), participated in the Quit India Movement and went to jail. In those days the Congress leaders used to ridicule the legally recognised institution of hereditary Prime Ministers in Nepal. It is indeed an irony that the same Congress has now introduced hereditary Prime Ministers in India. The dynastic bug seems to have bitten most political parties. The BJP and the Left parties are exceptions. We now have hereditary chief ministers. Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies are also becoming hereditary.
There was a time when the Congress party observed high moral standards and its leaders were much admired. The old Congress stood by secularism in a principled manner but today’s Congress and other political parties have a different set of values. They wear secularism on their sleeves for gathering votes. Jawaharlal Nehru was a secularist to the core, yet he never threw iftar parties at the state’s expense. One is welcome to throw private iftar parties at one’s own expense but it is immoral to use the state exchequer for iftar and not for functions of other religions. The practice of spending hundreds of crores of government money on expensive advertisements glorifying government leaders and the ruling party president is yet another flagrant misuse of public funds. One can cite many such morally indefensible examples.
All-pervasive corruption at the highest level is the worst example of the eclipse of morality. Bofors, Tehelka, Coffingate, Commonwealth Games, 2G and now Coalgate scams have torn morality in public life to shreds. The puerile effort to brush mega scams under the carpet as presumptive or no loss is laughable. The ruling party’s defence that the Opposition party is also guilty of scams is bizarre to say the least. At this rate an accused in a criminal case may put up as his defence that others too have committed similar crimes. What a fall in moral standards that today no one is prepared to take moral responsibility for mind-boggling scams while Lal Bahadur Shastri as railway minister resigned owning moral responsibility for a train derailment.
Parliament is the temple of democracy. The track record of several MPs is nothing to be proud of. And now they have come down to even exchanging blows in Parliament. Compared to the old days, the standard of debate in Parliament, when allowed to be held, is generally poor. This sullies the majesty of Parliament.
As for institutions of democracy, like a neutral and competent bureaucracy, apolitical and disciplined Army and free and objective press, they have all got corroded. The bureaucracy, once the steel frame of the administrative structure, is now a malleable alloy. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, a great administrator, asked civil servants to give frank advice even if that was not palatable to their political masters once the latter took a decision to implement that implicitly. Today, we have a committed bureaucracy which seems to have lost its spine and is often complicit in corruption. Field officers have no time to oversee work on the ground. There was a time when the Indian bureaucracy was one of the best in the world. Today, it lies in the dumps.
The Indian Army’s unique apolitical and disciplined record has also suffered. Recent events, like an Army Chief going to court against the government for personal gain under a façade of vindicating his honour, showing obvious political intentions while still in service and getting involved in a criminal case for which he is now on bail, has done great damage to the image of the Army. So have instances of fracas between officers and men in units or corruption cases involving senior officers and the newly acquired five-star culture, reminiscent of the Mughal Army.
Freedom of the press is a pearl of great value in a democracy. With frequent reports of both news and comments being bought, the press and now the electronic media seem to be losing their shine.
Despite efforts to have a committed judiciary and supersession of three Supreme Court judges during the Emergency, mercifully the judiciary has maintained its independence and is a ray of hope. There have been a few unfortunate instances of corruption but they are odd exceptions. However, delay in dispensing justice and the system becoming astronomically expensive are worrisome.
No doubt the overall scenario in our country today is very depressing, but it is not beyond redemption. Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan had called for total revolution. That may be too idealistic, but we should not lose hope. Our nation has excellent human resource material. What we need is honest, devoted and competent leadership at the top, capable of taking hard decisions and implementing them. All the muck at the top of the staircase has to be cleaned first. The muck down the steps can then be cleaned. We should have faith in our national motto, Satyamev Jayate.

The writer, a retired lieutenant-general, was Vice-Chief of Army Staff and has served as governor of Assam and Jammu and Kashmir