Aside from the corruption that shadows our politics and politicians, the slow pace of justice, redress mechanisms that don’t work, and the cumbersome processes involved in prosecuting those against whom wrongdoing and financial irregularity is alleged, remain as much part of 21st-century India as IBM and Infosys.
It is the latter, which glitters and races ahead with seven-league boots, that has now come around to interrogating the slow-paced, corruption-ridden country. We don’t need to look far for reasons. An example serves us well here. It has been reported that the Central Bureau of Investigation is awaiting the sanction of the Centre and state governments to investigate as many as 279 allegations of taint against various officials. The wait is already unconscionably long, and there is no word from these governments which just don’t move quickly enough even when well-intentioned, as in the case of the one headed by Dr Manmohan Singh. No wonder the ranks of Anna Hazare supporters are swelling in our major cities, and among Indians living abroad, while the government appears to be at sea.
But it must act and not look lost or helpless. It is duty-bound to defend the democratic Constitution that has brought it to office. That means delivering doorstep justice, which is not possible without rooting out the causes of corruption. It also means rising to protect our much-vaunted institutions of democracy, such as Parliament and the judiciary, that demagogues and some politicians seek to opportunistically run down in their desire to hunt with the hound now that they are done with running with the hare.
Ordinary citizens are duty-bound to demand their democratic rights from the government. But taking heart from the government’s current plight, and its inability to protect our institutions, can become a dangerous navel-gazing proposition, should things go seriously wrong. The context provides little comfort. While in some parts of the world — notably West Asia — people have risen up to demand democracy from dictators, in India we might just be gearing up to move in the opposite direction. Power drawn from the streets is sought to be mobilised to distort the institution of Parliament that emerged from the vision of our freedom fighters, and scuttle a government answerable to that Parliament. To some, this might look like using corruption as an alibi for system change if we are not watchful. Government employees were first exhorted to take mass leave. Now people are being urged to gherao the houses of their MPs, ministers and the Prime Minister to compel them to consider only the Anna Hazare committee draft of the Lokpal Bill. Tomorrow a fundamentalist group may unleash a similar demand. How wrong-headed can democracy-seekers get?