Open Forum

New Delhi, 9 October 2013

Election 2014

THE TALE OF TWO FACES

By Dr Chanchal Chauhan

 In the age of television and internet social pollution, faces have become the focal point as if they may liberate the Indians from poverty, misery, disease and distress. They are projected as the hope of the next five-year span of Indian democracy, if not of future of India. Two faces are being promoted by print and tele-media owned by big business houses and aped by social networking so as to choose one for the happy days to come.

 By doing so both the Congress and BJP are crushing the democratic process enshrined in our Constitution, which mentions: “The Prime Minister shall be appointed by the President and the other Ministers shall be appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister.”(Article 75) The practice of the ‘nomination of a Prime Ministerial candidate’ is the product of those forces such as the RSS who do not believe in Indian democratic system.

 The actual practice of appointing a PM in our system is that a political formation with a clear majority or support of elected members of the Lok Sabha elects a leader of that formation and then approaches the President, who if convinced about the claim appoints that person as the PM who proves a majority on the floor of the House.  

 The BJP, a Party governed by the RSS outfit, is largely seen to follow the dictates of its base-organisation that follows the fascist ideology as defined by their Guru, Golwalkar, in his early work, We or Our Nationhood Defined (1930) wherein he clearly embraced Nazi ideology with praise and submission. It is but natural that such a Party may crush under its feet any democratic norm and stoop so low as to declare an MLA of a State to be the PM-in-waiting for a great country like India with diversity of rich cultures, languages, religious practices and divergent ideologies.  

However, there is some method in this madness. India has achieved a stage of capitalist development and has now annexed herself with the tail of the developed capitalist world. The BJP long back had harped on the presidential system of governance to ape the US system of elections. It couldn’t succeed in its venture, so it invented the new method by declaring its suitable boy to be the head of Indian State.

 This new practice is not supported by any law of the land. It has, of course, its roots in the age-old ideology of feudalism. Recall that BJP’s earlier form, Jan Sangh had supported feudal lords at many junctures in Independent India, its parent organisation, RSS supported feudal lord of Kashmir State against merger with Indian union, it supported privy purses of feudal lords and still has a number of erstwhile such lords like Jaswant Singh, Vijay Raje Scindhia etc. in its fold.

 Now it has found new economic lords, in the corporate sector to support its anti-democratic declaration so as to rule Indian poor people through its ‘man’. It is exploiting the mythology of feudal times, the myth of Avatar, enshrined in the Bhagwadgita, that on the decline of Dharma, a deity comes on earth in the form of Man. In a TV footage, Modi is shown as Lord Krishna with the similar oblique message to the masses whom they think to be fools.

 On his declaration as the ‘next PM’, all big newspapers and channels used the term, ‘coronation’ in all languages perhaps. Is India a feudal State? Our Constitution mentions, “There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid and advise the President who shall, in the exercise of his functions, act in accordance with such advice...” So our democratic system lays emphasis on the collective functioning and not on individual functioning. Our Constitution does not believe in any Avatar, it is ‘we people’ who are makers of our history.

 The level of consciousness of the Congress leaders is no better. Manmohan Singh recently stated that Rahul Gandhi would be the better PM. Of course, the Congress is somewhat better than the ‘communal feudal lords’, but it too stoops low to promote similar ideas of the PM-in waiting (dynastic rule), although it has not held any ‘coronation ceremony’ with distribution of laddoos and bursting crackers.

 But this practice of declaration of ‘PM Candidate’ suits both the formations because by doing so, they can divert peoples’ attention towards faces and hide the real issue-- of policies. What is the difference between the economic policies of both the formations? Will the BJP under Modi give up the path dictated by the World Bank or IMF followed faithfully by the Congress? Will it not promote privatisation and liberalisation or economic reforms that have led to the present economic crisis world-over? Will it not dance to the tunes of the corporate sector as the Congress has been doing and the big capitalists have flourished all the time with their support? Will they not sell the public sector Navratnas to the Indian and foreign capitalists as they did in NDA regime?

 The corporate world till yesterday supported the Congress regime and got benefits by favours through various means leading to scams after scams. Now the same corporate world is fully with the BJP PM-in-waiting. A Reuter report (7 September) is worth a mention as it may expose the tale of two faces. It read: “Nearly three-quarters of Indian business leaders believe the government has mismanaged the economy and want BJP leader Narendra Modi to lead the country after an election due by May next year, according to an opinion poll …”

 “With India's 80-year-old Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expected to step aside, only 7 per cent of 100 CEOs surveyed for the Economic Times/Nielsen poll backed the ruling Congress party's Rahul Gandhi for the premiership. Rahul represents the fourth generation of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has led Congress, and India, for much of the time since independence from Britain in 1947. His late father, grandmother and great-grandfather were all prime ministers.   

 “But after a decade in power, Congress is widely expected to struggle at the polls, as the economy is growing at its slowest rate in a decade, and the rupee's plunge to record lows has evoked bad memories of an economic crisis in 1991. After a long policy drought, CEOs are impatient for strong leadership, intent, decisions and action. Modi they seem to think has more to show than Gandhi on all these counts," the Economic Times said in its comments on the results of the poll….

 It is not only Indian corporate world that is fully on the back of Modi, but also foreign capitalists. “He is good for business in India,” says Ron Somers, head of U.S-India Business Council, a Washington-based lobby group that represents major U.S. companies in India. According to the Gujarat Government report ‘2013 Vibrant Gujarat Summit’, 121 countries attended, and Modi is seen with India’s richest businessmen and diplomats. They jointly raised hands as a packed auditorium cheered. It was a powerful image, signalling Modi's acceptance by major foreign powers and business leaders. Anil Ambani, head of India's third-largest telecommunications company, called him a “lord of men.”

So the ‘lord of flies’ of the year 2002, is now dreaming to be the ‘lord of men’ in 2014, thanks Ambani et al! ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)