The Hindu Business Line : Wasteful rituals

WHEN the United States emerged after the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the first thing that the founding fathers did was to do away with the elaborate rituals, dress codes and titles that the British had introduced. In fact, emissaries to the Royal Court in Britain made it a point to shock the establishment there with their informal attire and manner of addressing the high and mighty such as Lords spiritual and temporal and the Sovereign himself. Even today, judges in the US do not wear wigs and are addressed as Mr Judge, the President comes to deliver his State of the Union message to the Congress without fanfare, and there are no parades on Independence Day. The US democracy gets along nicely without wasting time on fripperies.

Just one latest example of how businesslike the democratic institutions are in that country. Last month, my longtime friend from my Congressional Fellowship days, Senator Strom Thurmond died at the age of 101. He was the oldest serving Senator as also the longest (48 years) in the history of the US. In a corresponding situation what would have happened in India? The MPs would have adjourned both Houses of Parliament for a week or more and given themselves a paid holiday. (According to an official estimate, each day's sitting of Parliament costs Rs 2.26 crore!) What did the US Senate, by contrast, do when the sad news reached it in the course of a debate? The Senators observed a minute's silence and continued with their business.

Unfortunately as also ironically, India's founding fathers, among whom there were radical-minded persons such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Jayaprakash Narain, Acharyas Kripalini and Narendra Dev, Rajaji and others, who had fought British imperialism tooth and nail, succumbed to the tomfoolery of imperial rituals and modes of dress and address, and retained the foppish exhibitionism of the colonial regime. One can only guess the reason which prompted it: Perhaps those rituals nostalgically tickled memories of the pomp and circumstance of India's own kingdoms of yore.

The President or the Governor arrives to address Parliament or the State Legislature, as the case may be, in a ridiculous procession, out of step with each other, and manifesting all the disabilities of the "chronologically disadvantaged" as old persons are called these days. When the Prime Minister/Chief Minister departs or arrives by rail or plane from an official trip, the entire Cabinet, their Black Cats, escort vehicles and hangers-on see him off or receive him at an enormous cost.

C. Subramaniam, the iconoclast that he was, wrote to Presidents in office to move out of the Rashtrapathi Bhavan to a simpler abode, as Gandhi had urged, and stop the annual Republic Day Parade and Beating Retreat, which, besides proving a major distraction, were terribly expensive. Can you guess what the response was? A thundering silence!

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