The Hindu Business Line : Has democracy arrived?

ONE of the arguments the white colonial die-hards, notable or notorious among whom was Winston Churchill, used against quitting India was that the country steeped in feudalism and fragmented along ethnic, linguistic, sectarian, caste and religious lines was unfit to govern itself and would sink into anarchy and chaos once the British left. The last 56 years of Independence have given the lie to this notion.

The successes India has scored, starting from scratch, on political, economic, social, agricultural, and technological fronts have been truly spectacular. To the extent that Goldman Sachs has recently predicted that India may even overtake the US and Japan in all the parameters of growth that count.

The most amazing part is not just the achievements per se, but the fact that they came about within the framework of democracy. When the Constitution was being hammered out in the Constituent Assembly, there were quite a few members who were deeply sceptical about the wisdom of basing elections to representative institutions on adult franchise in a poor and undeveloped country where 65 per cent of the people were illiterate. And yet, it is these people in villages, hamlets, towns and cities who have brought glory to Indian democracy. Indeed, they have shown a degree of discernment and sophistication that put to shade the electorates of even long-standing democracies.

They have stood their ground without succumbing to unbridled authoritarianism as in the election of 1977 following the Emergency or to terrorist threats as in the case of Jammu and Kashmir. There may be divergent views on their verdicts, but they could never be taken for granted. This is borne out once again by the just completed elections to the Delhi, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

At the level of political parties, and within the political class, in general, there is still a deplorable lack of civil and cultured behaviour tantamount to a betrayal of people's faith in democracy. But there are some signs, as yet hazy and uncertain, of maturity and decency.

The heartwarming images of a Mamta Banerji touching Jyoti Basu's feet on being elected to Parliament, a Digvijay Singh graciously conceding defeat and greeting Uma Bharathi with a smile, an Ashok Gehlot attending the swearing-in of Vasundhara Raje and a Vajpayee paying tribute to Sonia Gandhi's role as Opposition leader while on a foreign tour have more than symbolic significance. They help in educating the party cadres right down to the grass roots that mutual respect among those holding opposing views is the hall mark of democratic political system and crudeness or cut-throatism have no place in human relations in any walk of life.

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