Immediately after the

ratification of the Constitution

of India in our Constituent

Assembly on November 26,

1949, this noble document’s

architect B R Ambedkar said :

On the 26th of January 1950, we

are going to enter into a life of

contradictions. In

politics, we shall

have equality, and

in social and

economic life we will

have inequality. In

politics, we will be

recognizing the

principle of one man

one vote and one

vote one value. In

social and economic

life, we shall by

reason of our social

and economic

structure, continue

to deny the principle

of one man one

value. How long

shall we continue to

live this life of

contradictions?

How long shall we continue to

deny equality in our social and

economic life? If we continue to

deny it for long, we will only put

our political democracy in peril.

We must remove this

contradiction at the earliest

possible moment or else those

who suffer from inequality will

blow up the structure of political

democracy which this Assembly

has so laboriously, built up.

Regrettably, the successive

dispensations in New Delhi and our

State capitals have cared little to

honour the spirit of the Constitution

and remedy such contradictions. I

have already written in this column

several times that even after 68 years

of our independence the evils of

poverty, illiteracy , malnutrition,

gender discrimination, terrorism,

communalism and casteism have

continued to torment our Republic.

The majority of our population —

particularly, the dalits, the adivasis,

farmers and unorganized sector

workers—have continued to suffer .

We have occasionally been hearing

of great success stories about India’s

democracy and economy . The

successive governments have had

their own officials and admirers to

script such tales . The latest from our

Central Statistics Office is our

economy has expanded by 7.9 per

cent . In its recent national executive

meeting resolution (Allahabad, June

12-13, 2016 ), the ruling party at the

Centre has projected India as the “

world’s fastest growing economy.” But

all such stories have had little meaning

for the masses .

The stark fact is only the few

privileged have benefited from our

economic growth so far . According to

a study, in the fifties our

parliamentarians got Rs 400-500 per

month. In 2010 it rose to Rs 50,000 per

month in addition to the personal

allowances of Rs .45,000, office

allowance of Rs15,000, secretarial

allowance of Rs 30000 and Rs 2000

( per day during Parliament session) .

Recently, the parliamentary

committee has recommended to

double the salaries of MPs.

Economic growth has hardly

touched the life of the masses . They

continue to languish on something like

one-thirds of an

American dollar a

day. Farmers

have continued

their suicides

across the

country. Nearly

3000 farmers are

officially reported

to have committed

distress suicides in

2015 alone ( CPM

P o l i t b u r o

statement, June

20, 2016).

There is no

semblance our

e c o n o m i c

scenario would

change for the

masses in the

near future .

Some time back Prime Minister

Narendra Modi calculated the income

of farmers would be doubled by 2022.

I don’t know what exactly our farmer’s

income today is. But I calculate on the

basis of their much known present

economic condition even if their

income were really doubled by 2022,

they would not be able to

afford tomato. Two years ago , it

was Rs 15 kg per kilogram. Its price

has gone up by more than four

times already . Now imagine the rest –

the farmers’ income against

Tragedy of our Republic

Jagdish N Singh

REALPOLITIK

July 2016 Power Politics 28

Dadabhai Naoroji, Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Bose, Jawaharlal

Nehru, Ram Manohar Lohia, B R Ambedkar , Syama Prasad

Mukherjee and EMS Namboodiripad

REALPOLITIK

Power Politics July 2016 29

the possible tomato price in 2022 !

Status quo forces, highly pro-

establishment officials and

intellectuals in particular , may brand

me cynical , but I have little hope out of

our present political scenario . Gone

are the days of leaders such as

Dadabhai Naoroji, Mahatma Gandhi,

Subhas Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, Ram

Manohar Lohia, Ambedkar , Syama

Prasad Mukherjee and EMS

Namboodiripad , who all joined

politics to serve the Nation and

humanity and practised ‘simple living

and high thinking’ in their life. Now in

their place are many of their self-styled

official ideological descendants to

whom politics is just a means to amass

wealth . We all know how they gather

astronomical financial assets in a short

span of time in politics today. Yes, we

do have quality leaders like Tripura

Chief Minister Manik Sarkar. But they

are few and rare.

The dominance of unworthy

politicians in our system has not

allowed the Republic to grow as it

must. We still retain such laws as are

absolutely antithetical to the rule of

law as it should really prevail in a true

democracy . These laws discriminate

against the majority of the have-nots

who ought to be the ultimate masters

in a democratic system . Former

Communist Party of India (Marxist)

general secretary Prakash Karat rightly

suggested some time back that the

sedition clause in the Indian Penal

Code should be scrapped as it “ is

draconian and used widely against

anyone who dissents, opposes

government policies, conducts

protests.”

The dominance of unworthy

elements in politics has led to a fast

decline of our democratic institutions .

Parliament is at the centre of our

democracy . We all know the kind of

elements that have increasingly

manipulated to get into this august

House . There are many elements of

the criminal background in the Lok

Sabha today. There was a time when

eminent personalities like Dr BR

Ambedkar adorned our Rajya Sabha (

Upper House ). After his defeat in Lok

Sabha elections at the hands of those

whom he had raised, some noble

Members of Parliament supported

Ambedkar's nomination to the Rajya

Sabha . Now it would perhaps be

better not to talk about the elements

that get preferred for the House by

those who matter in the system !

The political executives at the

Centre and in the states are being

increasingly notorious for not

functioning or rather for their mal-

functioning . This has led to the

emergence of several gangs of

criminals in different parts of the

Republic . The recent Mathura

mayhem that claimed at least 24 lives,

including two police officers, is a case

in point.

According to reliable reports, the

so-called Swadhin Bharat Subash Sena

(SBSS), with over 2000 armed

militants claiming to be followers of

the legendary freedom fighter Netaji

Subas Chandra Bose arrived at

Mathura’s Jawahar Bagh in April 2014.

They piled up arms, ammunition,

crude bombs in the area. They had

done this at a place in close proximity

to the office of the district

administration and barely two kms

away from the Mathura Cantonment.

The gang arrived in Mathura from

Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district ,

seeking permission to halt for a couple

of days. They were ostensibly on their

way to Delhi to stage a protest at Jantar

Mantar. But they stayed on and

started demanding annulling the

election of the President and Prime

Minister, the issue of Indian National

Army currency, the sale of 40-60 litres

of fuel for a rupee. Our central and

state intelligence organizations must

be knowing about all this. But perhaps

our political leadership did not let the

administration act .

Our political leaderships have

continued to ignore our judiciary too.

Access to justice is a fundamental right

of citizens in a democracy. In 1987 the

Law Commission of India had

suggested for having 44,000 judges to

effectively tackle the then number of

pending cases. But the successive

dispensations at the Centre have not

cared .

Chief Justice of India T. S. Thakur

lamented in his address at centennial

celebrations of circuit bench of High

Court in Cuttuck : “Thirty years down

the line, we continue to work with

depleted strength. If you go by the

number of people that have been

added to the population, we may now

require more than 70,000 judges to

clear the pending cases. While we

(judiciary) remain keen to ensure that

judges’ appointments are made

quickly, the machinery involved with

the appointment of judges continue to

grind very slowly.”

Should not we think afresh how we

can make our democracy meaningful

and relevant to our Republic’s ordinary

citizens ? The Republic is bleeding

profusely. Let’s save it.

Justice T S Thakur

Communist leader Prakash Karat

Tripura CM Manik Sarkar

bilateral dialogue and public

diplomacy over the next five years ? I

am not very optimistic.

The Chinese communist leadership

does not seem to trust what the

Tibetan government –in- exile has said

in its occasional dialogue with the

mainland government . Beijing seems

to think the Dalai-prescribed policy of

‘Middle Way’ for Tibet’s genuine

autonomy within the framework of

the Chinese Constitution is just about

having a smart foothold in the plateau

first and then moving towards

complete independence .

As for public diplomacy, it has

achieved little so far. The United

Nations General Assembly moved

resolution in support of Tibet in

1959, 1961 and 1965. There has

been no movement forward since

then. The web of interest

convergence, mainly economic one,

between China and the so-called

democratic world , including India and

the United States, is deepening . This

seems to have diluted the democratic

world’s traditional interest in the

Tibetan cause .

was a path of enhanced public

diplomacy and dialogue with China

for five years and, failing that, 50

years of struggle. As part of public

diplomacy, his government would be

concentrating on making more and

more people the world over aware of

the continuing Tibetan predicament

and its non-violent struggle to resolve

the issue.

Sangay quoted the Dalai’s famous

mantra, “‘Hope for the best; prepare

for the worst.” He said “Our struggle

is not only for six millions of Tibetans

but for the entire struggling humanity

for democracy.”

Will Sangay succeed in his path of

Ever since His Holiness the Dalai

Lama fled off to India in 1959, one of

the highest wishes of Tibetans—in the

plateau as well as in exile—has been

to have their spiritual leader back in

the Potala Palace in Lhasa.

Generations of Tibetans have

perished since then but there has so

far been no solution. The other day I

had a talk with newly re-elected

Tibetan prime minister- in -exile

Lobsang Sangay at Dharamshala . I

asked him how he proposed to solve

the continuing Tibetan predicament .

Sangay said , “ Our government

would adhere to His Holiness the

Dalai Lama’s ‘Middle Way’ to resolve

the Tibetan issue. This is the best

policy . The Buddhist civilization has

flourished under the leadership of the

Dalai. We are not seeking

independence but genuine autonomy

. International support for the Tibetan

cause has increased over the years.

Occupation cannot be accepted.

China must see wisdom in resolving

the issue peaceably.”

Asked about his newly announced

five-fifty strategy, Sangay explained it

REALPOLITIK

Optimism of Tibetans

New heights in Indo-US ties

Ever since former Prime Minister

PV Narsimha Rao made some key

moves on the diplomatic chessboard,

New Delhi’s relations with the world’s

important democratic capitals have

been attaining new heights.

Knowledgeable sources say Prime

Minister Narendra Modi has been

adhering to all the Rao basics. This

has done wonders to relations

between New Delhi and Washington.

The annual Indo-American trade

stands at $107 billion today . India’s

defence procurement from the

United States as well as co-

development projects are worth over

$14 billion . There is increased

coordination, cooperation and

sharing of information between the

two defence forces. The Logistic

Exchange Memorandum of

Agreement (LEMOA) allows each

military to avail logistic support

facilities - fuel, spare parts,

mechanics - of the other . Two other

agreements between India and the

United States are on the anvil --

Communication and Information

Security Memorandum of Agreement

(CISMOA) and Basic Exchange and

Cooperation Agreement (BECA).

These will enable the two armed

forces to have more effective joint

command and control structure if

needed.

The Modi government must now

do everything possible to work

harder with the American

administration to achieve India’s

membership in the United Nations

Security Council, and the Nuclear

Suppliers Group. New Delhi must

also see to it that Washington

appreciates the implications of the

proposed American sale of F-16

fighters and attack helicopters to

Pakistan. New Delhi must conduct its

diplomacy in such a way that

Washington exerts its influence upon

Islamabad not to allow any anti-

India terror activities.

July 2016 Power Politics 30

Lobsang Sangay

Narendra Modi and PV Narsimha Rao