India's long story of failure and injustice

It is time that Indians look at themselves. India is entering the 60th year of its Constitution's inauguration this week which made the country a sovereign and democratic republic. All citizens were promised justice, liberty and fraternity. But it is a long story of failure.

True, India is a democracy in the sense that elections are held on time, freely and independently. But the money and muscle power have reduced fairness at polls. Caste and sub-caste are factors which increasingly swing the voters. The current crop of political leadership is stuck in narrow loyalties of caste, language and religion. Democracy faces danger from sectional and sectarian identities.

Criminals constitute one fifth of the total strength in both parliament and state assemblies. One criminal was brought to the House last year to vote for the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) which was facing a no-confidence motion. The rules are such that a candidate or an elected member is not disqualified until he or she is convicted. That may be the reason why a horde of criminals is getting ready to contest the Lok Sabha elections, scheduled to be held in the next three months. Corruption knows no bounds and the nexus between politicians and the dishonest is firmer than before.

The latest Rs70,000 million scandal in IT firm Satyam is partly the fallout of land contracts and other deals which the Andhra Pradesh government has given it. Two sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh also benefitted and have been transferred to a company close to the apprehended owner B. Ramalinga Raju.

One state chief minister who has been repeatedly accused of corruption is Uttar Pradesh's Mayawati, a dalit leader. She is already facing the charge of accumulating disproportionate assets. Only a week ago her MLA killed an engineer for refusing to fudge figures to give him money for Bahujan Samaj Party that she heads. She is reportedly converting black money into white through donations during her birthday celebrations.

Investigation

Justice, figuring at the top of the preamble of the Constitution, is distant from people. When there are millions of cases pending in law courts - many for more than a decade - justice is almost denied. The judges are not even above board. A former Chief Justice of India has said 15 per cent of the judiciary is corrupt. Serving Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan has disclosed that he is getting more and more complaints of judges taking bribes. Investigation agencies are already processing a few cases in which a Supreme Court judge is involved.

A retired Chief Justice of India, when asked by his colleagues to face an inquiry, has kept quiet. His sons used the official residence for their property business. The government has expressed its helplessness in the case. He should personally volunteer a probe to save the judiciary from ignominy. The process of impeachment is so cumbersome that the government is considering an amendment to the Constitution. The earlier proposal to set up a National Judicial Commission would have laid down a concrete procedure to deal with dishonest judges. But the Supreme Court does not favour such a body.

Justice also means "social justice". The Supreme Court has spelled it out to mean elimination of inequality of income and status and standards of life, and to provide a decent standard of life to the working people (Nakara Vs Union of India). Yet the fact remains that two-thirds of India's one billion population lives in poverty and one fourth goes without food at night. The fin-ancial meltdown has pulled the lower half still further downwards. Even the verdict on social justice has not in any way decreased the distance between the rich, cited in Forbes as the wealthiest in the world, and the poor who wallow in denial and drudgery of nothingness.

However, one positive step by the Centre is the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. It guarantees work to anyone who is willing to do manual labour at the statutory minimum wage within 15 days of his or her request to the Deputy Commissioner. But this only sustains the family. It does not take them out of the maelstrom of poverty in which they have been stuck for centuries.

Liberty which the Constitution has consecrated is being restricted. A new law has now been added to the array of oppressive Indian laws after the attack on Mumbai.

The new act puts the onus of proving innocence on the person arrested. It is the government which has detained him and it should furnish the grounds of arrest to the court.

The ruling UPA government has brought back the Prevension Of Terrorism Act (POTA) through the backdoor. The Vajpayee government had framed the law to detain the critics without trial. Home Minister P. Chidambaram promised a 'fair balance' between human rights and tough laws. He should prove it by precedent. Dr Binayak Sen, a member of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, has been under detention for 19 months. He should be released immediately. He is a practising doctor, detained on the ground that he was carrying messages of Naxalites to their sympathisers. Even if this is true, the crime is that of ideological difference.

Pluralism

Where the republic has failed the most is in the domain of pluralism. Muslims want to join the mainstream but they are kept away. The narrow-mindedness of the Hindu community is at fault. It is the duty and responsibility of the majority not only to deal with minorities but to win them over, to make them feel that they 'belong' to the nation and not merely to a smaller group in it, to have a sense of solidarity.

What India represents is what Yehudi Menuhin, the famous violinist, wrote to India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru: "To me India means the villages, the noble learning of the people, the aesthetic harmony of their life; I think of Gandhi, of Buddha, of the temples of gentleness combined with power, or patience matched by persistence."

What makes India's rulers more answerable is people forgive them for their mistakes and expect them to do better when they return next time. Yet no political party has learnt any lesson.

Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian High Commissioner to the UK and a former Rajya Sabha MP.