Government Raj

TOI, January 6

A million mutinies are brewing across the country. People are protesting in Nandigram and Singur in West Bengal over land acquisition, in Orissa's Kashipur they are opposing mining, the fishing community in Mundhra, Gujarat, is agitating against a special economic zone that threatens their livelihood. What is common to all these protests is that the target of the protestors is the sarkar. The reason is that state governments which are acting as facilitators for private companies setting up projects have failed to take the people into confidence. There is a shroud of secrecy over project details including land acquisition and compensation. Land acquisition is a thorny issue and protests are inevitable when such projects are initiated. Such confrontations could be avoided if the government were to keep people in the loop, rather than force sarkar's decisions on them. This is unacceptable in any civilised society. Democracy is about informed choice. Government ought to provide adequate information to the public on all policy matters to enable people to make their choice. In the absence of informed debate and consensus building, democracy will degenerate into dictatorship of the state and opposition to such politics would take the form of demagoguery. West Bengal in recent times has witnessed both forms of political action. The state government has pursued industrial projects without taking citizens into confidence, while the Opposition, primarily Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, has taken a populist stand against industrialisation.

India has a progressive right to information law. However, political institutions in the country are yet to imbibe a culture of openness. A top-down approach drives planning and policy discourse in the country. Men holding office believe that the janata is an ignorant lot and should be treated as such. The mere fact that a government is elected doesn't make it democratic; it is the participation of people in governance that makes for a democracy. The case of political parties is no different. A healthy democracy is possible only if political parties have within them a culture of debate and discussion. Unfortunately, most parties in India ignore political education of their cadres. Even communist parties, which claim a culture of in-house debate, refuse to discuss public policy among cadres when in government. Popular suspicions about the intentions of the political leadership translate into a lack of trust in the government. Informed debate holds the key to democracy and political parties and people in office should provide the space for it.