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Dalai-Lama: el hombre y su visión
por General Vinod Saighal * El Dalai Lama ha sido indistintamente calificado como líder autoexiliado, el refugiado más famoso del mundo, un monje itinerante, uno de los oradores más admirados del mundo, un premio Nobel, una celebridad que puede opacar a muchas otras- pero casi nunca ha sido descrito como una figura trágica que representa una causa imposible. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aunque cada una de esas descripciones puede decirse que contienen un elemento justo o medida que se ajusta a la verdad, no ofrecen una perspectiva real del hombre. Su atracción personal, su sonrisa radiante y carismática personalidad han inspirado muchas biografías, artículos y comentarios escritos por muchos de sus admiradores en el mundo, que reflejan una genuina admiración, adulación y respeto. Sin embargo, todas son manifestaciones externas de un ser humano fascinante, de una figura semi-divina que no tiene otros atributos más que su única humanidad y humildad. El era muy jovencito cuando su país fue invadido. Si hubiera tenido entonces la sabiduría de los años, ¿habría enfrentado al invasor de manera diferente? ¿Es que acaso tenía otra opción? ¿Es que sufre por lo que pudría haber hecho? o ¿es que percibe el profundo sentido de la traición de de otras naciones que pudieron hacer cambiar el curso de los acontecimientos? India , el otro gran vecino, ya era independiente cuando se produjo la invasión comunista de China . Seguramente pudo pasar por su mente la tentadora idea de que, en circunstancias diferentes, un Sadar Patel al frente de los acontecimientos en la India hubiera podido salvar al Tibet . En última instancia, habría inventado un modus vivendi más aceptable con los chinos, antes de darles la carta blanca para que hicieran lo que querían. Una y otra vez, el destino de las naciones parece haber sido conformado según sus líderes. ¿Es que entonces los líderes condensan en su persona el destino de los pueblos?, ¿o el destino engaña a las naciones al crear líderes que siguen su mandato? Cualquiera que sea la realidad, sigue sucediendo que el destino, mientras se muestra dócil a los cambios, no puede ser revertido. Ni la historia puede se borrada. El creyente en el destino debe detenerse a pensar si el destino ha apartado su vista de él, de sus conciudadanos, o de ambos inclusive. En su arriesgado viaje, un viajero debe enfrentarse al dilema de las épocas, para lo cual no ha habido respuesta satisfactoria alguna desde tiempos inmemoriales, a pesar de los voluminosos tratados filosóficos que existen sobre el tema. Qué le faltó al Tibet en la segunda mitad del siglo XX? ¿Incapacidad de sus líderes para anticipar los acontecimientos y un plan propio? ¿o fue el destino del pueblo del Tibet ser testigo indefenso de la subyugación de su país por parte de un invasor que no mostró ni misericordia ni respeto por su cultura, aunque perteneciera a una de las más importantes civilizaciones que el mundo ha conocido. Se dice que el Dalai Lama ha confiado a algunos de sus entrevistadores- que en serio o en broma debe quedar en dudas- que él y su pueblo experimentaban su período de «Karma». Cuántos momentos en solitario habrá tenido el líder tibetano mientras agonizaba al recordar aquellos días oscuros cuando el tirano presionó con su puño por primera vez el corazón del Tibet . Y aun está ahí. ¿Cuántas veces vio la desgracia de su pueblo que logró sobrevivir tras la larga caminata hasta la India y hacia la libertad-más que hacia la libertad, hacia él para verlo en persona y buscar su bendición. Con tal carga sobre sus hombros, ¿qué clase de fuerza sobrehumana es él capaz de tener para mantener la sonrisa en su rostro cuando mira al mundo? ¿es esa fortaleza inagotable? ¿Algún día de estos pondrá fin a su vida? ¿Acaso conoce el simple monje budista, el líder de inspiración divina, que le repara el futuro a su pueblo? ¿Son el optimismo y la alegría un medio de prevenir que él y su pueblo caigan en fatal ciénaga de la que no hay salida posible, ni siquiera a través de la Karma u otra forma? Nadie, ni siquiera el mismo Dalai Lama conoce las respuestas a esas preguntas. Pero él si sabe que la misma naturaleza de la existencia plantea que la lucha misma es vida, Karma o el color de la existencia. En su caso casi no se pueden aplicar paralelos históricos. Poca gente describiría su enérgica defensa como una batalla entre David y Goliat. El se mantiene profundamente comprometido con la filosofía Gandiana de la no violencia, que es una rama de la filosofía Budista. Naturalmente, este seguidor de Buda rechaza la violencia. Ha dado una nueva dimensión al concepto de Gandhi. La lucha tibetana que él encabeza no le exige al opresor que abandone sus tierras. El es capaz de ajustarse a la situación; se sentiría satisfecho con la autonomía del Tibet bajo control chino. Hay que admirar la sagacidad del líder tibetano. Ellos tienen una fuerte presencia militar en Tibet y en varias ocasiones han mostrado absoluta crueldad. La lucha armada no tendría éxito sin el apoyo activo del gobierno de la India . General Vinod Saighal Antiguo director general de la formación militar del ejército indio . Fue agregado militar de la embajada de la Unión India en Francia y en los Países Bajos. Comandante en jefe de las fuerzas de paz en el Medio Oriente. Hoy en día ha fundado el Movement for Restoration of Good Government (MRGG) y director del Eco Monitors Society (EMS). Autor de numerosas obras de estrategia y análisis político: Equilibrio del Tercer Milenio, La reestructuración de la seguridad en el Sur de Asia, La reestructuración de Pakistán, Enfrentar el terrorismo global: El camino adelante y las paradojas de la seguridad global: 2000-2020. Sitio Web www.vinodsaighal.com. El general Vinod Saighal es miembro de la conferencia mundial anti-imperialista Axis for Peace. Los artículos de esta autora o autor April 21st, 2008 Cri de Coeur The recent outburst of the Tibetans does not fall into the category of violence or non-violence in the accepted Gandhian sense of the word Ahimsa that the Dalai Lama and many others hold dear. The Tibetans living in Tibet have felt the crushing burden of the tyrant’s heel pressed on their hearts for many decades since the Chinese first occupied Tibet in 1950. Slowly but surely they have seen the destruction of their culture and Tibet ’s environment. As if that were not enough their religious freedom has been curbed and their most holy sites and cities occupied by the Hans - civilians as well as the military. In their daily lives they are obliged to suffer every humiliation visited upon their families. They see their land grabbed, their assets appropriated and their liberties eroded with increasing severity. Their kith and kin have been incarcerated under sub-human conditions by the tens of thousands; Killings of hundreds of thousands of their countrymen has gone hand in hand. In the face of such prolonged suffering to which they see no end in sight the rage in their hearts at their helplessness and their inability to prevent humiliation to their women and children had to find release at some point in time. Had they not done so they would have gone into collective depression and become like enslaved zombies fully reconciled to their fate generation after generation, century after century, as was the case with the backward classes in India . The collective depression, had it ensued, would have had more far-reaching effect on any hope for future revival than the systematic cultural genocide at the hands of the Chinese masters. The uprising was a cri de coeur – a veritable scream from the heart signifying that their suffering had crossed the threshold of human tolerance. In their own way they have tried to arouse the consciousness of the world that seemed to have abandoned them and was well on the way to forgetting them altogether. Should anyone categorize the March 2008 outburst of the Tibetans in Lhasa and other places as a form of violence in the Gandhian sense it would bespeak a lack of understanding of the essence of Ahimsa. Even Gandhi had something apt to say on this score. March 22, 2008
©Vinod Saighal LOOKING BACK: GANDHI LEGACY FACTOR AS A BACKDROP TO INDIA'S GLOBAL ASPIRATIONS In spite of millennial domination by rulers of non-Indian denominations that came to rule India from across the seas and from across the formidable Himalayan frontiers, India ’s ancient civilisational heritage remained largely intact. Similarly, despite large-scale conversions at the hands of its foreign occupiers the vast majority of Indians continue to adhere to the faith of their ancestors. The ancient Rishis of India in the mists of antiquity revealed to the world the nature of Brahman Chaitanya (Cosmic Consciousness) several millennia before the rise of the Abrahamic religions that spread across much of the world in the last two millennia. Vedic inspired denominations had also spread beyond Indian shores prior to that, mostly in the East. But, as distinct from the spread of Christianity and Islam, the sword had no part to play in the Eastward expansion of Vedic thought and Buddhism. Nor did the pacific expansion of Indic thought lead to bitter interdenominational strife in the regions where it spread. It is important to keep this subtle but important difference in mind when examining the influence that an economically resurgent India might wield as the world moves deeper into the 21st Century. An aspect that needs revisiting is the manner in which India got its Independence in 1947, at the time when the 20th Century after having seen two world wars was nearing its mid-point. Historians in India have attributed the country’s independence to Gandhi’s satyagraha; while it may be soulfully satisfying in an age sickened by violence to believe that India marched to freedom on the frail shoulders of the Mahatma’s philosophy of non-violence, such attribution strays considerably from reality. India got its freedom as a result of Britain ’s exhaustion after the two world wars and its replacement as a global power by the new superpowers, USA and Russia . There is no way that Britain could have held on to its Indian empire much longer. The British Indian armies had played a significant role in the allied victories in the two world wars. Post-1947, had the British delayed the granting of independence, the battle-tested troops of the Indian Army – the Army that had underpinned Britain ’s world dominions for well over a century - would have soon rebelled, forcing an ignominious retreat on the British. There had already been a rebellion in the Indian Navy and the trial of returned INA (Indian National Army) prisoners of Subhash Chandra Bose had rekindled the spirit of fervent nationalism. The tinder being dry the call for an armed insurrection by a national leader would have led to a number of mutinies across the length and breadth of India . Had law and order broken down it would have engulfed the British. The two-century edifice of the British Raj would have crumbled overnight. It would have led to large-scale massacre of the British, something which was visited instead on the Hindu and Muslim communities when partition of India took place with the announcement of the Radcliffe Award in 1947. Because they left when they did the British went home in a blaze of glory with abundant goodwill for the Crown. They even saw their last Viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten appointed as the first governor- general of independent India . Such was the goodwill that obtained at the time of relinquishment of the colonial empire, that the leaders of free India went on to become the architects for the formation of the British Commonwealth of nations. Ironic as it may seem it was the British who put a Hindu on the throne of Delhi for the first time after one thousand years of foreign rule. The Hindus never fought for it. In a manner of speaking it was bequeathed to Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India by an act of the British Parliament in London . Meanwhile, M.K. Gandhi, the apostle of peace, who had propounded ahimsa for nearly half a century, could only watch with horror the large-scale killings that took place when the subcontinent was divided - into the nations of India and Pakistan . Gandhi died not long after from an assassin’s bullet at a prayer meeting, hardly more than a mile from where Nehru, the anointed Prime Minister ruled the new nation. Had Gandhi not been killed by Nathu Ram Godse’s bullet, he would have died of a broken heart, unable to bear one of the worst slaughters in Indian history, possibly the largest non-war slaughter in world history. A brief introduction to modern India ’s birth pangs becomes necessary to understand the psyche of its leaders when evaluating India ’s projected rise to the status of a world power in the 21st century. To what extent would India ’s economic might lead to military might commensurate to its geographic size and population base? Will it emulate China ’s search toward hegemonic parity with USA , the unchallenged superpower of today? Are there limits to India ’s military power projection in the current century and beyond? If so who and what set those limits? These questions that need to be addressed in the framework of the present global scene and its likely projection for the coming decades. Although Gandhi continues to form an important part of the ongoing political and economic discourse taking place in the country it has to be said that in spite of the ideals of the Mahatma being quoted reverently at most forums where the future course of the country is debated, his economic and political philosophy has not found acceptance in so far as its practical application goes. Yet, at the end, it is difficult to think of an India that completely dissociates itself from the beliefs of the Mahatma, whether they relate to governance, sustainable development, harmony in pluralistic societies, or for the conduct of nations in the global arena. It is not surprising that Gandhi continues to attract the attention of so many people around the world, both as the man and the ideals that he stood for. Unfortunately, the debate around the Mahatma rages mainly around elements that were never put into practice in the land where they took birth. Looking back on the events of the 20th century, both pre- and post-independence in India , one cannot fail to get the impression that although he did not lose hope or his faith in his ideals Gandhi might have died a disillusioned man; if not disillusioned, certainly heartsick at the turn of events. Did the bloodletting that took place at the time of partition in the land where for decades he had preached ahimsa indicate that his philosophy had failed? It did not end with partition. The bloodletting continues to this day in every part of the subcontinent where the ‘father of the nation’ traveled. The increasing hiatus between Gandhi’s tenets and the policies followed by Gandhi’s successors in India , regardless of their political leanings, raises fundamental questions. For the people of India and for people around the world there can be no perception of India , real or imagined, where the ideals of the Mahatma do not loom large. How is this contradiction to be reconciled? Because, if it is not addressed and is merely glossed over at every public place within the country and without, where the name of Gandhi is taken, India will not be able to emerge unscathed from the troubling dissonance between the precept and its practice. India having veered so far away from the Gandhi’s teachings it should have been possible to reject his philosophy out of hand and move on without a backward glance at an ideal that was considered impractical; or one that could not be put into effect in a land were shallowness, hypocrisy and untruthfulness have become the order of the day in public life. In which case, getting rid of the baggage of Gandhi’s legacy and getting on with the governance of the country in the non-Gandhian pattern that prevails should have been easy. This has not been the case. At the same time that untruthfulness and venality are in full cry, the very leaders who have propelled the country in that direction have not been able to dispense with the trumpeting of Gandhi’s legacy because of a lurking fear that should it be discarded altogether India would not only have lost its way, it would have lost its soul. Then there would be no turning back. The thought of that final break, even shedding the pretence that is, troubles these people. They know that without the pretence they would not be able to face their countrymen, not at the hustings, not in public, possibly not even in private. At a deeper level they are not unaware that a final abandonment of Gandhi would be tantamount to condemning themselves to a karmic descent too horrid to contemplate. For, no matter how immoral the lot that governs the nation, in their heart of hearts they are deeply religious, albeit in a very warped sense of what their understanding of being religious should be. They also know that in India the vast majority of their countrymen revere the Mahatma and in spite of their poverty, deprivation and misery still closely adhere to the thoughts and ideals of Gandhi. For they are the ideals of Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and so many other sages and seers who moulded the character and destiny of India through the ages. The destiny that awaited India at midnight of 15th August 1947 has eluded the country. Beneath the despair and turmoil that afflicts the land that destiny still awaits the country. India many hope might yet produce the leaders who would take it to the pinnacle that the Mahatma and the sages before him dreamed of in their quest for global harmony. The ideal, therefore, cannot be lost sight of. The ideals of Mahatma Gandhi are far too important for the redemption of India , if it is to find its feet and its true destiny. For the very same reason it is important for the world as well. It is necessary to go a step further. The reasons as to why when the majority of Indians believe in it and the political leaders profess to believe in it, Gandhi’s teachings have not prevailed in the country of its origin have to be gone into. The main reason could be the difficulty of transplanting the Gandhian ideal of the early 20th century. An alien dispensation that ruled the country, because of it being alien, was instrumental in uniting the country ideologically (toward freedom) in the earlier decades before independence. The circumstances that obtained post-independence after the partition of India were not the same. As the years went by - after the failed decades of socialism – leading to the market economy in most parts of the world, the implementation of those ideas became even more difficult. Firstly, as brought out earlier, the conditions had altered radically, and secondly, having moved so far away from the Gandhian philosophy and its economic derivatives it became increasingly difficult to retrace the steps. Having said that, the attempts at strengthening panchayati raj and the adherence to the principle, if not the practice, of sustainable development would qualify as a bow in the direction of Gandhi. Meanwhile a fundamental change has taken place in the make up of the people of India and the world. Nearly sixty years after Gandhi’s death, the capitalist model and the morality that goes with it have become the norm. Even countries most staunchly opposed to it earlier have embraced it whole-heartedly, notably Russia and China . Could people of those days when Gandhi was popularizing the charkha have anything in common with Deng Xiao Peng’s famous exhortation to his countrymen that, ‘it is glorious to be rich’. If it were glorious to be rich there would be nothing left of Gandhi’s philosophy. If not the masses, at least the political class and the elites of modern India have embraced Deng’s dictum as fervently as the Chinese in Beijing , Shanghai and Guangdong ; in many cases as strongly as the Americans themselves. Whatever be the reason for this departure from socialism to capitalism, it is undeniable that going back to the economic idealism contained in Gandhi’s writings would relegate India to an economic abyss from which there would be no recovery in the world of today. May be, when consumerism that is fast overtaking the globe makes life itself unsustainable on the planet, people across the world will start reappraising the economic philosophy of Gandhi. That is why the world is not going to forget Mahatma Gandhi in a hurry. By association India , rightly or wrongly, will benefit from that grand reversal, whenever it takes place on a global scale. If India is to remain part of the global economy, without completely shedding some of the desirable aspects of its socialist past, it must start its own reappraisal for benefiting from the vision of Gandhi wherever it is possible to transform that vision on the ground under the prevailing conditions in the country and the world. If the world has to save itself from self-destruction Gandhi’s non-violence must become the leitmotif of a globalised world, and a reformed UN structure that would make non-violence between states the norm for the 21st century. The United Nations has adopted October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi as World Harmony Day. It was possibly Mahatma Gandhi who said: ‘for my worldly needs my village is my world; for my spiritual needs the world is my village’. Jan 2008 Taking the PIL Route ARE ONE BILLION INDIANS REALLY THAT HELPLESS? A PTI release from Dibrugarh datelined November 27, 2007 stated that poachers on that day had killed a rhinoceros in the Burapahar range inside the Kajiranga National Park and escaped with its prized horn. With this, 20 highly endangered one-horned rhinos have been poached inside the park this year. While the populations of the subcontinent, notably India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have been multiplying like flies and rabbits the flora and fauna that had enriched India is disappearing from the map of the world at dizzying speed. Even if few tens of millions of the malnourished, low birth weight pregnancies were to be prevented, the earth would not be the poorer for it. (As it turns out over 50 percent of the births are duen to unwanted pregnancies; yet the political leaders are totally unmindful of the devastation that population proliferation in this part of the world is causing to the pitiful natural habitats that still remain). On the other hand, should the remaining pristine habitats and the fast dying out species like the tiger and the rhinos disappear the present generation would have impoverished the future generation of Indians in perpetuity. Evidently there is no time to lose. More pertinently, the Government of India and state governments have demonstrated their incapacity to protect the last vestiges of India’s most glorious heritage. In spite of central outlays and grants from various organizations the woeful tale of inadequately equipped, under-staffed and demoralized forest guards makes dismal reading. The self-same political leaders have no qualms in throwing billions upon billions of rupees on many unimaginative and wasteful schemes. Seeing that the government and its agencies have shown utter helplessness in stemming the destructive tide of encroachment, poaching and plundering of forest wealth, India Incorporated and the citizens of the country must step in to stop the depredation and safeguard the interest of future generations. In the first instance, FICCI, CII, ASSOCHAM, and other regional chambers must adopt the most threatened national parks and take it upon themselves to set up apex committees to oversee the security and sanctity of the national reserves. It does not mean that they will supplant the existent machinery. Their intervention will ensure that adequate equipment (including night vision devices), surveillance vehicles and fire arms are provided to supplement the existing organization. Additionally, they can hire supplementary forest guards, organized in sections and platoons, from carefully selected ex-servicemen in respective areas to provide an outer ring of security and intelligence gathering, besides physically hunting down the poachers and illicit fellers; with the same relentlessness and ferocity as the poachers and their gangs display in hunting down the hapless animals. India today tops the list of billionaires. It is possible for just a handful of them to personally take up the challenge and take it upon themselves to safeguard the remaining sanctuaries with the same zeal, competence and far-sightedness that they have shown in amassing their billions. Nov 29th 2007 by Vinod Saighal* Pakistan : L'armée emprisonne les démocrates et libère les terrorists (the army imprisons the proponents of democracy and releases the terrorists) - from a recent article appearing in Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris. The Grand Delusion It is fairly apparent from the recent happenings in Pakistan and the statements of the power players that the country is headed for a vertiginous decline. Should it be the desire, if not the design, of those in a position to influence events in Pakistan to make the country implode, then many of them are going about it the right way. ‘Many of them’ includes: General Pervez Musharraf; the Pakistan Army and its creation the radical elements; the leaders of the political parties; the sundry influence-peddlers in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi; the handlers in USA, Saudi Arabia and UK; and all others deeply mired in the affairs of Pakistan. At this point in time, i.e., after the declaration of the emergency, the single point refrain seems to be the holding of elections as early as possible; the reform agenda also includes: Gen. Musharraf shedding his uniform, restoration of the independence of the judiciary, and freedom of the press. Both the civil society and the opponents of Pervez Musharraf’s high handedness outside Pakistan would generally be satisfied if the conditions mentioned above were to be met. They hope that sooner rather than later the Pakistan Army will move decisively against Taliban-Al Qaeda, who seem to be extending their sway beyond FATA with relative ease. While the so-called minimum demands for resurrecting Pakistan from its terminal decline seem eminently sensible on paper the reality on the ground is at variance from the pious hopes grafted on to them for restoration of normalcy. Should elections, however, be held in the shortened time frame as demanded by practically everybody the turmoil after the elections could deepen the fissures and lead to greater mayhem than is presently the case. Under the emergency decree and the new powers conferred upon the army to try civilians in military courts the chances of elections being free and fair are virtually zero. The agency that has been schooled to manage elections in Pakistan and which has embedded itself deeply in the election process over several decades is the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan aided and abetted by the Military Intelligence (MI) and not the Election Commission - at least not as presently constituted. It is this agency (the ISI) that has been responsible for overseeing the phenomenal rise of the radical parties in the national and state assemblies, two of which, NWFP and Balochistan, have virtually gone under the sway of the pro-Taliban tanzeems. Again, it is the ISI that has been in the forefront of raising one political leader at the cost of the other, and vice versa, when it suited the military regime to do so. It would hardly be an exaggeration to state that clandestinely the ISI has virtually taken over the functions of the electoral bodies of Pakistan . Therefore, holding elections in the present circumstances will see the virtual extinguishment of the last ray of hope for restoring democracy in Pakistan and for preventing the country from becoming a failed state. Should the United States persist in backing Pervez Musharraf, it could lose whatever little goodwill that it still retains in Pakistan . By arresting thousands of persons, largely from those sections of civil society unequivocally opposed to the Taliban, Musharraf has further strengthened the radicals; something he has been doing all along. The Prime Backers of Pakistan take up the Challenge The principal backers of Pakistan since its inception have been the USA , UK and Saudi Arabia . The influence that the USA and Saudi Arabia wield is not limited to the military; it extends to the mainstream political class as well as the commercial sectors that underpin the Pakistan economy. Without the financial assistance (or doles) from these two countries Pakistan would not only become a basket case, it would simply go under. The functioning of the country has been so comprehensively undermined in the Musharraf years that the chances of warding off the challenge of the radical Islamists and restoring a semblance of normality seem remote. Today the only elements, besides the discredited and demoralized army, that are organized and poised to benefit from the worsening situation are the Jihadis (who are already moving out from their FATA strongholds into the adjoining areas in NWFP and Baluchistan , even Islamabad ) and the MQM in Karachi . The rogue elements of the Inter Services Intelligence are also spreading their tentacles further at an equally fast pace. In sum, at the rate at which it is going the state of Pakistan is well on the road to implosion. The situation cannot be retrieved by half-hearted measures. The USA and Saudi Arabia , supported by UK , Japan and the EU have to join hands to virtually administer a second ultimatum on the lines of post-9/11 ultimatum issued by the Americans to General Musharraf: “either you are with us, or be prepared to face the consequences”. The second ultimatum to be administered jointly by USA and Saudi Arabia should be administered to the top generals of Pakistan who support the Musharraf emergency as well as to the leaders of the mainstream political parties. Musharraf’s days are numbered. He is no longer the prime mover; power has already slipped out of his hand. In or out of uniform the General has now become a liability to the Pakistan Army, his foreign backers (notably the George W. Bush administration), as well as to the Pakistani nation. Once the ultimatum has been administered Pervez Musharraf can be removed in a jiffy. He has no fallback, other than to re-align with the jihadists. Key Elements for the Resurrection of Pakistan The ultimatum would be in the form of key elements for the resurrection of Pakistan . These will include, inter alia: - The removal of Pervez Musharraf from the scene and asylum (for him) in Saudi Arabia , USA or country of his choice. - The nomination of an interim President for Pakistan till a new president is elected after the holding of elections. The selection of an Interim President (excluding any person in uniform) would be based on a collegiate decision. The collegium for the purpose would comprise: nominee of the army; representatives of the mainstream political parties, three respected civilians (like Pervez Hoodbhoy), three respected former justices of the Supreme Court who were not party to any military ordinance or confirmation of military take-overs in the past. The collegium would be asked to choose a suitable person within 15 days of its constitution. Representatives from the US and Saudi governments would remain at hand to oversee the process. Once selected the interim president would be administered the oath of office by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in accordance with the 1973 Constitution. On assuming the office of the President the interim incumbent would issue a notification annulling all decrees issued by President Pervez Musharraf (or earlier by General Zia ul Haq) that could be deemed to be repugnant to the spirit of holding free and fair elections and the restoration of democracy. Provided that Pervez Musharraf demits office gracefully and sheds his uniform by the given date he would be given immunity from prosecution for all sins of omission or commission for the period of his take-over in 1999 up to the date of stepping down. The interim president would also restore the Supreme Court to its full bench under Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, as it existed immediately prior to the recent Emergency hastily proclaimed by Gen. Musharraf in early November 2007. - On Musharraf’s demitting office and shedding his uniform (he could do so gracefully or be kicked out) the vice-chief of the Pakistan Army, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani would take over as the Chief of the Army Staff. He would require at least 60 to 75 days to carry out the following urgent tasks: gradually ready the army to revert to its professional role and de-induct it from non-army duties; revitalize the army to first check the march of the jihadists and then restore the status quo ante in NWFP and, at a later stage, in the FATA; deploy specially selected units in sufficient strength to ensure that when elections are held in NWFP and Baluchistan the radicals who have dug in owing to their legislative gains in the provincial assemblies in the previous elections under the Musharraf dispensation are not able to intimidate voters or derive unfair advantage from rules that were promulgated to favour the Islamists. - The most urgent task of the new COAS would be to resolutely withdraw the ISI from its insidious role in the politics of Pakistan and to ensure zero interference in the elections. - The interim president, in consultation with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the leaders of the mainstream political parties, would nominate an interim prime minister for the holding of elections as well an Election Commissioner with four independent election commissioners. - The new Election Commission would be given 75 days to prepare fresh electoral roles and weed out undesirable (or partisan elements) at the lower levels prior to holding fresh elections. The COAS would guarantee the protection and untrammeled functioning of the new election commission. - The new election commission, after assessing the ground situation would announce the dates for holding elections and the period for which active political activity would be allowed to the political parties in the run up to the elections. The election commission – its neutrality having been established – would have full powers to weed out all candidates with criminal background, provided that such removal would have the endorsement of at least four out of the five election commissioners. In the case of leaders of political parties, any such adverse decision could be appealed at the level of the Supreme Court. - The mainstream political parties to give a written undertaking that for electoral gains they would not align themselves with radical elements, nor would they give them tickets under any other guise. - Finally, the interim president would ensure that the press and the electronic media enjoy the freedoms that are guaranteed to them in democracies. Pervez Musharraf is a spent force. The chaos that has been allowed to descend upon Pakistan provides an historic opportunity to USA and Saudi Arabia and all well-wishers of Pakistan, within and without, to truly, once and for all, pull the country out of the morass into which army interference and misgovernance have pushed it. Pakistan's main allies, USA and Saudi Arabia will be the biggest beneficiaries. The Army having seen its prestige plummet disastrously would also welcome an escape route to return to professionalism without losing face. An outline agenda for the irrevocable restoration of democracy and, more importantly, for preventing Pakistan from becoming a failed state or coming under the sway of radicalized Islamists has been spelled out. The agenda so outlined is not rigid or inflexible. It is amenable to sensible modifications at every stage as the irreversible march toward the democratization of Pakistan and its resurrection as a responsible member of the comity of nations is put into motion. Nov 16th 2007 Are Pakistani Generals really Mad or do they merely Feign Insanity - The Consequences Thereof "Pak Army planned 'use of N-arms" during the Kargil War" is a sample title of the news item carried by many national dailes on October 29, 2007. The item has been excerpted from the book, United States and the Global Nuclear Conspiracy by investigative journalists Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark. They cite a conversation between President Bill Clinton and the Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif eight years ago when they met at Blair House in July 1999. There had been earlier instances as well where Pakistani generals came rather close to pulling the nuclear trigger according to reports that emanated from knowledgeable sources. On occasions Pakistani generals themselves have taken positions at international forums that indicated the nuclear brinkmanship on the part of the generals in power. In the extreme volatility that obtains post-9/11 in and around Pakistan, considered by many to be the epicentre of Islamist radicalism, what should the world make of these disclosures. More importantly, what should the people of Pakistan make of the revelations that do not leave much doubt, especially based on past record, that under the sway of the military their nation is seldom far from further break up, or national suicide. For, whatever might have been the other shortcomings of the now discredited civilian prime ministers following the Zia-ul Haq era they certainly did not indulge in the type of brinkmanship that brought disaster to Pakistan on more than one occasion. Making light of the destiny of Pakistan has remained the forte of Pakistani generals. What is more, the nuclear brinkmanship, that only Pakistani generals are capable of, could have resulted in the total destruction of Pakistan. India, committed to No-First-Use of nuclear weapons has not left Pakistani military planners in any doubt that having come under self-induced vulnerability due to N-F-U, it would have no choice but to go in for massive retaliation should Pakistan choose to exercise the nuclear option. In MAD terms it means that whereas India would suffer unimaginable horrors that, inter alia, might push India back economically by several decades, the nation of Pakistan, as presently constituted, could well disappear from the map of the world on account of its geographical size and population concentrations, especially in the Punjab. In fact, India would not even be required to target the other provinces of Pakistan, seeking deliverance from the Punjabi yoke. In as far as it concerns the radical Islamists, whose WMD targetting, by whatever means, would be directed against the West rather than India, they are fully alive to the fact that a WMD exchange with India would sizeably reduce the Muslim population of the world. In addition to the casualties within Pakistan brought on by Indian retaliatory action a few tens of million Muslims in India could also become casualties due to the Pakistani actions, i.e., the Muslim ummat gets hit both ways through no fault of theirs, merely because Pakistan remains a state run by the military-jehadi combine, whatever the innocent disclaimers from time to time at the apex of the Pakistan military hierarchy. China, the all-weather friend of Pakistan, is no friend of the ordinary people of Pakistan, if looked at objectively. The atheist communist dispensation that runs China is more comfortable with the non-democratic military dispensation in Pakistan. Casualties numbering in the millions have never disturbed the sleep of autocratic regimes anywhere in the world. The Chinese have nearly settled their problems in the outlying western provinces occupied by them after the Maoist take-over through genocide in Xiniang and Tibet. They have assisted Pakistan to become a nuclear power not out of deep friendship for the Muslims of that country. Pakistan has been set up as a formidable adversary against India to serve China's geostrategic interests in the subcontinent and the adjoining regions. The latter would not be overly upset by a full-scale exchange between Pakistan and India so that India is reduced to a third-rate economic power rather than a future competitor to China's economic might. That is why they have helped Pakistan with missile technologies that augment the range to target Bangalore and the Indian IT hubs. In the bargain, should Pakistan simply go under, just too bad. In the light of the above the people of Pakistan have to wake up from their military-induced somnolence to retrieve the destiny of their country - and their place in the sun - from the military and the mullahs before it becomes too late. The question of another war between the nations of the subcontinent should simply not arise. OCT 31st 2007
"Justice being taken away, what is State, but a band of robbers". St. Augustine
Of late there has been a fair amount of debate on 'Judicial Activism", some of it informed, much of it less well informed. Judicial Activism should not be looked at in standalone fashion. It has to be viewed against the backdrop of the vertiginous decline in the probity and conduct of the political class across the political spectrum - at the Centre as well as in the States. In fact, if one were to take a sounding as to which class the people of India dislike the most, it would hardly come as a surprise if the political class were to emerge as the most despised lot. That the judiciary itself has lost much of its lustre can hardly be cause for comfort for those looking up to the Courts. Attention is first of all invited to excerpts from a talk given on 2nd August 2006 to a distinguished audience on a theme relating to national security, good governance, jurisprudence and allied aspects: "Therefore, if one takes the line of thinking opened up by the Honorable Supreme Court to its logical conclusion one comes up with the dreadful deduction that today the biggest threat to the security of India might be the political class, full 20 percent of whose members happen to have criminal cases registered against them. If the percentage as given out by the Election Commission is right then the criminal class that has entered Parliament is perhaps one of the single largest blocks, although affiliated to political parties across the political divide. Leaving the rest of the country to fend for itself the political class cocoons itself in the security provided by gun-toting bodyguards paid for by the exchequer, irrespective of whether the persons so protected have a number of murder, dacoity or rape cases pending against them. …………… In all other countries the political class comes together in the face of national emergencies. In India they come together to undermine the decisions of the highest judicial bodies in the country. In no other country in the world are the decisions of the Supreme Court - the final arbiter - overturned or thwarted as summarily as is presently happening in India". It is against this background that the debate on judicial activism should be entered. A distinguished (former) governor of the Reserve Bank of India had opined that it had been his experience that a large number of decisions at the highest levels of governance had not been taken in the national interest, but in the interests of the political parties, vested interests, or other such considerations (that did not augur well for the country)”. (Unquote) The abysmal lot of a large percentage of India’s population is there for all to see. Looking at India’s future in the face of the fast emerging global threats, what has the government done to meet these challenges? A few well-documented and incontrovertible examples highlight the national decline. The Government of India and the state governments have demonstrated their complete inability to save the flora and fauna of India – the forests are being decimated at an increasing rate; they have been poached routinely for over 50 years. In spite of spending thousands of crores of rupees the pollution levels in the Ganga and theYamuna might actually have gone up. These two rivers systems are famous for a variety of reasons. Should similar surveys be undertaken for many other waterways and water bodies the state of decline would be seen to be far worse. If left to the political class the national capital would be in shambles in less than a decade. One can go on in this vein indefinitely to show that laws are being flouted with greater and greater impunity, mostly by the legislators and people at the helm of affairs. Law and order as understood in civilized society have virtually disappeared for the common man. As if the burdens of the aam admi were not already beyond his capacity to bear the politicians add to his woes by repeated bandhs that are a nightmare for the daily wage earner. Equality before the law is more in the breach than in practice. And yet the state governments who are the biggest offenders in this regard appear to be showing extreme reluctance to usher in the changes in police functioning as directed by the Supreme Court. It is incomprehensible that full 60 years after Independence the Government of India has not yet thought fit to amend the Police Act, a relic of the colonial regime that dates back to 1861. In this sea of dreariness and despair the higher judiciary has held out some hope for the people of India. If terminal decline has been arrested in certain areas of governance it is due to the yeoman service provided by the higher judiciary - in spite of glaring lapses in the past – and the Election Commission of India. They remain beacons of hope for India; and for many other countries that have started looking towards India. There should be no doubt in the mind of the political class that the public at large overwhelmingly supports most of the judicial interventions undertaken in recent years at the highest levels. It is certainly not in the long-term interest of Indian democracy that the judiciary be brought into ridicule by all and sundry, especially the political class. Many of the political actions and decisions fall so patently foul of the tenets of the Constitution or the working of the constitution even under the degraded norms now prevalent in the running of the government that the courts have no choice but to step in. A few examples will suffice:
Other examples can be cited where political parties when in power go ahead with outrageous enactments, or promises of enactments if voted to power, knowing full well that the courts would have no choice but to strike them down. In all such cases the political leadership unmindful of the long-term consequences of their decisions for coming generations or the national interest do so in full knowledge of the illegality or non-maintainability of their actions; being clear in their minds that the courts would strike them down. Vote bank politics at the cost of the national interest and, at times, the ecological well-being of coming generations is fast becoming the rule rather than the exception. By indulging in malpractices of this nature the political parties have found the way to eating their cake and having it too. By these means they not only provoke the courts to become judicially active to safeguard the constitution or the interest of the country as a whole, the politicians go a step further and denigrate the judicial intervention so induced; and thereby pretend to show themselves to be the champions of the narrow interests whom they wish to appease, placate, or simply to perpetuate their vote banks. Slowly, but surely, the governments (at the Centre and the States) are divesting themselves of the capacity to govern, thus forcing the judiciary to take up the slack in the face of the formers’ pusillanimity or partisanship. The political class should sit back and take another look inwards, while they have the freedom to do so. By ganging up to undermine the judiciary they are on a path beset with great dangers. It is because of the benignity of the judiciary while dealing with cases of politicians at the highest levels that they continue to enjoy their freedom and ill-gotten gains. Should they willfully shake the edifice they could end up being the worst sufferers. Oct 10th 2007 To put it succinctly, the inexplicable government decision can be attributed to the 'Kalam effect'. Here was a brilliant, non-controversial, self-effacing, supposedly pliable, scientist whom the political class elevated to the office of the President. What does he end up doing. In just one tenure - no wonder they denied him a second one - he outshines the political class. His popularity with the Indian public has assumed such proportions that it overshadows the political stalwarts across party lines. In a direct election or referendum they would be relegated to being mere also-rans. The government, or for that matter the political class, is not going to repeat the earlier mistake; at least not so soon after Dr. Kalam's departure from Rashtrapati Bhavan. With her proven competence, had Kiran Bedi been made the Police Commissioner of Delhi she would have electrified Delhi by the positive changes that she would have brought in. A no-nonsense police officer with amazing resilience and inner strength, she would not have spared the political offenders or the land mafias that have taken control of the city. What is more, with the Commonwealth Games coming to Delhi in the near future, she would have been the cynosure of all eyes, especially the media - Indian as well as foreign. In the process the lady would have outshone and outperformed the two ladies who rule the roost - in Delhi and the political apex in India. Kiran Bedi would have taken the Kalam legacy several notches higher. She would have been a hands on person - a spell-binding speaker as well as a doer. Hers would not have been a ceremonial post. What is more, after retirement she might have been induced to enter the political mainstream - horrible thought for power coteries and political fiefdoms. Bedi would have represented a refreshing change. The politicians have denied Bedi her due. She might still turn out to be their nemesis. Should she go that way, India would certainly be behind her, as it was behind Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, former President of India. Meanwhile, the political class has given itself a breather. The loss is that of Delhi and its citizens.
A Critique of the Military Dimension of South Asian Security INDIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2007 - REDUCED
TO A ZERO SUM GAME For the first few decades after independence the office of the president remained non-controversial and largely ceremonial, owing to the comfortable majority enjoyed by the Congress party that produced several illustrious prime ministers. Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi his daughter, and Lal Bahadur Shashtri, the prime minister during the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, who died in Tashkent, are all respected figures of the post-independence political pantheon. The prime ministers of the day generally called the shots and the presidents simply went along. At least there were seldom any major tremors. The office of the president grew in importance and stature after the Emergency declared by prime minister Indira Gandhi consequent to an adverse judgment against her by the Allahabad High Court. Political analysts are fairly unanimous that Emergency, under the prevailing circumstances, could only have been declared by a rubber stamp president personally beholden to Indira Gandhi giving his assent. All occupants of the Rashtrapati Bhawan, thereafter, were mindful of the universal opprobrium heaped on the hapless incumbent who had signed the Emergency decree. When Indira Gandhi came back to power a second time she sponsored Giani Zail Singh, a former chief minister of Punjab and home minister in the central cabinet, to the post of the president. The electoral college went along. Giani Zail Singh did not ruffle any feathers till Mrs.Gandhi was alive, in spite of the fact that she had ordered operation Blue Star and sent in the Indian army to flush out the Sikh extremists holding out in the Golden Temple in Amritsar. After Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s assassination Giani Zail Singh immediately swore in Rajiv Gandhi, her son as the prime minister, although the Congress Working Committee (CWC) had not met up to that time to select a new leader. Mr. Zail Singh thus paid his due as a Gandhi family loyalist. It turned out to be his last act of subservience. As
the years went by under the premiership of Rajiv Gandhi, Giani
Zail Singh became more and more assertive.
He withheld
assent to the controversial Postal Bill. It lapsed. What is more
interesting from the point of view of the residual powers of
the president was the rumour that swept the political circles
after the Bofors controversy blew up in Rajiv Gandhi’s
face, to the effect that the president was seriously considering
dismissing the Rajiv Gandhi government and calling fresh elections.
The situation became so tense that the Rajiv Gandhi government
started closely monitoring every move of President Zail Singh,
lest he go ahead with the controversial move. There is no evidence
on record, however, that Mr. Zail Singh was indeed contemplating
such an action and as to what the constitutional ramifications
of that move would have been. That Mr. Rajiv Gandhi was on tenterhooks
for a given period of time can almost be taken as a fact. Going a step further, the President has the power, as brought out earlier, to give assent or withhold assent to an enactment of the parliament before it becomes law. After sending back a bill to parliament for its reconsideration the president is obliged to accord consent, irrespective of whether the observations made have been addressed or not. However, no time limit is set in the Constitution for the president to sign a bill when consent is withheld. The president plays an important role in many other cases. To list just a few: the president can query the government on the name(s) of justices for the highest court sent for his approval. The same is the case with the selection of governors of states. The governments of the day might yet force the issue, but the very fact of the President having indicated his disapprobation is taken serious note of by the public and the media, often much to the acute embarrassment of the government. The President is considered, by virtue of his office, to be the guarantor of the independent functioning of constitutional bodies like the Election Commission. The president can also make a reference to the Supreme Court when in doubt about the constitutional legality of any bill sent to him for his assent. In the light of the foregoing the exercise being undertaken by the political parties to elect a person to the highest office, who in their opinion would safeguard their pary's interest, is an exercise which indicates the pernicious influences that have come to the fore. It questions the democratic credentials of the political parties, more so the persons at the helm responsible for lack of inner party democracy. To sum up: while the President may be in a position to rock the boat or influence mid-course corrections, the incumbent in the Rashtrapati Bhavan is constitutionally not in a position to pilot the boat. (Information relating to books can be accessed from: www.vinodsaighal.com & www.amazon.com) New Delhi (PRESENTATION MADE ON BEHALF OF THE ECO MONITORS SOCIETY AT THE ECO REVIVAL SUMMIT 98 ON 9th NOVEMBER 1998 AT THE INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE, NEW DELHI). Well over a decade ago a youthful Prime Minister fired the imagination of the nation by outlining his vision for the purification of the Ganga. Unfortunately, despite huge outlays, there is very little to show for it on the ground. The dream of the former Prime Minister lies as shattered as lay his body after the assassination, before his cremation. Should we then give a decent burial to the Ganga Action Plan as well. We don't think so. As much as the Himalayas, the River Ganges embodies the very core of India's civilisational continuity and its quintessential spiritual flow - past, present and future. From the mists of antiquity, when the first great Rishis meditated on its banks, to the eternality of mankind's quest in the millennia to follow the Ganga has to retain its purity for the millions who come to worship on its sacred banks - at a myriad sanctified places along the course of "Ganga Mayya". To revitalise the turgid Ganga Action Plan we recommend the setting up of a national task force, freed from all political and bureaucratic control, along the following lines: Ø The national task force (NTF) to be constituted by an enactment of Parliament or under a directive by the Supreme Court of India or by any other means which would guarantee the independent functioning and efficacy of the programme. Ø The NTF to be headed by any person of outstanding ability. Suitable guidelines to be incorporated in the initial enactment for ensuring the impartiality of the selection as well as the competence of the person selected to carry out the mandate. Ø The allocation for the Action Plan to be made directly by the Planning Commission to the NTF. Ø The NTF to have an accompanying special court or an empowered tribunal to ruthlessly eliminate all obstructions to the speedy implementation of the Action Plan. No subordinate authority in any of the States would have the power to interfere with, question, or stay the progress of the Action Plan. Ø The NTF would be empowered to requisition the services of any qualified personnel of the Central or State governments for periods of time determined by the apex body of the NTF. In like manner, the NTF would have lien on any law and order forces of the Central or State governments for ensuring compliance with the decisions of the NTF and/or the empowered tribunal headed by a serving or retired Justice of the Supreme Court. Ø Guidelines for the standards of purity, beautification and ecotone restoration to be attained, as well as the time frames in which these are to be attained would be laid down at the time of establishing the NTF. The key ingredients of the revitalised Ganga Action Plan have been highlighted. Sensible modifications and mid-term corrections for the scheme could be carried out from time to time as the scheme progresses. It is possible to concomitantly set up national task forces along similar lines for some of the other major river systems on the subcontinent. The methodology recommends itself for application for long term flood control measures on a subcontinental or interstate basis. It must be kept in mind, however, that the setting up of the NTF for the Ganga Action Plan and other task forces of a similar nature must, from their very inception, have a proviso for winding up of the task forces within stipulated time frames. Failing which, the country will be saddled with one more massive bureaucracy which would add further deadweight to the leviathan already crippling the country's growth. A contract-based, performance-oriented Action Plan, which would automatically get wound up on completion, would be the answer. After setting up the NTF mechanism the government and bureaucracy would remain totally out of the loop. Benign over-watch could be maintained by a non-governmental oversight committee. © Vinod
Saighal (Talk delivered by Maj.Gen. Vinod Saighal (retd) at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, New Delhi on May 10, 2003)
The ‘Idea of India’ has been variously commented upon by several persons, many of them well known, from the perspective of their own background, whether they be writers, expatriates, political scientists, constitutional experts, philosophers and the like. Almost invariably the discipline or the academic background of the person putting forward the ideas has manifested itself in the views expressed, perhaps naturally so. This point is mentioned because the diversity of views of the idea of India can be seen to be as abundant as the idea of India itself. On the academic plane, i.e. from the perspective of persons who are able to put across their views to a larger audience through their writings or discourses the ‘Idea’ has been regarded, or at times discredited as one or the other label, most notably cultural, civlisational, political or an amalgam of complexities, too difficult to discern with any degree of clarity. As if these complexities were not enough, the present dialogue on the idea of India has been overwhelmingly coloured by the controversy raging over secular and non-secular debates that have taken place or are taking shape at the very moment when the world itself is being buffeted by contradictions that it thought it had wound down for a century or more. To a lay person standing aside from the debate on the idea of India, which itself is a subliminal thrust towards a perceived ideal for the person informing the debate, the idea per se becomes a superimposition of the beliefs or prejudices of the person concerned. Standing back, at some remove from a direct involvement, it should be possible for any objective observer to anticipate with a reasonable degree of accuracy the position that would be likely to be taken by a well known person putting across his or her idea of India. This statement should not be construed as a criticism of a given mindset of the idea of India, which in several cases would be seen to conform to the ideal of the person formulating the idea of India. The digression at the start of the paper is made to show that the very subjectivity attached to the idea of India makes it an imperfect ideal for being accepted as such – in case it is meant to be so – by the majority of the people who go through the humdrum of Indian existence without trying to look for anything beyond the travails of their existence. To that extent the debate remains esoteric. The amorphous nature of the idea of the ‘Idea of India’ allows for as many interpretations as there are people pondering over it as an intellectual exercise. There are so many ways of looking at a country whose civilisational base goes back to the dawn of civilization itself. An individual, or groups of individuals, who in their remoteness remain steeped in the traditions patterned on the lives of their forefathers since time immemorial do not have to delve into aspects that are of analytical, philosophical or historical interest to writers and savants, who debate these issues. They live the tradition. It is part of their very being. It is the continuum that in their mind was without beginning, flows effortlessly into the present, and by their reckoning, moves as easily into the future. It is a faith and an understanding untrammeled by self-doubt or doubt about the tradition in which they are steeped. There are others, comprising the bulk of the people of India, living in India, who may share the attitudes of their brethren, although the pre-modern type of existence would appear to be an anachronism to many people who have stepped into the modern world. Here again, by and large the new lifestyle adopted by them – by some as recently as the last 30 or 40 years – need not lead to questioning of their civilisational past or their idea of what that past was and how it is to be lived in the present. Therefore, in a statistical sense it would be only a small percentage of Indians who would be grappling with the question of what the idea of India represents to them or for them. A re-worked idea of India, shaped at the beginning of the new century through the dizzying scientific breakthroughs taking place at a myriad points on the scientific horizon, must take into account the externalities that will have a major effect on the thinking of the Indian nation, of all nations, for that matter. True, that in a country like India the external impulses are felt most keenly, in the first instance, by the power elites and the globalised elites in the metropolitan cities most receptive to them. On the face of it they do not directly buffet the minds of people in communities still steeped in the ways of their forefathers. Although the trickle down effect is slower, much slower, it cannot be escaped altogether, even by people living in remote regions of the country, cocooned in their time warp due to their relative inaccessibility. Nevertheless, since the policies being enacted by the governing elites are directly influenced - or imposed upon - by the prime movers of globalisation they will, over a period of time, have an effect on the lives of most people; whether it would be to a lesser or greater degree will be determined by the distance of the communities from the centers of globalisation. Naturally, there will be other determinants as well. * * ** The India, which now situates itself at the dawn of the third millennium after Christ, must take into account the political aspect. Modern India, after attaining its independence in 1947 has been shaped, reshaped or become misshapen by the parliamentary form of government that the founding fathers of post-independent India chose for it in the belief that it represented the best ideal for ‘their’ idea of India; for transforming it after centuries of subjugation into a strong healthy society. Therefore, the country’s political identity is based on its commitment to certain fundamental principles, namely justice, liberty, equality, fraternity and the dignity of the individual. Fundamental rights institutionalize, respect and protect the individual’s dignity and freedom. The Directive Principles go further in that they have a strong egalitarian thrust. After 50 years of what many would call national decline, at least in the realm of governance, blame is being put upon the constitution, which India gave itself on achieving independence. Rightly or wrongly, whether condemning it outright or picking holes in it from time to time, it remains undeniable that the people at the helm of affairs who guided India’s destiny through that turbulent period of the partition of India must have based their actions upon their idea of India. Something akin to what is being attempted now; except that in the present case the projections remain academic and possibly idealistic without the compelling burden of transforming those ideas into actions that could shape the country’s future for the next 50 years or more, as was the case with the decisions that followed the ideation of the founding fathers of that earlier era. It would be futile to keep harping on the rightness or otherwise of the decisions taken at that time by the leaders of the country whose stature and idealism as well as the sacrifices made by them during the freedom struggle conferred upon them an aura and mystique that few leaders can hope to achieve in the present day. Their stature as leaders beloved of their people reverberated beyond the confines of the India’s geographic boundary. It cannot be a matter of satisfaction that charismatic leaders of yester year who rode as colossi on the national as well as global arenas have almost disappeared from the face of the earth, yielding place to pygmies who lead their people through autocratic dispensations or the vagaries of the ballot box. In the latter case, often coming to power for reasons far removed from their ability to lead their people. Whether the Constitution failed India or the people who were in the ascendant over the years as educators, intellectuals, governing elites as well as the haves, failed the constitution and the country is a debate that is not likely to die down any time soon. Nor is it likely that the constitution, which for all its failings – real or imaginary - has become reasonably well embedded can be displaced or turned over in the foreseeable future. Fed up with the state of affairs, public ferment is bound to lead to changes, mostly for the good of the people as well as the country. Whether intellectuals and the educated elite, both within the country and the expatriates, will play a significant role as harbingers of salutary changes remains an open question. In the earlier centuries, men of letters influenced the thinking of their countrymen, or even the world, over long periods of time. In some cases the movement of ideas would be considered to have been glacial by present reckoning. This is where the most significant change has come in for the men of letters, the shapers of ideas, in the form of information technology. Hence, the ivory tower appellation of rarefied intellectual debates need not apply any longer, or at least not to the same extent. Diffusion and dissemination can take place very fast, with lightening speed if the mediums of transmission and diffusion happen to be receptive to the idea. The political shape of the nation is bound to play an over-sized part – overwhelmingly larger, when compared to other factors that determine the future of the country. Ignoring this fact, building an ideal that does not take into account the ground reality in which India is anchored in the opening years of the 21st century, or mired as some others might like to word it, would make the idea devoid of substance. * * * Two major streams that dominate the intellectual as well as political discourse of the country today relate to the place of religion in modern India and the relevance of the philosophy and ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. Coming first to religion, it was denied sufficient space in the political mainstream - as well as by officialdom - due to the political philosophy and the thinking of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India and the Congress Party that played an overarching role in the country’s affairs in the opening decades after independence. Moreover, it might have been a conscious effort on the part of all concerned to exorcise the ghosts of the violent partition of India. Whether the post- secular society that India became in the last decades of the 20th century was inevitable on account of the transformations taking place in neighbouring countries and their influence on the two largest religious communities in India is a question that could be taken up by future historians. Whatever be the case, religion, in its more assertive and virulent form came up front in many parts of the world. India was no exception. Even if externalities had not impinged upon India, the country would have reached the same point, almost inevitably so, by a different route. If interdenominational clashes between the two main communities had not come to the fore earlier, it was also on account of the firm governance that obtained in the first few decades after independence, due as much to the latent stability resulting from over one century of strong, well regulated centralized authority in India. It was this latent stability, added to the competence and commitment of the leaders and civil servants who governed the country in the period immediately after independence that kept a lid on many of the ills seen raising their ugly heads today in the country. Matters, of course, came to a head during the emergency. The post-emergency decline in almost all spheres of governance and in almost all strata of society has led the country to the state that it finds itself in at the beginning of the new century. That it is not a happy state of affairs hardly needs reiteration. The second important aspect relates to the philosophy of Gandhi. Although Gandhi continues to form an important part of the ongoing political and economic discourse taking place in the country, and elsewhere in the world for that matter, it has to be mentioned that in spite of the ideals of the Mahatma quoted with reverence at most forums discussing the future course of the country, his economic and political philosophy has not really found acceptance in the country, in so far as their practical application goes. And at the end it is difficult to think of an idea of India that completely dissociates itself from the maxims of the Mahatma, whether they relate to governance, sustainable development, harmony in pluralistic societies or for the conduct of nations in the global arena. It is not surprising that Gandhi continues to attract the attention of so many people around the world, both as the man and the ideals that he stood for. Unfortunately, the debate around the Mahatma rages, especially in India, around elements that were never put into practice in the land where they took birth. Looking back on the events of the 20th century, both pre- and post-independence in India, one cannot fail to get the impression that although he did not lose hope or his faith in his ideals Gandhi might have died a disillusioned man. If not disillusioned, certainly heartsick at the turn of events. Did the bloodletting that took place at the time of partition in the land where for over four decades he had preached ahimsa indicate that his philosophy had failed? Amongst others, this was the land of Mahavira and Buddha. It did not end with partition. The bloodletting continues to this day, in every part of the subcontinent where the father of the nation traveled. If present indications are anything to go by it could continue till well into the future seeing the current trends across national divides in all directions in the subcontinent. Hence, it can be seen that the ground reality is almost diametrically opposed to the Gandhian tradition that so many Indians continue to extol in public forums, be they intellectuals, social workers, politicians or economists. The ordinary Indian too continues to revere the memory of the Mahatma. When the |