India over the Last Decade

(Published in Banking Services Chronicle October 2002)

We are glad to enter the double-digit year of our publication. There have been good times and bad times. But your staying with us through thick and thin has played the most important role. It is this unhindered co-operation that has helped us all along.

Has India really changed in the near-decade of our existence? What VS Naipaul envisaged in India: A Million Mutinies Now has become more and more pronounced over the years. Aspirations of all sorts—regional, communal, casteist etc—have become more vocal. The average Indian now aspires to a goal and is bent on having their way out. Making a compromise is perceived to be a cowardly act.

That the voters have been divided on micro-aspirations is now an established fact. No political party in India can think of getting a majority of its own in the parliament. Coalition politics has come to stay. Anything “national” today means an aggregate of the “regionals”. You can clearly see the spectacle of diversity in the so-called unity.

Let us examine the cases of Kashmir and Gujarat to see how regionalism and communalism weigh heavily on the political scenario. There had been wars over Kashmir in the past. But militancy had not reared its head in so ugly a manner as over the past decade. There is no gainsaying that cross-border terrorism has wrought havoc in Kashmir. But is it enough that we get away by simply blaming Pakistan? Pakistan has been there since 1947. And ever since it has made efforts to intrude our territory through tribals and mercenaries.

My question is: What was it that thwarted its efforts in the past? And what is it that has helped it have a successful run over the past 13 years? The answer clearly points to regional aspirations. The ordinary Kashmiri is no more content with looking after a shikara and making both ends meet. He has a sense of unemployment looming large over the Kashmiri paradise. He has the grievance of having been taken for a ride by New Delhi’s self-serving politics. Such unease proves to be a fertile ground for the cross-border terrorists to breed unrest in the local populace and lead it astray.

In fact, the rot set in after the elections were rigged in the mid-Eighties. It is therefore incumbent upon the Election Commission to hold elections that are perceived to be free and fair. JM Lyngdoh, the Chief Election Commissioner, may be justified in dismissing foreign observers monitoring the Jammu and Kashmir polls. He proudly said: “The days of the white man telling natives what to do and how are long past.” But at the same time he must ensure that the elections get proper international coverage so that our diplomatic efforts get a further boost.

Lyngdoh will have to walk a tightrope in ensuring free and fair elections. On the one hand, it must be seen that the terrorists do not intimidate the voters. On the other hand, the government machinery should not make people vote by force, thereby giving birth to allegations of rigging. The policy has to be: “Encourage the voter, see that he does not get intimidated, but do not force him.”

Coming to Gujarat, whether it was the Godhra massacre or its aftermath, the communal cauldron must have been seething for long. Even if the massacre was not pre-planned, a communal flashpoint must have existed which politicians took advantage of. The rise of Hindutva was itself an attempt to assert the aspirations of the majority community.

Such aspirations, however, do not work in isolation. They set the juggernaut of political and social forces rolling. This leads to an intense process of churning, often creating turmoil before assuming a renewed, refined, redefined stability.
Let us hope we stay there for long to chronicle the changing times. Let us hope we serve you and the succeeding generations to your satisfaction.