Politic | Democracy or Ruler's Games? Personal Pique at the Cost of India's Traditions

Democracy isn’t a circus of the rulers’ whims and fancies. The ugly controversy that has erupted over the exclusion of the Leader of Opposition from the official dinner hosted by Rashtrapati Bhawan for Russian President Vladimir Putin is more a commentary on the culture of Narendra Modi than the calibre of Rahul Gandhi. After all, the present-day power equation leaves no doubt about the insignificance of honourable President Draupadi Murmu’s personal opinion on these matters.

The nation knows how strained and acrimonious the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Leader of Opposition is. But they have systemic responsibilities which can’t be abandoned because of personal or political discord. A republic is not run with the pettiness or conceit of monarchy. Power isn’t a personal privilege in a constitutional system. India wasn’t born yesterday; democratisation of the political framework has been established over the decades after Independence.

There is a tradition that visiting foreign dignitaries meet the Leader of Opposition as well. And democratic traditions aren’t changed because of personal pique. Institutional necessities aren’t adopted or discarded on the basis of who occupies the position at that particular time.

Visiting foreign dignitaries are not allowed to meet Rahul Gandhi; even Putin didn’t meet him. Both the Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi were not invited to the official dinner at Rashtrapati Bhawan. It’s a protocol fraud. This pettiness is born out of undemocratic imagination.

Does Modi want to send a signal that opposition leaders must behave like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Shashi Tharoor? Autocrats either obliterate oppositional politics altogether or demand rivals of their own shape and design; much like toys operated through remote-control. If there is a Rahul Gandhi, who refuses to dance to Modi’s tune, he would be shut out of official ceremonies.

A section of the media offered this illogic to defend the government: You get as much respect as you give, implying that Rahul crosses the line in attacking Modi. Rahul may or may not have valid political reasons for his confrontational attitude – and that’s his democratic right – but the Prime Minister can’t respond by hurting India’s democratic culture. Political contests, no matter how acrimonious, must not reduce India to North Korea or Pakistan. We are governed by the constitution, not by Talibani diktats.

The silly argument that Rahul speaks about the perils of democracy on foreign soil is a shameless attack on truth and wisdom. Speaking for democracy, against suppression and violation of people’s rights, is not “anti-national”. And the world doesn’t rely on Rahul for such basic information. They see how India’s government and parliament are functioning; they see the brazen attempts to delegitimise and finish opposition; they see the political and institutional decay. Putin, who has crushed democracy under his boot, too would have chuckled to see Modi’s undemocratic machinations.

Opposition, not enmity

The veteran socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, when he fell seriously ill, asked his friends where he would get the best care and treatment. “At whose residence?” he asked in that emotional moment. Friends gave some names but Lohia refuted them and said, “At Nehru’s residence!” Socialists recall this anecdote, pointing to Jawaharlal Nehru’s greatness as Lohia was his trenchant critic, often deploying offensive language and personal affront in running down the then Prime Minister.

Independent India’s foundation was laid by leaders of exceptional nobility and sagacity. Who would have imagined the dreadful decline in political culture as the nation grew in wealth and infrastructure?

History is replete with countless examples of Nehru’s greatness. Sheikh Abdullah was arrested by the Nehru government in 1953. Speaking at his trial, Sheikh spoke of his admiration for Gandhi and Nehru. Even Nehru publicly acknowledged how Sheikh’s arrest troubled him emotionally.

Ramchandra Guha has written in his book, India after Gandhi: A History, how, in 1955, Sheikh’s eldest son Farooq Abdullah, who was studying in a medical college in Jaipur, approached Nehru to complain that other students taunted him for being a “traitor’s son”. Nehru promptly instructed a Congress minister to ensure proper accommodation and good companions for Farooq. Nehru even wrote, “Personally, because Sheikh Abdullah is in prison, I feel rather a special responsibility that we should try to help his sons and family.” The wife of another high-profile Kashmiri prisoner – Sonam Wangchuk, will tell about the empathy of the current rulers.

After his release from jail, Sheikh was asked by the people of Kashmir about Nehru. Sheikh said he bore no ill-will because misunderstanding occurs even among brothers. “I shall not forget the love Nehru has showered on me in the past. I will meet him as an old friend and comrade.” Sheikh indeed drove straight to the Prime Minister's Teen Murti Marg residence from Palam airport, when he finally visited Delhi, and stayed with Nehru for five days.

Can you imagine the reason for the victim’s love for the oppressor? The reason is that the victim understood Nehru was misled and there was no desire in him to harass or crush the Kashmiri leader. Remember that lovely Urdu couplet, “Adavaten thi, thagaful tha, ranjishen thi bahut/ Bichhadne wale mein sab kuchh tha, bewafai na thi.”

Rich tradition

This glorious political tradition wasn’t restricted to Nehru alone. Nehru doubtless demonstrated an amazing democratic trait by inducting Syama Prasad Mookerjee into his cabinet in the interim government formed soon after independence. Mookerjee, a Hindu Mahasabha leader, not only served as a minister in the Bengal coalition government with the Muslim League, he publicly vowed to defeat the Quit India Movement in collaboration with the colonial rulers.

But Nehru wanted to set aside political differences and give everybody a chance in the nation-building exercise.

But other stalwarts of the freedom struggle also imbibed those noble human qualities. Jayaprakash Narayan fought and evicted Indira Gandhi after Emergency. But he was worried about her survival after the defeat, knowing fully well that Indira didn’t make money as the Prime Minister. JP planned to meet Indira. His colleagues, particularly Morarji Desai and Raj Narain, opposed his decision. But JP declared, “Nobody can stop me from meeting my elder brother’s daughter.” JP always insisted he was very fond of Indira even as he opposed her decision to impose Emergency.

Indira, too, never treated her political opponents as enemies. Insiders know what kind of relations many communist and socialist leaders had with her. Who can forget the extraordinary gesture of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to send Bharatiya Janata Party leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee to America for medical treatment on government expense?

Even Rahul Gandhi’s personal relationship with non-Congress leaders like Sharad Yadav, Sitaram Yechury, Lalu Yadav, Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav and M.K. Stalin are well known. Many Congress leaders, including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, had good ties with Vajpayee. Rahul too has not hesitated in showing respect to L.K. Advani.

But the political ambiance was vitiated when Modi and Amit Shah launched the ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ campaign and terminated even systemic engagement with their leaders. While oppositional politics bears natural hostility towards the ruling establishment, the government showing unbridled vindictiveness towards opposition leaders was a new phenomenon in Indian politics.

Belligerent legal cases against Rahul Gandhi, leading to his expulsion from parliament and sustained harassment in the bogus National Herald case, have turned the ideological and political battle into personal enmity. This abnormality in India’s polity is unlikely to disappear soon, unless Modi and Shah understand the true nature of politics in a democracy.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.