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5 May 2015

Cracks in the polity - How do the land bill, Yemen and Nepal test the Indian spirit?

Brijesh D. Jayal
To an apolitical observer of the national scene who is also the proverbial middle-classadmi and military veteran, the month of April was an opportunity to watch our democracy and governance from the sidelines. An exercise that has left one feeling, at times, deeply ashamed of being an Indian and at others equally proud.

On the menu of events that have put the nation-state to test recently have been three widely disparate happenings. The land acquisition bill has been the testing ground not just for our politics and parliamentarians, but also of the very morals and ethics by which we preach and practice democracy. The war in Yemen, on the other hand, was a man-made international security challenge that involved evacuation of our nationals in the midst of a shooting ground and air war. Finally, the devastating earthquake, with its epicentre in Nepal, that overwhelmed a brotherly neighbour, together with some of our border states, and towards which international efforts at relief are still continuing.

Since the majority of our people depend on agriculture for livelihood, any laws or issues relating to land have a direct bearing on their lives. Not surprisingly, the land acquisition bill has become a battleground for the government on the one hand and those opposing it on the other. But one does expect a caring democracy to treat a topic of such significance to a majority of its people with due sensitivity, and for political parties and parliamentarians to view it through the prism of ethics and morality rather than political partisanship.

Sadly, what one has seen is precisely the latter couched as morality. Rather than engaging in a constructive debate that the common man can judge the merits and demerits of, we have an influential Opposition leader using terms like "suited booted" and "pro-corporate government", and hurling unsubstantiated accusations against the prime minister supporting the bill to pay off corporate loans taken for election purposes. This has not just trivialized the debate on a subject vital to the future of our society, but also demonstrated little regard for the common man's intelligence.

Then, to add insult to injury, we had the spectacle of the Aam Aadmi Party, which has won a landslide mandate in the recent Delhi elections, not quite believing that it is now a party of governance and not an assorted bunch of over-zealous activists. Their rally in the name of farmers at Jantar Mantar against the land bill tragically saw one farmer, Gajendra Singh Rajput, climb a tree, shout slogans and hang to death. Whilst the sequence of events and the cause of the tragedy are subject to police investigation, what must shock the nation is that it happened in real time barely a few metres away from the dais on which were seated the chief minister, his ministerial colleagues and assorted hangers-on, pouting platitudes over the public address system. Even after news of this death had sunk in, the CM continued his tirade accusing the police of not acting to prevent the tragedy and the Central government for working against the interest of farmers.

Here was a leader whose animal instinct of self-preservation was so overpowering that having failed to save Gajendra Singh's life, he chose to save his own political skin by indirectly instigating the crowd that could well have vented its fury on the policemen nearby. The tragedy of the moment may have missed leaders of the AAP, but was not lost on the people of India as subsequent reactions in the media showed.

It did not take long for the politically thick-skinned leadership to change track as the very next day a news channel showed us a split screen image of the voluble spokesperson of the AAP sobbing unashamedly on one side, with the young daughter of Gajendra Singh composed in dignified sorrow, on the other. This single image and the subsequent apology by a mellowed chief minister were loud enough signals to portray the hollow leadership qualities of the AAP. By now, the chief minister's tantrums followed by solemn apologies are par for the course and one can only commiserate with the people of Delhi who must wonder when, and in what form, the next surprise will come.

The Opposition leader's tirade against the government in Parliament and this image of the AAP spokesperson sobbing are proof, if any were needed, of the hollowness of our democracy. Shallow individuals living privileged lives in Lutyens's Delhi, masquerading as saviours of the toiling masses and playing politics with their lives. Where some electoral winners behave like spoiled brats and electoral losers quite happy to sink the entire ship of state, purely to avenge electoral defeat or personal egos.

For someone who donned the military uniform at the age of 16, and was privileged to wear it for the next 42 years, through which the only mantra was "service before self", the absence of an ethical and moral approach to the complex issues affecting the well-being of our farmers in the upholders of our democracy makes us ashamed of being part of this sham democracy.

Fortunately, one saw hope when the Yemen crisis confronted us. The minister of external affairs informed members of Parliament that Operation Rahat, involving the evacuation of Indian and foreign nationals from war-torn Yemen, had been a resounding success and acknowledged as such by the international community. She added that 4,741 Indians and 1,947 nationals from 48 different countries had been evacuated safely, the operation being guided in the spirit of " vasudhaiva kutumbakam" or "the world is one family". She lauded the efforts of the minister of state, V.K. Singh, who personally supervised these operations and said of him that he did not work as a minister, but as a General. While Singh deserves full credit for his bold and inspiring leadership, one worries that lauding his achievements in military terms may reawaken those harbouring the Nehruvian fear of the ghost of military boots marching up the Rajpath.

Operation Rahat was possible because of the combined effort of the team of 26 officials deputed from the MEA with operational elements of the Indian air force, Indian navy, Shipping Corporation, Indian merchant marine, Air India and many others, all of which made for Team India - proof, if any were needed, of our potential when we work as one under inspired leadership for the larger good, rather than in silos for our own petty political and selfish ends.

This brings us to our response to the unfolding Nepal tragedy, aptly termed Operation Maitri. An essential quality of a leader is one that may not ever be tested: the leader's response to emergent situations. No sooner had the quake struck than it was heartening to see that none other than the prime minister sounded the bugle. As the home minister said in Parliament, the prime minister was up and running even before the magnitude of the disaster had been absorbed fully. He spoke to chief ministers of the affected states and assured support and spoke to the leadership of beleaguered Nepal. What filled one's heart with immense pride were the images of an IAF C-130 Hercules carrying a rapid reaction team of the national disaster relief force, lifting off from Hindon IAF base within four hours of the tragedy having struck.

Clearly, teamwork was on full display from the word go and we are witness to this on our TV screens to this hour. The joint press conferences led by the affable foreign secretary along with all his colleagues exude the type of confidence that is so vital for the morale of those who are in the field working under great odds and, more important, those at the receiving end of this tragedy. At the apex level, the prime minister is holding regular review meetings and the leadership is inspiring every Indian to put their best foot forward. Private airlines were ready the very first day and the entire corporate sector of heavy weights is ready to play its part in this national humanitarian effort - yes, the same corporate sector that is the whipping boy of some of our hollow politics. Here was Team India displaying its worthy potential once again. Ironically, it has taken two tragedies, one man-made and the other natural, to make one feel very proud to be an Indian.

There is, however, a sting in the tail. Even as thousands wait patiently to be evacuated from Kathmandu, Ram Gopal Yadav, a Samajwadi Party member, complained in the Rajya Sabha of the Indian Mission in Nepal not being helpful to relatives of his colleague, Naresh Agrawal, MP. Implicit in the complaint was that the relatives were not given VIP priority to exit Kathmandu. While the foreign minister was constrained to appeal to members not to put pressure on overworked embassy staff, she did confirm that the VIP relatives were back. The moral and ethical cracks between what our parliamentarians preach and what they practice appear as wide as the cracks seen on the land after the disaster in Nepal. The larger question is that even if one MP displays qualities of self before service, it is one too many. Let this be a wake-up call to all Indians to hold leaders with feet of clay to account.

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