If you believe a particular Nation is 'unnatural' you would, quite naturally, take a dim view of its people and pray that God ' Confound their politics' and 'Frustrate their knavish tricks'. One way this is achieved is by their having a hung parliament.
The always ludicrous Ram Guha- who thinks India is 'unnatural' writes in Scroll-
Some months before the 2009 general elections, I wrote an essay for a Delhi magazine outlining a wish-list of four things I hoped for to reinvigorate the democratic process in India.
This would involve putting gangsters in jail and disqualifying the fuck out of their wives or girlfriends or Mummies or whatever.
First, I wanted “a Congress that is not wholly beholden to the dynasty”.
There is no Congress which is not dynastic- look at the Pawars' NCP or Mamta's TMC or the Reddy's YSR Congress- because factionalism prevails unless there is an 'uncorrelated asymmetry' (e.g being the widow or son of the last leader) which determines who the ruler must be.
Second, I wished for a Bharatiya Janata Party that distanced itself from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its idea of a Hindu rashtra.
In which case it would be unelectable. Hindus are cool with Hindu rashtra. The RSS is considered decent but a bit dim. But Modi isn't dim and he can promote on the basis of merit. Also, his Party doesn't have to pretend to lurve terrorists. It has to pretend it will kill them with vim and vigor.
Third, I asked for “a united and reform-oriented Left”
which is impossible. The Left has always been highly factionalized. The one thing they agree on is that Reform is bad. Revolution is good.
that would eschew violence altogether while also abandoning its faith in state control of the economy.
Why not suggest that the Indian Left die their hand blonde and dress up like Margaret Thatcher?
Finally, I wished for the creation of a new party altogether, this “based on the aspirations of the expanding middle class”, a party that would “be open to all regardless of caste or religion, and promote policies that are likewise not oriented to a particular sect or ethnic group”.
Oddly enough, this turned out to be the British Tory Party. Still, it would be nice if India could have a Party which was not oriented towards any Indian ethnicity or sect.
have learned enough by now not to ask – or hope – for the Congress to abandon the Gandhis, for the BJP to delink itself from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, for the Indian Left to turn its back on Mao and Lenin, for the Aam Aadmi Party to become some sort of desi clone of the forward-looking, environmentally responsible, and pro-feminist Green Party of Germany.
But that party is super useless. Kejriwal, whatever his faults, isn't useless. If he can improve Delhi's Schools he deserves to stay in power.
A fresh general election is less than a year away. Let me, in anticipation of that major event, offer a fresh wish-list, this altogether more modest than the last one. My hope now is that no single party should get a majority of seats in the Lok Sabha;
This is the worst possible outcome. Naturally, Guha picks it.
indeed, that the largest single party should fall substantially short of a majority.
Lalu as Railway Minister. Raja at Telecoms. Let the country be looted till the IMF has to intervene.
For while our current prime minister is authoritarian by instinct, this unsalutary aspect of his personality has been given ballast by the two successive majorities his party has won in general elections.
Nehru won three big majorities, all bigger than any Indira got. Rajiv did get an even bigger majority but his own Cabinet turned against him.
Before Modi, Indira Gandhi was emboldened in her authoritarian tendencies by the large majority her party won in the elections of 1971.
No. It was Congress's diminished majority in '67 which undermined Indira- clearly faith in the Nehru's progeny had declined- and which forced her to take a sharp turn to the the Left. This meant authoritarianism, censorship, forcing the Judiciary to crawl and promoting a puerile personality cult. The big mistake was to go after the testicles of North Indian men. Stupidity they will stand for. Castration is a different matter.
Between Modi and Indira, the electorate had in its wisdom – or lack thereof – given the Congress Party under Rajiv Gandhi more than 400 seats in the 1984 elections,
Rajiv wasn't just not authoritarian, he was a fucking push over.
with unfortunate consequences for politics and governance.
What unfortunate consequence? Indira had fucked up Punjab. It was inevitable that Kashmir would go the same way. Other than that, Rajiv & his Dosco chums were nice enough fellows. They knew about computers and Management Theory though it must be admitted, Rajiv was Rahul level stoooopid. What got him killed was his telling a journalist he might send troops back to Sri Lanka. The Tigers then felt they had a narrowing window to kill the silly man.
India is too large and diverse a country to be run in any way
Guha is a nutter. He thinks India is 'unnatural'. Pakistan isn't.
other than collaboration and consultation.
Coz that's how the Brits did it- right?
However, a large majority in Parliament encourages arrogance and hubris in the ruling party.
This arrogant turd has plenty of hubris. Modi doesn't. He does what he can, when he can and projects confidence when nothing can be done. So far he has won general elections because his rival was Rahul. Only if Rahul can somehow keep that disqualification in place till next year, does Modi face any danger.
A prime minister who commands such a majority tends to ride roughshod over his cabinet colleagues,
Not in a Westminster style Parliament. A big majority, ceteris paribus, means more, not less, intrigue. MPs get complacent about their prospects for re-election and so they concentrate on forming cliques or pushing 'fringe' agendas. A PM who spends his time smashing in the tiny heads of rivals in his own Party comes across as insecure or petty minded. On the other hand, if the guy has a wafer-thin majority, then people understand that he has to be tough with fractious colleagues.
disrespect the Opposition,
constantly reminding the Opposition that they eat shit and want voters too to eat plenty of shit, is one of the functions of the Prime Minister.
tame the press,
Fuck the Press. Social Media may matter but, at the end of the day, only booth management counts. Modi must learn the Karnataka debacle to focus first and foremost on the morale of grass-roots workers.
undermine the autonomy of institutions,
Judicial overreach must be curbed. The bigger problem is fundamental root and branch Judicial reform. Sadly, this means bidding goodbye to English. Indian judges simply don't know the language. It may also be that they don't understand the law. It is difficult to be certain because their English is so poor. Of course, it may be that their Hindi or Marathi or whatever are equally shitty.
and – not least – disregard the rights and interests of the states, particularly if they are ruled by a party other than the one headed by the prime minister.
And more particularly if that party is very good at beating and killing its opponents.
Future historians will most likely record that on the whole, PV Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh were better prime ministers than Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and Narendra Modi.
No. They will record that Manmohan wasn't a Prime Minister. He was a prone Minister. Sooner or later, his side of the story will become known. The guy is an economist. He knows where all the bodies are buried. His kids are smart. With a little help they can put together a convincing case for why Daddy dearest wasn't a brain-dead puppet. History may judge the old fossil kindly, but only if his daughter writes that history.
Atal was too old to be PM. Brajesh Mishra appeared to be running things. Also, Atal wasn't really a big vote winner on his own. It was Advani who turned around the BJP's prospects and it was Advani who insisted that Atal get the top job. Modi is both a vote winner and a great administrator. Congress probably did have good CMs who could have been PM but that's why it spent a lot of time cutting them down to size. The bigger problem is that a CM who moves to Delhi risks, like Gowda, losing both Delhi and his own State. Modi is unusual in that he moved to Varanasi to get into the Lok Sabha. He keeps Gujarat but also strengthens his party in UP.
This is not necessarily because the first trio were wiser or more able than the second. Rather, the circumstances in which Rao, Vajpayee and Singh
Rao and Singh were accidental Prime Ministers who went with the flow before being flushed away. Vajpayee was an old war-horse headed for the glue factory. Modi was a successful CM who promised to be a good PM- which is exactly what he proved himself to be.
found themselves in office compelled them to accord more autonomy to their cabinet ministers,
Modi isn't second guessing Nirmala or Jaishankar. On the other hand, perhaps Rijiju is being punished for his outspoken views as Law Minister. On the other hand, he is brainy and that's why he might have been given the Earth Sciences portfolio. It may be that Gadkare could tell a tale about interference in his Department. The remarkable thing is that nobody in Modi's Cabinets seems to be telling such tales out of school.
to listen to their coalition partners (themselves representing diverse groups, regions, and interests),
Manmohan told the Left to go fuck itself over the 123 agreement. Sadly, he could do nothing similar within his own party.
to consult more actively with the Opposition,
which is pointless
to not inhibit an independent press,
which is uninhibited but of low moral character
to not put pressure on the judiciary,
why put pressure on those you can safely ignore?
to not interfere unduly with the autonomy of public institutions
if they are autonomous they can't be interfered with. Where there is interference there is no autonomy- unless you pay extra
and to respect the rights and interests of the states.
Guha does respect the rights and interests of the Center because India is an 'unnatural nation'. Also Hinduism must be banned in India due to Hindus are the majority.
When these coalition governments were in office,
VP Singh formed a coalition government which lasted 11 months. Chandrashekhar's government was a coalition. it lasted 7 months. What was the result? The economy collapsed.
economic growth,
i.e. the government taking its foot off the throat of the economy
federalism,
Which India does not have though no doubt we all laughed heartily when arrogant Kashmiri Pandits were chased out of the Valley.
minority rights,
Which Nehru trampled.
and independent institutions all benefited from the absence of a dominant party with an overbearing prime minister.
They were shit and continued to be shit.
Were Narendra Modi and the BJP to get a third successive majority in the general elections of 2024, this shall most likely be to the detriment of democracy, pluralism and federalism in India.
Because India is an 'unnatural nation'. Hindus should not have a Rashtra.
The Opposition shall be further disregarded,
Save where they are in power
the elements of a free press further suppressed,
save where they have been bought and paid for by Soros or Omidyar
minorities made to feel more insecure,
by guys like Guha who pretend that CAA will strip Muslims of citizenship
the states asked to bow even more abjectly before the Centre.
Which State is bowing abjectly? Mamta's Bengal? Stalin's Tamil Nadu? Kejriwal's Delhi or Punjab?
Such an eventuality will probably be to the detriment of the economy too. (No prime minister of a coalition government would have been so arrogant as to impose a disastrous experiment such as demonetisation.)
Guha forgets that the Janata coalition did demonetization in 1978
This, then, is my single, modest, wish for next year’s general elections; that no party should get more than 250 seats, ideally, no more than 200 in the 543-seat house.
Our modest wish is that Ram Guja be speedily united with Ranajit Guha.
If that happens, India will be governed, if not more wisely, then certainly less arrogantly, without a single party, still less a single individual, presuming to speak for us all.
Guha presumes to speak for us all. But we presume he is shit.
No comments:
Post a Comment