Is Indian Independence worth the blood, tears, toil and sweat?

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

The celebration of Independence Day has become a hollow ritual. The tricolour which once inspire a whole generation has become the symbol of a corrupt, facist dynasty which runs the Congress party. The speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort has the contrived quality of a ritual whose day has passed. Does the idea of India inspire any hope?

The rampant corruption of which the 2G Spectrum Scam and the CWG scam are but the most egresious examples will have their impact on the electorate in thr next general elections. The Indian people are not concerned with political corruption if it is within managable limits. What has now happened it that the people have realised that the sole purpose of politics is to gain power and pelf and use both to cultivate a "vote bank" as the Congress party has done over the past 40 years. Is this the Freedom for which so many countless martyrs laid down their lives. Had they known that within a few decades of Independence India will fall prey to dynastic fascism, I am sure many would have wondered if freedom is woth the candle.

The Indian politician, like the post-colonial intellectual was the first to realise the absolute goldmine in the form if "identity politics". Starting first with language which led to the division of India along linguistic lines, then caste identities were politisised by V P Singh and his cohorts which in turn led to caste blocks becoming the vote banks of politicians like Mulayam Singh Yadava and Laloo Prasad Yadava. The absolute criminalisation of the political system can be seen in those parts of India where political parties representing caste blocks rule the roost. I, of course have Karunanidh's restwhile regime in Tamil Nadu and Mayavathi's regime in Uttar Pradesh in mind. Is this the freedom the martyrs faught and died for?

Apart from the criminalisation of Indian politics due to the strangle hold of identity politics there are other disconcerting aspects. The electoral process has lost its neutral character. P Chidambaram's declaration as the victor in the Sivagangai Parliamentary elections in 2009 is itself proof of how the rich and the powerful are able to subvert the system. And this man is now the "Home Minister" of India a position once occupied by Sardar patle, Lal Bahadur Sastri and Hon'ble L K Advani. Is this the freedom the martyrs of India died for?

The Indian state is crumbling from the weight of its own monstrous crimes. The entire tribal belt is under the sway of the naxalites and given the disgust the people of India feel toward the political system, it is only a short step toward an alliance between the disgruntled elements and the violent naxalites. Civil society activists like Anna Hazare will be co opted into this corrupt political system, leaving the field wide open for Baba Ramdev.

We have to see whether the India that we know will survive another 25 years. The 4 southern state together with Gujarat and Maharashtra already account for nearly 45% of India's GDP. Regional disparities will lead to the undermining of the political fabric. Unfortunately the whole political system is obsessed with its dynastic fixation aand has no time to think of the problems of India. Is this the India for which the martyrs died?

China has shown that a country can progress in spite of centuries of social and economic stagnation. The Universities in China like Beijing University have risen to the very top of the list of global universities and India is struggling at the rock bottom. Is this the Freedom the martyrs died for? I think when historians look back on the post Independence period of India's past they will not hesitate to conclude that a glorious dream was betrayed by dynastic fascism and corruption.

Ramachandra Guha's "New Political Gurus":A Critique

The prolofic Indian intellectual, Ramachandra Guha has published an article entitled "India's New Political Gurus" in the latest issue of Newsweek (June 20th 2011). The main purpose of this rather pointed intervention in the Indian debate over corruption and the role of the so called civil society activism spawned by the like of Dr Kiran Bedi and Anna Hazare is to belittle and trivialise the common Indian before the elite Newsweek reading audience of the world. As a historian, at least having some academic training in social and environmental history, one can expect Dr Ramachandra Guha to show a modicum of integrity in his analysis. However what he comes up with is only a tendentious piece of reportage for an American audience which is both fale in its approach and apologetic in its tone.

The likes of Baba Ramdev have entered the political space only because during the course of the last 60 years since Independence the politicians have rendered Indian democarcy into a dynastic fascist regime it is today. The COngress party started this trend in the years following the split in 1969 and today the party is only an appendage of the Gandhi-Nehru family. What Ramachandra Guha hides from the rest of the world that itn was the Nehru dynasty that strarted praticing massive corruption on a scale that essentially made India into a third world kleptocracy. The Nagarwala case, the Oil import scandals of the 1980,s the Bofors Scandal and of of course the present season of 2G Spectrum Scandal and a host of other scandals are all the creations of the Congress Party with support from their allies like the DMK. Ramachandra Guha completely distorrts the context when he cleverly shields the Congress Party from any balme for the scandals. I was really shocked when in his massive 800 odd page book India Since Gandhi we do not find any discussion on the criminal pogrom of massacre organised by the Congres Party in the days following the excecution of Indiara Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. So Dr Ramachandra Guha is extremely economical with the truth.

The emergence of men like Baba Ramdev upsets western educated aritocrats like Ramachandra Guha because they represent the India that is srtruggling to keep afloat unlike the middle class that battened itself with the pickings of liberalisation and its concomitant corruption. Baba Ramdev articulated his stand against the monstrous corruption in India using the rhetoric of India religion and myhology--a rhetoric that Nohandas Gandhi had perfected. Comaprng Corruption to demons from the rich reporoire of India myhology and making people aware of their inherent human and constitutional rights using the idiom of morality and religion is what every teleevalgalist in the USA does. When Baba Ramdev articulates a similar argument, the Ramachandra Guhas of the world must paint them in dark colours of superstition and reaction.

The regime in poweer very cleverly manipulated the rather simple minded Baba Ramdev and tried to create a very public split in the ranks of the growing anti corruption movement in India. The other crusade against corruption, Anna Hazare is more to the taste of Ramchandra Guha. He has gathered around him some media friendly faces like Arvind Kejariwal and Kiran Bedi and this crew is projected as the very backbone of the crusade against corruption. In fact Baba Ramdev is the one whose movement will go forward and Anna Hazare and his crew are now busy debating whether the Prime MInister should be brought under the aegis of the Lok Pal Bill.Baba Ramdev has rightly identified foreign bank accounts of Indians as the major source of unaccounted wealth and wants the Government to nationalise the ill gotten wealth stashed abroad by the corrupt Indian politicians. In a recent raid on the "ashram" of the Afro headed "saint" Satyanarayana Raju, more than 100 kilos of gold bars and 400 kilos of silver were found. There is enough black money within India for the Government to seize and Baba Ramdev is being very reasonable when he demands the return of this wealth.

Ramachandra Guha did not make any attemt to hide his glee at the brutal crackdown on the unarmed men, women and children on the night of June 4th 2011 when the regime of ManMohan Singh sent its police to attack the grounds where the peaceful demonstration was taking place. The brutal crackdown against Baba Ramdev drew the attention of the Indian Supreme Court to the unlawful act and Ramachandra Guha does not mention the criminal actions of the regime in power.

Guha calls Baba Ramdev "reactionary". I think by using the language of the Congress Party to stiganatise all its opponents as "communal" reactionary, "anti national" etc Ramchandra Guha has shown himself to be a publisist of a corrupt, criminal regime.

BABA RAMDEV"S CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION IN INDIA

The advent of Baba Ramdev on to the public scene has electrified the Indian nation. Unlike the so called civil society activists who are at the beck and call of the corrupt Indian political establishment in the name of their misguided "secularism", Baba Ramdev is following his own independent path. The left tried its level best to discredit him by raising all kinds of questions about the health products that he advocated. Nothing came of of it. The political establishment tried to probe his charities to find out whether Baba Ramdev has violated any rule or law. The Baba is genuine material and he speaks the language of one who lives and breathes for India. His politics is based on patriotism and I wish Baba Ramdev success. I for one will fast on June 4th 2011 as a mark of respect for the Mahatma.

Corruption has become endemic in India and I think that the dynastic fascism of the Congress and other parties like the DMK is primarily responsible for the corruption. It is not an accident that the most corrupt political parties are also the ones deeply implicated in family rule and dynastic politics. The Congress started this trend and other so called "secular" parties followed suit. There is some criticism that the Baba is competing with the other Baba, Hazare. I do not think so. While I respect Anna Hazare, I do not think with the crew that he has gathered around him, Kiran Bedi, Kejariwal and the BHushans, he will be able to achieve much. The wily Congressmen have already sown the seeds of discord and the movement led by AnnaHazare is in imminent danger of collapsing. Baba Ramdev's politics is based on the power of truth and his satyagraha is carrying with it the moral authority of a whole nation. I have no hesitation in saying that like the great Mahatma, Baba Ramdev too will make the mighty bend to his will. Already there are signs of panic. The corrupt UPE Government knows that Baba Ramdev will strike a deep chord in the hearts of the Indian people and is sending ministers to placate him. Can the likes of Kapil Sibal, P Chidambaram and the like be able to even talk to a moral force like the Baba.

The Baba has stated very claerly that he seeks the return of all the money stashed by Indians abroad. The loot of India vy politicians is much greater than the loot of the East India Company. In fact the Nagarwala case under Indiara Gandhi of only of 60 lakhs, the Bofors under her son Rajiv Gandhi only of 60 crores and the 2G spectrum scandal of 60,000 crores and still counting. The people of India must realise that during the 6 years of Vajpayee there was not a single scandal and yet they voted out that Government and brought in the UPA which is the most shameful government in the whole world. Even African kleptocracies are not as venal as the Congress UPA regime.

I wish that the movement started by Baba ramdev touches the hearts and minds of the Indian people.