Manmohan Singh’s ‘management’ of democracy is making democracy redundant



-         By  Rajesh Sharma


 
The Coalgate is getting murkier by the hour. 

After what reportedly transpired in the Supreme Court today on 8th May, the media is all aflutter with speculation. Will the Law Minister go? Should he? Will the deities up there ask him to exit? And the Railway Minister?

The PM is said to be supporting the continuation of the ministers.

Is he doing it on his own or under someone’s directions? It matters little. What matters is what his conduct means for India and its people. And for whatever is still left of democracy here. 

This is not a display of amazing political nerve by an I-am-no-politician. This is not a demonstration of loyalty towards party and colleagues. This is not some ascetic indifference to little storms in a tea cup. This is not courage of conviction.

This is a systematic destruction of the institutions on whose strength post-independence India has managed to survive. Silence, stone-walling, the brazenness to weather any storm – believing it too will blow over, these can undermine people’s trust in the efficacy of the institutions of democracy. These can undermine the confidence which institutions need in themselves in order to function.

Manmohan Singh’s ‘management’ of democracy is making democracy redundant.

Are we willing and prepared to live with its consequences?


Comments

RS said…
barbaad gulistaan karne ko to ek hi ullu kafi tha,
ynha har shakh pe ullu betha he,
na jane anjaam e gulistaan kya hoga.

ML Raina said…
Another appropriate comment would be

Sheikh ne masjid banayi,mismar butkhana kiya
Pehle Jo soorat thi,ab saaf veerana kiya.
Jaspreet Mander said…
I read your piece, refusing absolutely to make your piece with a man who was thought to have unimpeachable record and public conduct till a few years ago.

Bravo!! I liked your take a great deal.

For how long will heads roll, bodies squirm and nations made to writhe at the altar of power and unchecked authority?

We all should mourn these events collectively. Flying tricolour at half-mast is not enough; these so-called biggies should be made to parade half-mast--with their legs and hands tied up--at the Raisina Hill.
Nandita Bachawat said…
Your views on the current issues and happenings is so apt and relevant that I could not help but thought of sharing with you. As you expressed, we all look around and search for 'positivism' but fail to find. Does it imply we (apolitical individuals) are blind/deaf or dead? Dead from the point of view of honesty, commitment and trust. Astonishingly like Falguni river (referred to our mythology), all these qualities are getting dried up from our land of spiritual gurus (Krishna) and great warriors (Arjuna). I am, as a citizen of our revered "matri-bhumi" feeling so disturbed to see us sink morally as scam after scam is rifting our democratic governance apart. Let us not talk about other humane issues that intermittently rocked the whole nation with shame and disbelief in recent months.
It is a call to introspect. I personally take it as a wake-up call from deep slumber of being complacent with what we got but what we should fight for.
Badri Raina said…
a man who has never had any representative standing at the head of the executive after all;
travesty unbecoming democracy.
Birinder Pal said…
Yes Rajesh, crisis is deepening and it is good since there seems no other alternative. Things have worsened to the extent of irretrievability. What bothers me more is why Manmohan Singh is sticking to the post from where he is not getting anything to himself, and is there to serve others' interests only. At this stage his honesty and innocence seem nothing more than absurdity.
Condemned to be optimistic
Rajesh Sharma said…
It is interesting that you treat his 'honesty' and 'innocence' as givens. That leaves you with only one option: to resort to 'absurdity' as an explanation. Please consider the unthinkable also hidden within your opinion.

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