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Democracy is primarily concerned
with the relationship between the people and the government. Any
change, no matter it is big or small, is a major concern for
democracy. In the recent years there happened major changes in
democratic governments, world over, and globalization is the classic
example. Any such change in the governance will reflect on the basic
structure - Sovereign Democratic – of the nation.
A
nation as a sovereign power is understood together with its huge
defense forces, the police, work force, and the entire gamut of
public sector undertakings and allied institutions; where as
democracy means the power of the people to check/regulate or control
the government. The modern concept of nationhood is intrinsically
related to sovereignty and democracy. Hence there is an inherent
contradiction between sovereignty and democracy, though of course
there is always mutual dependency between the two.
In
the modern times we see the interventions by the Government is
steadily decreasing
from all fronts. For example, except in the case of defense, police,
law and order, foreign policies and the like, the Government is
withdrawing itself from all other areas of governance, like
education, health, infra-structure, development and social welfare.
The much debated Special Economic Zones (SEZ) could be viewed as the
best example. It symbolizes a sovereign power outside the geographic
scope of the democratic sovereign nation. And this is very much
linked with the global power structure of individual democratic
nations. It is quite obvious; the government uses its immense power
and capabilities against its own people, and hands over them to
super powers for further exploitation. The democratic government
grows steadily in military strength while it keeps shrinking in all
other aspects of public governance, leaving open to the private
entrepreneurs and investors.
 There
is no citizenship with out civil rights. And the only system that
will ensure the citizens their rights and liberties in a democratic
society is the elected government. Hence one of the basic features
of a democratic government is its bounden duty to protect and
promote the civil rights of its people. All the same, the government
is bestowed with unlimited military power; of course it keeps
enhancing its military expenditures every year even at the cost of
social securities, which the government uses against its people
indiscriminately. The success of democracy in a country depends how
much it is capable of holding the government under the dictates of
its people. It also means how effectively and efficiently it is
able to curtail the military expenditures and correspondingly
investments in people and on public sector are consciously and
sizably increased as a matter of strategic and systemic exercise.
Further, it is also a concern in democracy how the application of
military power is diminishingly used while the civil responsibility
of the government in protecting constitutional rights of people is
increasingly stepped up.
The concept of power in democracy is from bottom to top. Where as
the common practice is in contravention to it. Power originates at
the top and it flows from top to bottom. Antonio Gramsci, the
Italian communist thinker, in his hegemony
developed a view that ‘man was not ruled by force/government
alone, but by ideas’. It is totally a new concept of power presented
by Gramsci. Military/government rule is direct and visible in
different measurable forms. Hegemony is different, it is not that
visible, but it is rooted in the habits, traditions, cultural forms,
and other forms of social control that condition human behaviour and
human transactions. This concept of power and its ramifications are
deeply rooted in civil societies and it is almost impossible to
change/replace/improve a given situation. The power of hegemony
exists in ideas, social values, dogmas that rule over humanscape.
Gamsci had no faith in
revolution. However, he stressed that ideas had more strength than
persons. The new forms of interventions emanate from bottom and
permeate streams of power to the top sphere. We do experience in
every day life that in certain situation, the ideology behind a
movement will be conspicuously stronger than what it seemingly is.
For example, say the Feminist movement. There are only a
handful people who openly address themselves as feminists. But the
very idea of feminism and its impacts over the thinking of humans
are something phenomenal. In politics they call it
counter-hegemony.
Perhaps it is classic example of
how power as a force flows from bottom to top.
I have lived in more than
fourteen countries. I have never seen a community as conservative as
the Kerala society. The freedom we give to our women has no
comparison to the freedom enjoyed by women in those countries. The
struggle and revolt initiated by Ayyankali need to be re-enacted.
Because we are scared of freedom. Our primary pre-occupation and
self-imposed social responsibility, manifested as obsessions, is how
to regulate and control or restrain the thinking process and freedom
of conscience of other persons. As we are afraid of freedom, we
deliberately and consciously suppress any attempt of thinking or
doing with freedom. Consequently, we are topping in the world in the
number of people suffering from mental disorders. The organic nature
of relationship between individual and society has been grilled and
strangulated so that we are unable to relate each other in normal
frequency. Remember, democratic freedom is nothing but the freedom
enjoyed by individuals as free citizens.
Hegemonic approach to people and
their social habituation will produce only negative results. What
Ayyankali did was to emancipate a community that was never ever
allowed to live in consonance with the true dictates of their
conscience. The value of real freedom was never understood by the
people until then. We, who live in modern era, live like robots. We
dance to the tune of someone invisible but dictates what we should,
and should not.
The social base of Indian
democracy has grown considerably during last one and half decade.
Those who were purposefully kept away for centuries from power and
governance started sharing the cup of political power. The dichotomy
between the tradition and the modernity lies in the contradiction
that though the right-based democratic awareness of the common man
has improved the inter-face between the rulers and the ruled, the
social commitment of those in power has steadily decreased and has
been narrowed down to the lowest ebb. The essence of democratic
politics shall not be that of colossal decline, on the other hand it
should be founded on broad political base, sensitive to the ground
realities of contemporary human existence.
Dr.Ramakrishanan continued after
short break in response to the interventions made by Janardhanan,
Davis, Inasu, Thyagarajan, Joy and Vaisakhan. The aggressively
zealous religious of all major religions and many god-men who opened
“big markets” of spirituality contributed enormously to the triumph
of counter-hegemony in our land. In the result, they succeeded to
great extent in pulling out democratic values from society replaced
by chauvinistic hubris of sectarian interests. The new brokers of
religions appeared with new packages. It is the new wine in
conventional bottles, but essentially it is the product of the neo
conservative mafia. The tourist appeal of the neo spirituality and
its high prospects in the liberalized, consumerist, market oriented
social milieu is an added advantage.
To come to ground realities, we
are reminded of the seven thousand plus dalit men and women at
Chengara in Pathanamthitta district who recently raised a challenge
to the civic authorities. The women are ready to put themselves on
flames, holding cans of petrol in their hands; while their men are
on the top of trees with ropes tied around their neck and the other
end of it on the trees. Hundreds of them will end their lives in a
moment of provocation. What does it speak? We have reached to a
stage that the poor are forced to commit suicide to negotiate for
their Constitutional and human rights. Any thing that violates
individual civil liberties and human rights can not be a system of
good governance.
The phenomenal widening of the
gap between the haves and have-nots in recent years is one of the
ugliest facets of globalization. The number of starving persons and
communities are on the increase. This is a global reality. There is
a third word within America, as we do have a first world in India.
Noam Chomsky, an year ago, made a significant observation, “This
many filthy rich people are not seen even in America”. Justice is
not their concern. The fundamental duty of a democratic government,
according to Adam Smith, must be administration of justice. You can
not expect justice from the market. It is really strange, the neo
liberals desperately fail to appreciate even Adam Smith. Those who
control the market, control the government. Their sole agenda is
profit, profit even to the cost of the most basic and Constitutional
rights of the citizens. |
