From: bond@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca (Girish)
Subject: POLITICAL NIHILISM - An Editorial from Indian Express
Summary: PM Rao's actions smacks of shameless disregard for democracy!
Keywords: politics, BJP, Congress
Organization: University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 22:12:35 GMT
Expires: Sat, 20 Mar 1993 04:00:00 GMT


                           _P_O_L_I_T_I_C_A_L _N_I_H_I_L_I_S_M

     (An Editorial from the Indian Express, Wednesday, December 16 1992)
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     The spell of dithering has ended but heralding  no  dawn  of  creative
politics.  What Prime Minister Narsimha Rao has now really inaugurated is a
new era of chicanery and sinister confrontation.  The  dismissal  of  three
state governments run by the Bharatiya Janata Party will indeed be an eter-
nal tribute to his reckless abandon, no less than his inaction in times  of
turbulence  was  a  reflection  of  his  mental immobility. The decision to
dismiss them was of course taken only when  he  found  himself  dangerously
encircled  by  his  own  men who are ever ready to fell him but that hardly
absolves Mr Narsimha Rao of the blame for this ultimate  act  of  political
nihilism.

     It is a ridiculous understatement that this dismissal  is  politically
motivated.  What  it  really involves is a political perversion, a frenzied
rape of the basic law of the land. When the Rao regime banned the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) with which some BJP leaders have an umbilical rela-
tionship, there was an empty dream that the three governments would  go  on
their  own  in  a  huff,  if  only to spare themselves the embarrassment of
enforcing a repugnant order. They did not oblige Mr Rao  and  friends.  The
dismissal  has come as a crude reply to that display of adroitness by those
who were manning the governments in Madhya Pradesh,  Himachal  Pradesh  and
Rajasthan.

     There was no breakdown of law and order in  these  states  that  could
even  remotely  warrant any central action against their governments. While
800 people died in Congress-ruled states, there were  only  200  deaths  in
those  under  BJP  control. Yet President Shankar Dayal Sharma accepted the
reports of the Governors that they had apprehensions about  maintenance  of
law  and order in these states. The centre was itself open to the charge of
criminal inaction, provoking some politicians to demand  its  removal.  The
dance  of  violence  that stupefied Surat and Bombay, generating fears that
sense and sensibility had vanished from the corridors of power, was apt  to
sweep  away  the moronic ministries in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Mr Narsimha
Rao's protective umbrella that saved them was not available to Madhya  Pra-
desh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan where sanity was never shaken.

     Prime Minister Rao was of course anxious  to  save  his  career  which
looked grimly threatened when chronic aspirants of his post prepared a per-
fect charge of inaction and fickleness against him. By sending out the  BJP
governments  in  a act of abject lawlessness, he might have indeed stolen a
march over his rivals in his party and opened the doors  for  a  rendezvous
with  communists  but  he  would be agonized when called to account for his
action by the people who had given those governments  an  unambiguous  man-
date.  It must be remembered that the Bharatiya Janata Party polled as much
as 5.45 crore votes in the last Lok Sabha elections as against the Congress
party's  9.82  crore  votes.  That Mr Rao or his exalted cabinet colleagues
scarcely thought of the shameful electoral performance of their  own  party
in  Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan while reversing the ver-
dict of voters is a commentary on their concern for the will of the people.

     There is another question that is more disturbing. The masses  arrayed
behind  the  dismissed  governments  are  bound  to  be restive. Rightly or
wrongly, several things have happened over  the  years  to  unsettle  their
minds and leave them exercised over a host of issues of faith and religion.
What is therefore expected of a mature statesman  at  this  juncture  is  a
genuine  endeavour  to  mollify  all aggrieved segments of society and turn
them all away from a course of confrontation. Prime Minister Rao could have
done  it with disarming grace and perspicacity if only he had not been iso-
lated in the party and alienated from the people. It  is  a  painful  irony
that  a leader who appeared on the national scene with immense goodwill and
who set out on a historic course of  consensus  should  degenerate  into  a
mini-Machiavelli awkwardly using the state apparatus to subjugate political
dissent, almost emulating Mrs Gandhi. A victim of drift and indecision,  he
has  felt  it necessary to keep his chair, unfazed by erosion of his credi-
bility, undaunted by challenge from all around. What that prophet  of  con-
sensus  has  now  dealt is, sadly, a blow that shatters the rhythm of demo-
cracy and political harmony. The sequence  of  events  leading  up  to  the
outrage  in  Ayodhya  and beyond has already left a wound in India's social
psyche that is still not healed. The rusted political instrument Prime Min-
ister  Rao  has  used  now,  so cowardly and so crudely, can only introduce
fresh infection in that wound. THIS IS THE PROVERBIAL SITUATION  WHERE  THE
HAND THAT SHOULD PROVIDE THE HEALING TOUCH TURNS DEADLY.

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