Weakening Parliamentary Democracy

The last few days have seen the rupee falling to an all-time historic low of 54.50 while the Sensex plunged to an intra-day low of under 16,000 points on account of major concerns over the eurozone compelling the Union Government to announce through the Finance Minister that it would have to resort to “unpopular” austerity measures even while refraining from pressing the “panic button”; vegetable prices shooting up to 61 per cent in April (as compared to 30.6 per cent in March) raised food inflation to 10.5 per cent (as against 9.9 per cent in the previous month) thus forcing the annual rate of inflation, based on the monthly wholesale price index, to reach 7.2 per cent for April 2012 (in comparison with 6.9 per cent for the previous month).

In the same period former Telecom Minister A. Raja walked out of jail after 15 months to a royal welcome by his relatives, friends and partymen as he was granted bail by a Delhi court in the 2G spectrum case wherein he is the main accused; however, under his bail conditions he has been debarred from visiting Tamil Nadu without the court’s permission and banned from entering the office of the Department of Telecom. And this almost coincided with the increasing woes for former Karnataka CM B.S. Yeddyurappa, the CBI raiding his residential and commercial premises in Bangalore on May 16 even as the BJP strongman moved for anticipatory bail fearing arrest.

Meanwhile Parliament observed its sixtieth anniversary last Sunday (May 13) with MPs in both Houses—currently under allround attack from civil society activists across the nation—pledging to uphold the institution’s ‘dignity, sanctity and supremacy’ even as the PM sought to inject an element of realism by calling for “candid and serious introspection” on the “daily routine of disruptions” House proceedings resulting in “frustrationa and disillusionment” among the people. Interestingly, a Left leader in the Upper House suggested a constitutional amendment making 100 sittings mandatory in a year. A veteran BJP leader was also found joining the Treasury Benches in reviving the bipartisan spirit. These were indeed welcome after continuous display of partisanship by both the Opposition and ruling party members to the detriment of parliamentary democracy.

Nevertheless, amidst such a positive development one found a highly disturbing trend in both Houses of Parliament. First, on May 11 a six-decade-old cartoon by legendary satirist Shankar (drawn as early as in 1949) was banned from a political science textbook for Class XI students—in vogue for six years now—on the ground that it was an ‘insult’ to the framer of our Constitution, Dr B.R. Ambedkar, a Dalit icon. While Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal hastily withdrew the book without any debate whatsoever, Leader of the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee felt that such cartoons could have ill-effect on the impressionable minds of young children. The unanimity of the political class on the issue was most alarming. A sole dissenting voice of moderation was drowned in the vociferous attacks from all sides. As The Times of India has aptly pointed out,
Ironically, Ambedkar was around when the cartoon was first published, but there is no record of his feeling ‘insulted’ by it. Known to reject any system that made icons of persons or ways of life, rendering them above human criticism, Ambedkar was a thorough liberal who enshrined the right to free speech and criticism in India’s Constitution. Those protesting the cartoon are only betraying their lack of appreciation for Ambedkar himself.

That these words of sanity have fallen on deaf ears was evident from what happened subse-quently. On May 14, a day after the MPs had solemnly observed Parliament’s sixtieth anniversary with pious pledges, protests were again mounted over cartoons of politicians in another NCERT textbook for Class IX students whose minds, the honourable Members decreed, were “poisoned” by such illustrations. Promptly Sibal announced that “large numbers of depictions in these cartoons” being “offensive”and “inappropriate for textbooks”, those were being removed and the government “has also resolved to conduct an inquiry into the role of officials of NCERT who approved the inclusion of the offending material in the textbooks in political science of Classes IX-XII and fix responsibility”. Thankfully, much before such declarations by the Minister, the eminent political scientists being responsible for such innovative textbooks had resigned. It is most unfortunate that activists of the Republican Panters of India thereafter ransacked the office of one of them.

The Indian Express has justifiably expressed the anguish of all thinking Indians and democratic opinion in the country by bringing out the underlying motive behind such acts by the political class.

The Ambedkar cartoon was just a first flimsy excuse, the entire tradition of political caricature may be under threat. Other anodyne cartoons in the NCERT political science curriculum featuring Jawaharlal Nehru, A.B. Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh are said to have incurred the “strong displeasure” of a section of MPs. Lampooning leaders will now bring heavy consequences.

The same newspaper carried the report of the MPs’ acrobatics with a frontpage banner headline: “MPs present a united intolerant alliance”.

A few days ago India-born author Salman Rushdie had observed that India was slowly becoming prone to the ‘intolerance of freedom’. This he had said while referring to the “rise of religious sectarianism and by the craven response of the authorities”. Now the MPs by their thoughless acts are out to vindicate Rushdie’s claim.

Yogendra Yadav, one of the NCERT advisers responsible for the textbooks who resigned, has—in a lengthy explanatory article—sought to clarify what the cartoons signified.

...the cartoons do give rise to doubts and questions. And they may even generate opinion that the textbook author may not approve of. But the point of textbooks is not to drill some answers in the students’ heads. These textbooks treat students not as a clean slate but as minds which are in the process of being formed, for these are citizens about to vote in a couple of years. I suppose that is a democratic way of teaching democracy.

Yadav is, however, wrong. Our parliamentarians are out to weaken, not strengthen the edifice of our parliamentary democracy. Or else they wouldn’t have behaved in the infantile manner in which they did, militating against the very ideas of the founding fathers of our Constitution.

This trend needs to be reversed at the earliest or else... One shudders to think of the consquences.

May 17 S.C.