Who after Manmohan Singh ?

Vinod Varshney

Election is the reigning flavour of the month. Some may disagree and say—no, the malodour from the numerous fresh skeletons that tumble out of the government’s cupboard one after another is the stifling ‘flavour’ of the season. Yet others who may constitute the largest segment may claim that the true flavour of today is cricket mania. Actually the three flavours represent the three facets of India.

Why should elections in just four States and one Union Territory be such a pervasive affair? The ouster of despots and usurpers in north Africa and gulf countries by agitating crowds makes us see the true worth of free and fair elections. Our people seek to dethrone unwanted elements who occupy the seat of power simply by the exercise of popular will--zealous participation in elections-- as happens now in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Assam and Puducherry. There are enough indications that history will be created in West Bengal if Mamta is able to trounce the CPI(M) at the hustings, after 34 years. People will also wait with bated breath for the poll outcome in other States, especially Tamilnadu, to see whether they can dump some of the worst scam-tainted politicians and their henchmen.

Democracy’s many over-riding merits over authoritarian, feudalistic and theocratic systems notwithstanding, we cannot be oblivious of the fact that in India it is being misused and subverted by vested interests and power-brokers with impunity while the common man looks helpless in stopping them. Peaceful and fair elections conducted at regular intervals are, of course, the powerful instrument at the disposal of the people to rein in such public enemies, but they alone cannot provide good democratic governance for the welfare of the people. To ensure that a lot need to be done by people themselves.

And this is my dreamy assumption that people of India will realize their solemn duty to the country and do their utmost to cleanse the system, not just once but incessantly year after year. The opportunity comes their way almost every year by way of elections. For instance, after the current poll, in 2012 we will have elections in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat among others. The following year 9 states will go to the poll. Then it will be turn of Lok Sabha elections which will definitely throw up the question—who after Manmohan Singh.

In fact this grave matter is already the most active subject of whisper in the corridors of power. But my dreamy desire is that people ask ‘what’ after Manmohan Singh, rather than ‘who’ after him, because nobody likes the same canker of corruption continuously carving at the vitals of the nation. Fictitious surveys are being touted as genuine to ‘establish’ the supremacy of one leader and his coterie over others. But people must understand the ramifications of this insidious campaign -- do not be carried away by the pejorative probing..

‘What’ has bigger implications. It implies urgent need for systemic improvements, as for instance, in preventing generation of black money, main cause of the ubiquitous corruption. Total transparency in decision making through better application of technology seems to offer some hope. But my hunch is that without better social and political culture based on strong ethics, any technology would work only as servant of the corrupt.

So far as the question ‘who after ………’ is concerned, there cannot be any ambiguity. People of this great country definitely want a leader who has proper control over the governing apparatus and who has the cerebral ability to know if and where the machine is spluttering and fix it immediately. And they want a ‘leader’, not just a bureaucrat, who can ‘lead’ not just in politics but in all matters-- economic, social and cultural.

The difficulty is we have to choose from the available lot only. That is to say, our choice will have to be confined to Pranab Mukherjee and P. Chidambaram (if the Congress is voted back to power at head of an alliance) or Lal Krishna Advani and Sushma Swaraj ( if the lot falls to the BJP). Alas, only these! Or would there be a dark horse to lead? This dark horse can be only from among the second rung leaders like Nitish Kumar, Narendra Modi, Mayawati, Mulayam Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Digvijaya Singh, and so on. Some of these gentlemen are best kept out of any democratic government.

The problem is we cannot design and create a leader of our choice either digitally or genetically. If it were feasible, the people of India would have created one by mixing the attributes of Jyoti Basu, Sushma Swaraj and Anna Hazare. May the hopeful inculcate the political acumen of Basu, grace and audacity of Ms Swaraj and honesty of Anna Hazare to provide a leader the great India deserves.

(The article was first published in the April, 2011 issue of Lokayat)

Maoists Are Not For Development

Consensus on Maoist
Problem, not on Solution


By Vinod Varshney


There is political consensus in India that Naxalism is a big threat to the development process and liberal democratic system of the country. But consensus eludes on implementable solutions. A few believe that naxal violence should be dealt with force first and then only can development follow, while others say development process in tribal areas should be speeded up first, and yet another emerging opinion is that the problem can be eradicated only if police action and development activities take place simultaneously and vigourously.

Pranab Mukherjee, the central finance minister asserted in a seminar “Red Corridor And Development” organized thursday by Nai Dunia, a multi-edition Hindi newspaer that naxalite violence was truly an internal security problem, and not just a law and order issue, therefore the centre and state according to the constitution should act together to combat the meance while Arun Jaitly accused the Central Home Ministry for trying to dub the problem as of law and order to be tackled by states. He cautioned intellectuals not to romanticize maoist slogan that power comes from the barrel of gun and took a dig at the widespread perception that lack of development was the sole reason for spread of naxalism. He said that they wanted to capture power by guns.  


Several speakers in the seminar including the NDA supremo Sharad Yadav underscored the fact that the economic development in tribal areas had remained grossly neglected. According to him 2-3 % of the national GDP was based on the resources of the tribal areas which traditionally belonged to them, but they remain neglected in the fruits of growth and development. The worst part of the problem is that tribals have no voice and the society which benefitted from the economic development based on their resources is least concerned about them.


He lamented the changed attitude of the political parties in recent years.” Earlier people like Baleshwar Dayal and ThakKar Bapa and even from the BJP used to go among them and had become their voice, now no political party goes among them. NGOs do go but their job seems to get money from their funders and criticize politicians.


Aruna Sharma, DG Doordarshan drew attention to the fact that the money allocated to each district is as much as Rs 1200 crore, but it remained unused to the extent of seventy percent. This means tribal areas remain perenially under-developed and an entire generation of tribals have to miss the opportunity.


She disagreed with the labour-oriented Bihar model to tackle the under-development of tribal areas. She said that requirement was for infrastructure. Unit cost of infrastructure there would no doubt be costly, but governments should be ready to spend this extra money. 


D.M. Mitra, a security specialist delineated the shift of Naxalism since 1970s which has now retreated to Jungles. He described under-development as an enabling factor for Naxalism, "but no one should be in the wrong impression that the Maoists are for development; they are basically against the liberal democracy." 
"State agencies do not reach amidst tribals, thus they remain segregated from the development and technology so much so they are still in the hunters and gatherers stage of civilization. Government personnel run away from tribal areas at the first available opportunity, sometimes citing their sickness or by taking help of unions and courts and nothing can be done about it."

The situation got worsened by downsizing the bureaucracy by 30 percent so much so at many places only one BDO remains to look after three blocks. He suggested government personnel who work in the tribal areas should be given special incentives as cost of deprivation.

Dr Raman Singh, the Chief Minister of Chattisgarh, a  state troubled with maoist-violence painted a different picture of the problem. He said tribals today were victims of maoists, and terrorized by Maoists they were running away from their traditional habitats . This situation has led to the rise of Salwa Judum (public force) to counter their violence.

He also pointed out how governments had not bothered to heed to the advice of the Supreme Court that companies working in tribal areas should spend 20% of their profits for the development of the area, which currently is only 1-2 percent.  

He gave details of how Maoist extracted some Rs 500-600 crore each year and have acquired sophisticated weapons including ant-helicopter guns and mine detecting equipments. This could not be the handiwork of tribals, but only of forces inimical to India. "This is  not a law and order problem, but an internal security problem of the country. To defeat them there is need to train the police in gorrila warfare."

He criticized intellectuals who often raise an MNC bogey in the Bastar region whereas the fact was only public sector companies like NMDC, SAIL and CMDC were involved in mining activities in this tribal area.