People's Democracy

 EDITORIAL

No Confidence Motion

Govt Stands Indicted

THE BJP-led Vajpayee government may have won the vote on the no-confidence motion, but it has lost both its prestige and honour. The prime minister, himself, chose not to answer any important issue raised by the opposition concerning the life of the country and the people. Speaking in the true pracharak style (recollect the fact that he was sent by Golwalkar way back in 1951 to form the political arm of the RSS in the form of the Jana Sangh), prime minister Vajpayee skirted --- unsuccessfully --- all the major issues raised by the opposition. So insensitive is this government to the agony of the people and the country’s prestige that it refused even to take cognisance of some of the major issues that are plaguing our country and people. 

The prime minister remained silent on the fact that after 56 years of independence, the plight of our farmers and the agrarian sector, which continues to house near two-thirds of our people, is in an unprecedented crisis. The foodgrain production last year fell by a whopping 14 per cent. The per capita availability (not to be confused with consumption) of foodgrains is today even below what it used to be during the period of the second world war, i e, nearly 60 years ago! While ranting about cow protection, this government is adopting policies that are destroying the cattle-based dairy economy in our country. Every single product and by-product of milk is today being imported at highly subsidised rates from the West. The protection of the cow will only be a mere rhetoric, unless backed by corresponding policies that will nourish the dairy industry. But rhetoric is what Vajpayee, the RSS, BJP et al thrive on! Cow protection is an issue to be used to rouse communal passion for electoral benefit. In the process, cows can be consigned to die of destitution. 

There was no concern over the fact that crores of Indian youth are wandering aimlessly because of the lack of employment. They are being thrown at the mercy of criminal and anti-social forces in the absence of any productive engagement of their energies. Forget the electoral promises Vajpayee himself made of providing a crore of jobs every year. His government's policies have resulted in the fact that even those who were employed are today on the streets, joining the ranks of the unemployed, thanks to the policies of reckless privatisation.

There was no concern, again, over the abysmal decline of political morality in the style of (mis)governance that Vajpayee presides upon. That corruption has reached an unprecedented scale while governance has become completely unaccountable and  non-transparent is, of course, of no concern. It is of no concern precisely because that is the degeneration of parliamentary democracy that the RSS/BJP seeks under Vajpayee's dispensation. The more discredited this system, the greater is the strength that they derive for converting the secular democratic character of the Indian Republic into a fascistic "Hindu Rashtra" of the RSS variety. For this very reason, the prime minister chose not to explain why his party has come into confrontation with every single constitutional authority --- the Election Commission, the National Human Rights Commission, the Supreme Court on occasions, parliamentary committees like PAC etc. Vajpayee has made it clear that his government is accountable neither to the country nor to the people, but only to the RSS, furthering its political agenda.

Vajpayee's skills at double-speak abounded during his reply to the no-confidence motion. At the stroke of mid-night, when once India made its tryst with destiny, Vajpayee  re-emphasised the desire of his government to work for a metamorphosis of the Indian Republic and its destiny. A frightening metamorphosis that seeks to destroy India and its rich diversity!

The no-confidence motion debate was a virtual indictment of the government on all fronts, particularly on the relentless pursuit of the communal agenda that is tearing asunder the secular fabric of our country. Vajpayee's own double-speak on issues such as the temple construction at Ayodhya etc underscored the fact that while they pretend to uphold the Indian constitution, they are actually working for its subversion. This was clear from the response of the ruling benches that this government does not consider, even for a moment, the need to actually explain to the people its real agenda and intentions. 

It is precisely in this approach that lies the actual agenda of this government --- to mislead the people, whip up emotional passions and garner electoral support for the unfolding of an agenda that is completely antithetical to the character of the Indian Republic as enshrined in the constitution. 

Truly, on all scores, this government has been an abject failure. Starvation deaths and distress suicides --- 56 years after independence --- are simply unacceptable. Like Nero fiddled when Rome was burning; so is Vajpayee when India and its people are languishing. Surely, Vajpayee, the RSS and the BJP will be shown the door when the people get the earliest opportunity to do so. 

What was more pathetic was the role of the BJP's allies in the NDA. The Telugu Desam Party that so far maintained a façade of not being part of the NDA in order to "establish" its secular credentials, not only participated in the NDA meetings on this occasion, but its leader in the parliament spoke with the characteristic attitude of being "more loyal than the king." The TDP's opportunism has been exposed at its worst.

More pitiful was the plight of the other allies. The fall of the government leading to an early election would have seen the decimation of almost all of them. The Biju Janata Dal in Orissa, DMK in Tamilnadu, Trinamul Congress in West Bengal, Janata Dal (United) in Karnataka, the Samata Party in Bihar, the Akali Dal in Punjab, the All India Lok Dal in Haryana --- all are political forces that require this government to continue, otherwise they would face political oblivion. It is, indeed, a shame on Indian democracy that we have spectacles of such unfiltered opportunism and of the desire to share the spoils of office being displayed by these allies. 

Though the servility of this government to US imperialism figured often in the debate, the prime minister's reply was conspicuous by the refusal to even refer this issue. On the contrary, he laboured to justify his government's abject confirmation. 

The body language and the spirit of the ruling benches betrayed the fact staring on the walls that their time to quit has come. The sooner this happens, the better for India and its people.