On The President’s Republic Day Address

Harkishan Singh Surjeet

EVERY year after our constitution came into force on January 26, 1950, the head of our republic has been, as a custom, addressing the nation on the Republic Day eve, and the tradition was maintained this year too. But on this 55th Republic Day, unlike many occasions in the past, what struck one was that the president’s address did not contain anything concrete regarding the state of the republic and the direction we need to take in future.    

The nature of the address was evident also from the fact that, unlike previous years, no important paper in the national capital carried the text of this year’s address. This compels us to rely on the reports about the address as they appeared in newspapers; needless to say, these reports too were much brief compared to past years.

Further, from the stray quotations given by newspapers, one could easily surmise that the address projected what was basically the NDA government’s viewpoint. And the timing is significant. The address came at a time when the lower house of parliament is soon to be dissolved, the ruling coterie is on a spree of showering sops upon various sections of population, and a propaganda blitz wants to make one and all believe that we Indians never had it so good. It is not surprising, therefore, if The Economic Times (January 26) said that in his address “Dr Kalam said many things that the BJP has been touting as part of its feel-good campaign theme,” and that his “words may sound as music to the BJP whose “feel-good” claims have been contested strongly by opposition parties.” And on the same day, The Indian Express report started with the words: “Lok Sabha elections in mind, President A P J Abdul Kalam tonight asked political parties…..” etc, etc.

THE NATURE OF DEVELOPMENT

AS an example, Dr Abdul Kalam’s address to the nation referred to the 8.4 per cent growth rate that our economy achieved in the second quarter of the current fiscal, overlooking what has been obvious to many commentators. The first thing to note here is that this rate was achieved on a very low base in the last fiscal, or in the same quarter last year. Secondly, the first quarter of the current fiscal had registered only 7 per cent growth, and therefore the 8.4 per cent growth registered in the second quarter cannot be projected as applicable to the whole year.  

One thing needs to be underlined here. Whatever we say is not to deny the development that has so far taken place in the country. India has not only a huge population; it also has plenty of natural resources plus a remarkable base in science and technology. Also, our people are not lacking in initiative; they have indeed impressed the world community with their achievements and contributions. The regret one has is that, given our natural and human resources, much more could have been achieved, which was not.

The reality becomes all the more obvious when one casts only a cursory glance at the progress our northern neighbour, the People’s Republic of China, has registered since the revolution there. If we became independent on August 15, 1947, China underwent a revolution more than two years later, on October 1, 1949. Moreover, compared to China’s, our economy was much stronger at that time; in fact India was regarded as most advanced among the colonies. However, as is evident today, China has surpassed not only us but also many advanced countries in this period in the matter of development. The situation is that, with its all-round development, China is giving sleepless nights to the US and other advanced countries today. If we boast today of our forex reserves of more than 100 billion dollars (a fact which the president’s address touched) and of the foreign direct investment we are attracting, China is far ahead of us even in this sphere.

The issue of distribution is the other, and far more important, aspect of this development. After the initial euphoria generated by the regime was over, voices are being heard about how various segments of our population have been left aside. In January 26 issue of The Indian Express, Sucheta Dalal wrote that only foreign institutional investors seem to be buying the story of India shining. On the same day, Namita Bhandare, a woman activist, wrote how girls and women have been at the receiving end of the whole process. In her article “India Dimming” in Hindustan Times, she talked of “spin doctors” weaving the “tales of India shining” while girls are “denied equal nutrition, education, healthcare and inheritance.” She even describes the national capital as “the rape capital of the country,” where the union government controlled Delhi Police has failed to curb this menace.

This, then, is the nature of the development that is taking place in our country: that large chunks of our people are simply being ignored. These include poor and middle peasants, agricultural labourers, unorganised workers and slum dwellers in urban areas, the bulk of our scheduled castes and tribes, and more particularly large chunks of women and children in all these sections. Whatever is shining in India today is simply not for them.

This reality is so glaring is that even the president’s address has been unable to ignore it. Even if the address did not take note of this reality in a forthright manner, it had to accept it indirectly and obliquely. That was evident when the address said, “The time has come for these economic benefits to reach speedily the rural population;” the address even talked of the need of “development programmes such as PURA” (providing urban amenities in rural areas). The only thing it did not tell us was what type of development programmes are needed to accomplish this task. The talk of giving the developmental process a “humane face” may itself serve as an indication that the ongoing development in the country lacks a humane face.

YOUTH’S ENERGY GOING WASTE

THE same may be said about our youth. Referring to 54 crore youth of our country, the president said India today is a youthful country, adding that these youth want to live in a developed and corruption free India. All this is absolutely correct; the only regret is that the address did not outline what steps are required to harness the unlimited energy of our youth.

The curse of unemployment is one grave aspect of the problem. Today, more than 18 crore young women and men are said to be unemployed and are at a loss to understand how they can contribute to the nation’s regeneration. But the president’s address did not tell us anything about employment generation, while the government of the day is simply content with making unfounded claims in this regard. It is known that the government has to play a lead role in job creation in a developing country where the private sector is simply failing in this area. But, instead of recognising its responsibility, our government is simply bent on downsizing and withdrawing from social sectors, with the result that jobs in the organised sector (including public sector concerns) declined by a whopping 1.5 per cent in just one year. Such being the situation, then, one is simply astonished as to how our youth could fulfil their dream of living in a developed India or of making India developed.

The address also showed concern about our children. It said urgent action is needed for providing suitable infrastructure for primary education and having good teachers for running schools and providing quality education to children, blended with modern technologies of E-learning and tele-education.

These are noble sentiments indeed. But Dr Kalam is unfortunately presiding over a regime that is moving in reverse education. Despite the phenomenal growth of education in India since independence, the fact remains that about half of those enrolled in Class I drop out before completing primary education and only about 4 per cent reach the level of higher education. There are several factors to it. But, instead of streamlining the system, the NDA regime is out to privatise and commercialise education, which can only strengthen the double education system that was forged in the country after independence, to the detriment of the poor and downtrodden. There is no doubt that we are fast moving towards E-learning and tele-education. But at the same time the government is bent on pushing the informal education systems for the poor, which can only reproduce the inequalities prevailing in our society. The way the government is showing withdrawal symptoms from social sectors, the only possibility is that modern educational technologies will only benefit the affluent, and the bulk of the population will not be able to catch up with them.

Thus, while not doubting Dr Kalam’s sentiments for a moment, what we fear is that his words about science and technology, about space research and Chadrayaan exploration, about youth and children and their role in India’s regeneration may not get translated into reality because of the class biased policies of the government.

ISSUE OF CORRUPTION

ONE of the most emphasised issues in the president’s address is corruption, and there is nothing unfounded in his concern. For, corruption has emerged as a bane of our whole collective life. The president also, and correctly, stressed the need for the electorate to choose their representatives with utmost caution. But what was curious about his address was that he avoided any reference to the concrete cases of corruption that have taken place in recent past, which makes his address more of a homily. Needless to say, this could only bring cheer to the main ruling party and some other NDA parties whose leaders were found involved in corrupt deals.

In this regard, the president also urged political parties to come out with their visions for future in concrete terms. In itself, there is nothing wrong with it. But, unfortunately, his address sounded more like an advice to the opposition than to the ruling combine. As The Economic Times noted, “Importantly, Dr Kalam called upon the political parties to move beyond blind criticism of the government on the development front by laying down their alternative action plan and vision for development.”

This is no doubt based on the implicit but unfounded assumption that opposition parties are fond of only “blind criticism of the government” and have no “alternative action plan and vision for development” of their own. But this is precisely the refrain that we have been hearing in the last half a century. The fact is that it is the task of the government to concretely show its achievements; otherwise to criticise the government for its failings and to keep it in its track is precisely the opposition’s role in a democracy. To ask the opposition to give up this role is simply to deprive a democratic system of one of its vital strengths.

PEACE INGREDIENT

ABOUT the scenario in the subcontinent and the world, the president underscored the need of peace in our region for the sake of its development. Taking note of Pakistan’s promise not to allow the use of its territory for terrorist activities, he said: “Most nations have realised that low intensity proxy wars, deterrence based build-ups and real wars are too expensive detractors from the perceived visions of development.”

This is again something to which no exception can be taken. There is no doubt that low intensity proxy wars have been taking a big toll not only in terms of life and property but also in terms of developmental goals. And this has been as true of the promoters of proxy war as of its victims. As the recent attempts on the life of President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan go to show, to uncork the bottle and let the genie come out is easy but then to control the genie is something extremely difficult.

But Dr Kalam seems to have overlooked that, as far as the deterrence based build-up is concerned, it is the NDA regime, upon which he is unfortunately presiding, that started such a build-up. It is a fact that even though India went in for a nuclear test in Pokhran in May 1973, the whole world believed India’s commitment to peaceful uses of nuclear energy. But it was precisely in this sense that Pokhran II was different from Pokhran I. In May 1998, the NDA government carried out tests not for any peaceful use of nuclear energy but with the declared intention of building up deterrence. This was what started a virtual race of nuclear arms in the region, forcing both India and Pakistan to divert large chunks of their resources away from developmental uses.

Nay, even in its election manifesto for the 1999 Lok Sabha polls, the NDA did not show any remorse over what it had done. Instead, it jingoistically talked of developing “a credible nuclear deterrence” and began to build up a nuclear arsenal. This was their way of making India proud and prosperous!   

While talking of strifes, the president’s address did not mention how to prevent a recurrence of Gujarat type violence. Nor was there any reference to the need of solving the Ayodhya tangle in a just and egalitarian manner.

As for the need of strengthening the non-aligned movement or of resisting the imperialist offensive in forms like open wars (as in Iraq) and globalisation, one does not find anything in the address the head of our republic made. This is sad, and also strange in view of the fact that this year the honoured guest at our Republic Day ceremony was the Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, known for his criticism of war and pro-imperialist globalisation. Dr Kalam’s address has thus left us in the dark about what our role would be in regard to many vital questions facing the nation and the world.