The year 2009 ended on a grim note. A slew of agitations coupled with the ongoing insurgency in large tracts only indicate that we have to make some hard choices if we want our democracy to succeed. Democracy sometimes is confused with mobocracy in India. One wonders if lawlessness even pays at times. Consider the number of agitations being carried out leading to rampant destruction of public property and yet no one is punished because all such cases are withdrawn in “public interest”. Every second day, a national highway is blocked, vehicles torched and shops vandalized for some accident or the other. The police never swing into action, knowing that the political masters will never support them. In some cases policemen have also been lynched by mobs. With the law enforcement machinery or hesitant to act because of no clear directions from the executive, our democratic institutions are under serious threat.
Most State Governments are known to back track on issues of Governance. Public representatives never favour firm handling of law and order incidents lest it annoys a section of their vote bank. Very few CMs arouse any confidence or enthusiasm among the electorate with respect to governance or development. It is a pity to see the State of Jharkhand being run by a rag tag coalition under the “famous” Shibu Soren. The same BJP which criticized him vehemently for his various ills, is a major partner in the coalition. Jharkhand today faces the gravest threat from naxalism. With a fragile Government like this, it is anybody’s guess how well it can fight the naxals.
Naxal violence today has extremely dangerous portents and the massive drive to be launched by the Central Government in Maoist strongholds is awaited still. Problems in acquisition of bullet proof vests and other equipment, being daily projected by the TV channels, will only add as a dampener to police morale. Time and again, it has been emphasized to the State Governments that Naxalism cannot be viewed as a series of law and order incidents. It is a full blown insurgency which needs to be tackled by a quantum jump in allocation of resources and police deployment. With the security infrastructure in rural areas lying in shambles in the form of decrepit police stations, untrained constables and outdated equipment, the local police cannot even stand up to the naxals, let alone fight. Elected Panchayats and Zila bodies hardly help. Rampant corruption and political bickering have rendered them totally ineffective in either promoting development or stemming naxal advance in the area. The Maoist controlled areas need a different model of Governance with the twin objective of unfettered development along with hard anti insurgency measures.
Agitations for new States were the recurring theme in 2009. While the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha paralyzed the Darjeeling Hill areas on the simplest of pretexts, pro and anti-Telengana agitations reached a peak in the month of December. Unfortunately, this also gave impetus to the hooligans to resort to mindless destruction of public property. In Andhra, trains were stopped, highways blocked, government buildings targeted, vehicles torched and life and activity paralyzed in Hyderabad and major towns of Andhra Pradesh. Whether the issue is resolved or not, one thing is sure that all the criminal cases of goondagiri or hooliganism would be withdrawn by any government in power. This is a sad part of our democracy.
Have the newly carved out States really helped the cause of our democracy or led to betterment of lives of people in these regions? Both Chattisgarh and Jharkhand have suffered due to the naxal onslaught due to lesser resources and continued political bickering over Governance. What is the guarantee then that Telengana will not suffer the same fate? Who can say with confidence that the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha will give a better Government in Darjeeling? Look at the violence level of the districts in Bodoland Council, Assam created by the Union Government some years back.
2009 reveals that our democracy still faces many real and basic issues, which are just wished away by our political leaders. The Prime Minister would do well to call an all party meeting to arrive at a consensus, at least on some key issues like internal security and terrorism, poverty alleviation programmes etc,
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