(Courtesy: New York Times) India boasts, accurately, of being the world’s biggest democracy. But India’s democracy can be as superficial as it is big.
Multiparty elections are regularly held, opposition parties Occasionally win und when Indira Gandhi attempted to establish an outright dictatorship in the 1970’s, Indian’s people drove her from power These are no small accomplishments any. where, and contrast favorably with the Situation in most of India’s Asian neighbors.
Yet India’s elections, particularly at the state level, are notoriously corrupt and Violence prone. The country’s aggressively independent Election Commissioner. T N. Sheshan, has pressed hard for a modern, fraud-resistant voter identification system. He has tried to discourage vote buying abuse of incumbency and the fanning of caste animosities for electoral purposes, but so far he has had only limited success.
One party, the Congress Party, has held national power for 40 of the 47 years since India became independent. Indeed, one family dynasty, consisting of Jawaharlal Nehru his daughter Indira Gandhi and her son, Rajiv, tiled for 38 of those years.
Congress and the Nehres have been genuinely popular. But Indira Gandhi’s tackles manipulation of religious passions and other local tensions created powerful backlash movements that now cloud democracy’s future. New Delhi has also abused its constitutional power to remove elected state governments it does not like and impose lengthy periods of appointive president’s rule.”
Worse, in recent years several states with serious separatist unrest, like Punjab in the 1980’s and Kashmir and Assam today, have been subjected to broad-brush repression. An emergency anti-terrorism law, “temporarily” imposed during the Punjab crisis a decade ago, remains in force and has been widely abused to detain without charge or trial journalists and nonviolent dissidents..
In Muslim-majority Kashmir, Indian security forces, responding to the provocations of pro-Pakistani militants and urged on by Hindu extremists, have waged their own campaign of state terrorism. including reprisal killings Villages have been burned down, and suspects executed without trail. There have also been numerous reports of torture and “disappearances” leading to the deaths of hundreds of civilians. New Delhi has done little to restrain the violence or punish the guilty. During these same years, India has initiated ambitious, market oriented reforms. As it seeks to attract foreign capital, it would prefer not having to answer questions about these human rights abuses. Regrettably, the Clinton Administration has been an obliging partner in India’s efforts at concealment. Administration officials have systematically ignored human rights issues on recent high-level public visits, like the one just completed by Commerce Secretary Ron Brown Transfixed by its own hype about big emerging markets, Washington now of fears the world’s biggest democracy the same speak no evil treatment it gives neighboring China, the world’s biggest dictatorship.
That condescending silence insults Indians and misleads Americans. Deepening or even preserving Indian democracy is not primarily America’s responsibility. But ignoring the serious problems of Indian democracy today invites unpleasant surprises tomorrow.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 24, 1995
