Let?s awaken a spirited, responsive India

Here is a frightening scenario. Arjun Singh, at the ripe old and bruised age of 80-plus, has been sworn in as Prime Minister. As the reigning dictator of the UPA, supported by the descendants of Stalin and Mao, he forces reservations, bans women from leaving their homesteads and competing in the workplace with men, introduces a formal dress code much like the blue pant suits that Mao made fashionable, imprisons citizens for drinking alcohol, for dancing and singing, for being plain happy, puts an age limit?80 to 90 years?on those who can rule, disallows all discussion, new ideas, debate and discourse, and in the bargain puts this great land into rapid regression. This Talibanisation will soon give birth to a new generation Mandela and Gandhi who will unshackle the energy and intellectual enterprise of India. Maybe that will give India a lease of life.

Why are we being put through this inexplicable movement that takes us backwards, that compels us to retreat rather than move forward and face the challenges of a changing and dynamic world? The fanatic positions taken by politicians like Arjun Singh on the one hand and Narendra Modi on the other, make a mockery of democratic functioning in this millennium. Such desperate and polarised stances are unwarranted because they are bound to trigger violent reactions followed by similar actions. Where has sane discourse, argument, compromise and the initiation of alternative, contemporary strategies gone? Why this senseless wielding of the whip? And, most important, why is this kind of abrasive behaviour being permitted by the Prime Minister?

Stalin and Mao were dictators and forced their diktats upon their people. In sharp contrast, India is a democracy and is mandated to bring diverse opinions to the table for discussion to enunciate an inclusive policy. Inclusive does not mean the view of Arjun Singh but the many views that make this country a fine example of pluralism and diversity. If the UPA is going to fall in line with any and every demand made by either a colleague or an ally, the government may as well abdicate its throne. Better that, than surrendering its mind to this kind of archaic, dogmatic and autocratic posturing. The fast growing perception is that the government is weak, does not assert itself and is bullied into marking time, abandoning its responsibility as it yields to unreasonable pressures.

Maybe the only way out is to enforce an age limit not only on bureaucrats, but on politicians as well. No one can be Prime Minister, chief minister or part of the Cabinet if they are over 65 years of age. That will throw the cat amongst the pigeons, bring forth a cacophony of yelps and screams, and if instituted, will inaugurate the cleansing and energising of this polity. Ideas will belong to this age, to the majority; old methodologies will be discarded, making way for more efficient, workable and inclusive systems.

Laws will be restructured by taking them out of their present colonial mould, putting them into a modern and democratic context, something that was conveniently ignored and neglected in 1947 and through the decades that followed because it suited the new colonials to treat the citizenry as the oppressors did. And most important, India will free itself from the ghosts of the past, from the failure of equitable governance, from rampant exploitation indulged in by the political and administrative class. The final farce?minister Das Munshi watched the Da Vinci Code before allowing fellow Indians to see it. The Vatican has no objection but Priyaranjan ji does. How presumptuous and arrogant. What gives him the intellectual authority to police our minds?

We need a systemic overhaul. We need to simplify the rules and norms, the laws that govern the economic and societal space. We need to purge the addendas from the rule books, all those grey areas that encourage corruption. We need to devise workable do?s and don?ts from which deviation must not be permitted. We need to salute the private entrepreneur, the public entrepreneur, and the creative and diverse workforce ranging from rural artisans to Bollywood film stars. We need to arouse and galvanise a spirited and responsive India, one that has waited far too long, in the wings, for the baton to be passed on.