Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to the people to finish off the forces of casteism and regionalism trying to divide the country fits into his pet theme for the “Amrit Kaal” of independence — to do whatever it takes to make India a developed country by 2047 when it celebrates its century of Independence. The Prime Minister, while attending a Dussehra celebration in the national capital, also called for burning the ideologies that are not about India’s development but about fulfilling selfish interests.
The political leadership of the world’s most populous nation with half of them under 30 years has the task to set a national agenda that clearly meets the requirements of the future; and doing so is important not only for the country but for the world as well. It must hence have the widest possible appeal across sections of people, must be able to carry everyone together, and is able to offer opportunities for all. It is very legitimate to demand that caste and regionalism, or for that matter, any idea that has the potential to be divisive, must be kept off the agenda.
Independent India discovered and celebrated its diversity and preserved its constitutional democracy while several nations which got freedom along with it slipped into various forms of authoritarianism. It is not that India faced no challenge in this period. There were wars, external aggressions, extremist organisations and secessionist movements but the multiple layers through which a democracy functions took care of them all. The country even got over the blip called Emergency triumphantly and restored the primacy of the multitude and the collective, the idea on which a democracy is founded. In short, the nation has put in place mechanisms that are capable of addressing forces that are potential threats to its survival and success. The Prime Minister’s call can be seen as a part of a periodical assessment of the preparedness of those mechanisms.
However, as is a democracy’s wont, there are Doubting Thomases around. The Opposition has raised serious doubts about the actions and intentions of the Prime Minister and the government he heads vis-a-vis India’s democratic traditions. The Prime Minister’s party had launched a slogan “Congress-mukt Bharat” which essentially is a call for the obliteration of the principal Opposition party in the country. Curiously, while Mr Modi was calling for an end to the divisive forces, the head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to which his party owes its ideological allegiance, unleashed an attack on the leftists in the country, calling them “undesirable and sectarian forces” who are opposed to all “orderliness and morality, culture, dignity and restraint”. Between the BJP and the RSS, they have thus covered a good spectrum of the Opposition thought in the country.
The pursuit of a developmental agenda that can cater to the aspirations of a growing population calls for a positive programme and unity of purpose. However, their contours must be decided in the democratic way; dictatorial attributes hardly work in India which reflects all the diversity humankind can lay a claim to. Respectful exchanges of ideas and a sense of accommodation are the only way to arrive at an agenda that is democratic in form and content. Anything less will be unsuitable for a pluralist republic.
