People's Democracy

FIFTY two years ago, "We, the people" of India, gave to ourselves our existing republican Constitution. It was a visionary document that envisaged the building of a prosperous and powerful India. Its foundations were laid on the four pillars of Secular Democracy, Economic Self-Reliance, Federalism and Social Justice. The limitations for achieving these objectives, under a bourgeois-landlord class rule, were obvious. Nevertheless, this vision served and still serves, as the basis to build upon and advance towards an exploitation-free society in India.

Today, we are observing this anniversary under the dark shadow of an increased threat from terrorism, the latest attack being the incident in Kolkata, following the outrage of December 13. The country has risen as one man to face this challenge and to eliminate this scourge.

At the same time, the nation needs to rise as one man to assert that the prevention of deaths due to starvation and distress suicides, is as important as the prevention of loss of innocent lives due to terrorist attacks.

Over this half a century, the country has traversed a difficult path, notching up many a notable achievement along the way . Many of them have been outstanding, but, unfortunately, they have been too halting and inadequate to meet the requirements of a billion-strong nation, and the tall promises contained in the Directive Principles of our Constitution, together with the ideals set out in the Preamble, remain largely on paper. The postman, as it were, delivered the letter fifty two years ago, but illiteracy prevented its contents from being read.

Thus, while the goals of free and compulsory education, universal health and food security still remain a distant dream, many of our very proclaimed objectives are today coming under severe strain, and every one of our four foundational pillars stands threatened:

- the secular democratic content of our Constitution is being severely corroded by the onslaught of communal forces, the rich multi-religious, multi-lingual, and multi-cultural mosaic of diversity that constitutes the beautiful fabric of India, is sought to be consciously and systematically undermined;

- the economic policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation are continuously eating into whatever was built, over these years, of a self-reliant economy. In place of further advancement along these lines, instead, the country, is being mortgaged and the vast majority of the Indian people forced to bear the brunt of unprecedented and unnecessary economic burdens;

- the federal structure of the Constitution, defined as the "union of Indian States" is being steadily attacked with the aim of replacing it with a unitary structure. The relations between the centre and the states, far from being developed into a healthy interaction have, over the years, seen a steady erosion;

- social oppression of the worst kind continues to subject the lives of millions to an obnoxious existence. Caste oppression and outrages against the dalits, other backward castes and tribals, continue to be perpetrated. The ideal of social justice continues to elude our society.

Have we, Indians, shown ourselves to be incapable of anything better during this half a century? Certainly, some of our achievements match the best in the world. But, despite the tremendous potential that we have as a country and a people, we are where we are because we are trapped in a system which refuses to allow the benefits of our advances to be universally shared.

Further, as all Indians seek the realisation of the lofty goals set out in our Constitution, we have presently a political leadership holding the reins of state power which seeks the opposite, to undermine these very goals. The relentless pursuit of the communal agenda, with the ultimate objective of converting the secular democratic republic into a rabidly intolerant and pernicious "Hindu Rashtra", is steadily destroying the very basis of modern India, as we know of it today. At the same time, not only our economy, but even our foreign policy, is being made subservient to imperialist interests.

Put simply: if our resolve on this Republic Day, is to convert into reality the aims and objectives spelt out in our Constitution, then it is clear that the first step in this direction must be to rid ourselves of this government at the centre. The policies that it pursues run contrary to what we have declared we want as a nation. What is more, this Vajpayee-led government has devalued political morality to such depths of degeneration that even the semblance of a governance that is able to address the people's requirements, now appears a far cry.

Thus, our resolve on this 52^nd Republic Day, must be to save India. This requires us to redouble our efforts to rid ourselves of this government. Only then can we embark on the road to change India in the direction envisaged in our Constitution.