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i-Corruption Movement and Limits of Indian Democracy

8/31/2011 11:41//www.pragoti.in/bn/print/4520

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Home > Anti- Corruption Movement and Limits of Indian Democracy

Anti- Corruption Movement and Limits of Indian DemocracyCreated 2011- 08- 30 16:59

Corruption Indian Democracy National Neolibera

A blog on the anti- corruption movement led by the members of India's 'civil society' by pragoti editorial member, MaidulIslam.

For the last few months, anti- corruption movement in India has gained momentum to the extent that it has madeinternational headlines. The leader of Indias largest communist party has already called a spade a spade by saying howthe UPA- II government is the most corrupt government in the history of independent India and how the urban middle-classes want a messiah to get rid of corruption without challenging the neoliberal policy regime that not only breedscorruption but has actually institutionalised it [ 2] . Similarly, a distinguished political commentator has argued about how theanti- corruption movement led by Anna Hazare sidesteps the corruption of the economically powerful in industry, trade andbusiness by prioritizing the corruption of the political elites [ 3] . A noted civil society activist and a prominent member ofwhat the corporate media has problematically called as Team Anna confirms that they have received 2 crore uniquemissed calls in the last fortnight [ 4] from those fortunate Indians, who have access to the mobile technology.But how do we explain the emergence and existence of such an anti- corruption movement in a neoliberal India? There is no denying the fact that sections of urban middclasses and the corporate mediathe vehicles and beneficiaries of neoliberal capitalism in India has been instrumental in popularising the anti- corruption movement under anationalist rubric. The mass frenzy that was telecast live by the electronic media might be a grand illusion that a respected novelist has recently articulated by calling upon

entire nation- state to self- introspect that perhaps we are all to blame [ 5] for such messy affairs of corruption.

Philosophically speaking, the problem of economic corruption is perhaps the symptom of greed that has always haunted human civilisations but its magnitude has exponentincreased in the period of neoliberal capitalism with its profound consumerist lifestyle. In this respect, the urban middle classes, who are deeply immersed into consumerism,would hardly launch an anti- consumerist movement by taking lessons from the Gandhian strategy of boycotting foreign commodities. Thus, their apparent inspiration of fastingon Gandhian lines actually betrays the Gandhian project of anti- consumerism. Secondly, finding a new messiah in Anna Hazare while discarding the discredited messiah the Indian prime minister who was once the darling of the urban middle classes for its staunch support to neoliberalism is perhaps the reflection of an unhappy anddiscontented being of this very urban middle classes. After all, Bertolt Brechts Galileo would say that Unhappy is the land that needs a hero! Thus, the apparent happyconsciousness of Indias urban middle classes with a consumerist lifestyle is a mask for its unhappy mind. Thirdly, the disillusioned urban middle classes, who rarely go to would obviously have less faith in the parliament, whose members are mostly elected by the suffering India. In this respect, a legitimate question can be what the sufferinIndia is thinking about a movement dominated by the members of shining India?Perhaps, the suffering India is taking note of each and every step of the liberal parliamentary democracy in India, in which they participate in large numbers. Perhaps, the suffering India is taking note of the everyday pinch of price rise and localised forms of corruption under an exploitative and oppressive neoliberal regime. But what would

they do, when the vocal and the so called virtuososthe elected representatives and the urban middle- classes always fool the suffering India? The former takes their voteand serves corporate capital and their salaried spokespersons, namely the urban middle classes. This is precisely the question of a permanent gap between the representati( MPs) and the represented ( people as underdogs/ underprivileged) that liberal parliamentary democracies have always encountered. Currently, Indian democracy is going thrsuch a crisis of representation that cannot prioritise to accommodate democratic demands of the people in the midst of its happy bonhomie with corporate capital. The messiproject of civil society and its urban middle class constituency perfectly gels with the guruvadi tradition in our country where ordinary citizens like us are constantly given moand political preaching by an enlightened few from the top. The basic premise of such a messianic project is that the messiahs know much better than the people. Thisan elitist political tradition, which is as old as Plato s philosopher king in The Republic . No wonder, the Republic of India under an elitist neoliberal project is mimickingsuch logic even in the context of an anti- corruption movement.In such a context of elitism prevalent in the air, is it not the responsibility of the political parties and civil society activists to listen to what the anti- elitist political project of revolutionary black man in Fanon has to say? In an under- developed country the party ought to be organized in such fashion that it is not simply content with havingcontacts with the masses. The party should be the direct expression of the masses. The party is not an administration responsible for transmitting government orders; it is tenergetic spokesman and the incorruptible defender of the masses. In order to arrive at this conception of the party, we must above all rid ourselves of the very Westvery bourgeois and therefore contemptuous attitude that the masses are incapable of governing themselves. In fact, experience proves that the masses understa

perfectly the most complicated problems Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth . Taking lessons from what the people has to say, the political struggle against anoppressive and exploitative system of neoliberalism and its offshoot of institutionalised corruption can be effectively fought. Perhaps, when the people would decide the fate oour country instead of the messiahs , then Indian democracy would keep its promise to be substantively representative and the constitution to be truly sovereign.

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Links:

[ 1] http:/ / www.pragoti.in/ bn/ node/ 4519

[ 2] http:/ / www.pragoti.in/ node/ 450 5

[ 3] http:/ / timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ home/ opinion/ edit- page/ Parliament- is- for- people/ articleshow/ 9 787 032 .cms

[ 4] http:/ / timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ india/ Strong- Lokpal- is- non- negotiable- Arvind- Kejriwal/ articleshow/ 979 009 8.cms

[ 5] http:/ / www.hindustantimes.com/ The- grand- illusion/ Article1- 7389 66 .aspx