The Hindu : Sanjay Gandhi syndrome resurrected

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 03, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Leader Page Articles

Sanjay Gandhi syndrome resurrected

By Harish Khare

The ultimate test of the democratic consolidation remains an efficacious mechanism to tame errant individuals, even if they happen to be the rulers of the land.

THE NATIONAL Human Rights Commission (NHRC) deserves the nation's unqualified gratitude for cataloguing the Gujarat Government's lapses of judgment and instances of inaction since "Godhra". This is the first comprehensive indictment of the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, from an institutionally-mandated voice. The Commission has merely added its stamp of credibility and authority to what almost every sane, reasonable, nationalist, patriotic, democratic, secular and liberal individual and group has been saying in a chorus of denunciation of the Modi Government's handling of the post-Godhra riots. There is near-unanimity, in and outside Gujarat, in and outside India, and within the entire non-BJP political spectrum that the Modi regime is guilty of abetting in the violence against the minorities from February 28. Nor is the violence going to stop soon, because the State Government continues to behave — administratively and politically — as if its primary job is to reinforce the lessons of mob violence against the minorities. Officially-inspired intimidation has become the defining feature of the State administration, with every official, from the Chief Secretary down to the police sub-inspector, acquiescing in the Chief Minister's designs.

While the outrage of democratic India has been heard, what is curious is the approving silence from NDA quarters. The BJP, the RSS, and the VHP spin-doctors have predictably been batting for Mr. Modi; and, even the Samata Party, especially its two leaders — George Fernandes and Jaya Jaitley — have been recklessly supportive of him. The disquieting feature is that those very individuals who otherwise become voices for dissent and decency in our collective affairs are suddenly unable to muster any kind of indignation in the face of all the evidence of a massive criminal approach in Gandhinagar towards a section of our own citizens.

It is as if suddenly the Sanjay Gandhi syndrome has been resurrected. The only difference is that while Sanjay Gandhi never occupied a constitutional office and functioned as an extra-constitutional authority during the Emergency, Mr. Modi is the newly-incarnated Sanjay Gandhi whose "constitutional" excesses — or rather a wilful non-performance of constitutional obligations — must be condoned by everyone, from the Prime Minister down to the Sangh Parivar's professional pamphleteers. The very facade and respectability of the letter of the Constitution is being used to subvert its very essence; the only difference being that while during the Emergency citizens lost temporarily their liberties, in the Modi innings citizens are losing their lives. It is ironic that "Sanjay Modi" is being now defended by those very individuals who earned a place for themselves in history by opposing the Emergency regime.

Both Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani are playing fond parents to the enfant terrible, just as Indira Gandhi indulged Sanjay in all his excesses and aberrations; Jana Krishnamurthy, BJP president, is replicating perfectly the role of court jester so elegantly performed by Dev Kant Barooah; Arun Jaitely is the modern Siddhartha Shankar Ray, devising arguments and legal stratagem to save his friend, "Sanjay Modi"; the other Arun, Mr. Shourie, who would habitually and passionately raise his voice against waywardness in public life, has suddenly lost his capacity for indignation; the collaborationist role, played so willingly by the Communist Party of India during the Emergency, is now being enthusiastically performed by the Samata Party. The parallels of individual failings are far too numerous to be enumerated.

But what is more troublesome is the unchanging pattern of not only denying that something terribly wrong has happened in Gujarat but also of devising elaborate and sophisticated arguments in justification of police and administrative atrocities. Memories of Sanjay Gandhi's roguish behaviour continue to cast a charming spell. Just as during the Emergency there was no dearth of well-meaning individuals and "sarkari intellectuals" who said there was too much democracy, too much anarchy, and justified the need for a stiff dose of authoritarianism of the Sanjay Gandhi variety, the Modi apologists are aplenty. They are celebrating the death of secularism, serenading the rise of the "angry Hindu", and winking at those openly arguing that the "Muslims needed to be taught a bloody lesson". As far as these spin-doctors are concerned, there is no need for any revulsion that the state structure has been used against the minorities in Gujarat, just as there were no tears shed during the Emergency for stifling of dissent and other democratic liberties. The itch for state authoritarianism remains unscratched.

Then, there is a remarkable similarity in the pattern of the defence mounted by the Congress crowd for Sanjay Gandhi and the BJP party machinery for Mr. Modi. For instance, two years ago, on the 25th anniversary of the Emergency, a BJP publication, "Remember the Emergency and strengthen democracy", indicted Congressmen for "acquiescing in adopting whatever was presented to them. Thirty years as members of the ruling party had made the Congressmen power-thirsty. They had taken the place of zamindars and jagirdars". The same indictment — every sentence, every word — can now be legitimately flung at the BJP. The same publication had this to say about the bureaucracy: "The bureaucrats who carried out the oral orders of the politicians in power and other extra-constitutional authorities, without proper written orders, were also guilty. They did so to please their bosses without any moral considerations of morality or sense of duty."

And, now the same BJP establishment maintains an applauding silence as the Gujarat Chief Secretary and the Director-General of Police fail to perform their professional duties just to "please their bosses", the Chief Minister and the new extra-constitutional authorities, the VHP goon-brigade. The BJP and its friends and apologists have maintained a deafening silence as the officers are being penalised for enforcing the written orders of the Chief Secretary and the DGP that preventive detentions be made and that no one be allowed to disturb peace and harmony. Above all there is this pattern of a totally unenlightening demand of consuming partisanship; just as the Allahabad High Court judgment against Indira Gandhi was dismissed as judicial mischief aforethought, the NHRC is being ridiculed for poking its institutional nose where it did not belong. Just as Indira Gandhi would not countenance any negative input about Sanjay Gandhi, the BJP establishment works itself into such an inspired partisanship that it dismisses every criticism, contrary perception and critical comment against Mr. Modi as motivated by the BJP's enemies. This effortless and resistance-free regression into the Sanjay Gandhi syndrome reflects our wobbly progress as a political community. Progress in a political community can only mean a collective capacity to think in a wise and enlightened way out of any breakdown of order; modernity means an entrenched and unshakeable inclination to rise above the demands of the animosity of the past, an ability to resist demands of medieval retribution; and, above all, the ultimate test of the democratic consolidation remains an efficacious mechanism to tame errant individuals, even if they happen to be the rulers of the land.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

Stories in this Section

Sinister designs

Aid at Monterrey

Sanjay Gandhi syndrome resurrected

The Adivasi question — II

From romance to realism

Palestine: India must speak out