AS India observes the 70th anniversary of independence, every pillar of the independent Republican State is under threat.
When the country celebrated the 50th anniversary of independence in 1997, one of the achievements that stood out was the existence of
AS India observes the 70th anniversary of independence, every pillar of the independent Republican State is under threat.
When the country celebrated the 50th anniversary of independence in 1997, one of the achievements that stood out was the existence of a democratic political system in the form of parliamentary democracy. It could be legitimately said that the parliamentary democratic system, with all its imperfections, had been able to give some scope for people’s participation in politics – one of the democratic goals of the independence struggle.
However, 20 years later, this sadly is not the case. Of course, elections are held regularly without fail and the participation of people in the electoral arena is in no way reduced. But while the form remains, the content of democracy is steadily being eroded.
The potential of democracy under a Republican Constitution began foundering in the face of the class realities of developing capitalism without a democratic social transformation. The compromise with landlordism and the failure to implement land reforms were glaring instances. It crippled the possibility of creating a socially just economic order. The early decades of independence set a pattern of social and economic inequalities. The growth of monopoly capital distorted the social and economic vision set out in the freedom struggle and encapsulated in the constitution.
All these factors constrained and attenuated democracy and the democratic rights of citizens. But in the last two decades, with the advent of neo-liberal capitalism, there has been a further steep erosion and hollowing out of democracy. The neo-liberal phase of capitalism has escalated the concentration of wealth to startling proportions. According to the Credit Suisse Wealth Report 2016, the top one per cent of the population in India own 58.4 per cent of its wealth, while the top ten per cent of the population own 80.7 per cent of its wealth.
Neo-liberal capitalism has invaded politics and transformed the character of the political system. The nexus of politics and business underpins electoral politics which is pervaded by big money. More and more businessmen and capitalists are being elected as legislators and becoming ministers. The intertwining of politics and business has corroded democratic institutions. All bourgeois parties have been suborned by big money and have embraced neo-liberal policies. Whichever party is elected to office, there will be no change in the basic economic policies.
All this has led to the corrosion of parliamentary institutions. The grip of big money over the electoral system leads to the marginalisation of any party which has an alternative programme or policies.
It is this perversion of the electoral-political system which is now being exploited by the BJP as the ruling party at the centre. There is the shameless purchase of legislators, inducing them to defect and the use of the central investigative agencies to browbeat opponents.
The Modi government has facilitated the growing grip of corporate-big money over the political system by introducing the system of electoral bonds. Unlimited amounts of money can be legitimately given by corporates to a political party anonymously with no questions asked.
The struggle for 