So the country is in a mess, our institutions stand tarnished in the public eye, and the government faces a credibility crisis. People are right to be both disillusioned and worried about where matters are headed. The transition from unreal optimism to cynical gloom in just a few weeks is breathtaking. This is a time for leadership, not vacillation and hiding in corners.
What are the issues to be addressed? First is the quite incredible paralysis of Parliament, with belief in the efficacy of its functioning so low that there is no discernible public response to the loss of a whole session; what kind of democracy do we have that it does not matter if Parliament is non-functional? Second is the growth of crony capitalism into a national cancer that corrupts any and everything in sight. The third is linked to the second, namely the shady sourcing of election funds — which, in turn, has become a cover story for unchecked loot on an unprecedented scale. Fourth is the chaotic style that has come to mark coalition governments, whereby each minister thinks he is a law unto himself. And fifth is the state of affairs in the judiciary, with even the Supreme Court and former chief justices coming under a cloud.
There is a second set of five troubling issues. One is the steady emaciation and co-option, if not downright subversion, of supposedly autonomous institutions that could keep the rich and powerful in check, like the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Lok Ayuktas, the Central Vigilance Commission…; the result is not only that the country’s rulers are effectively above the law, but also that they can invade the privacy of private citizens through gross actions like telephone tapping. Two, there is the suborning of the bureaucracy, which now mostly comprises willing accomplices in the shenanigans of political masters, and which asserts itself only to corner privileges for itself. Third is the defence brass, whose reputation and image have taken a severe knock after the Adarsh scandal, not to mention the general assumption of its involvement in corrupt purchase deals. Fourth is the media, whose credibility has reached its lowest point ever, in the wake of paid news scandals and now the Radia tapes which show up some leading media personages as completely compromised individuals. And last, there is the growing feeling that the state’s capacity to deliver is fundamentally deficient, at a time when the state is being asked to do ever more.
These 10 overlapping crises — involving politicians, civil servants, judges, businessmen, armed service officers, journalists and publishers — have boiled over at the end of a long process of deterioration in efficacy levels and standards of probity. It has reached the point where business cannot go on as usual; the system must be rescued because it is at risk — many countries that seemed on a rapid growth track have been arrested in mid-stride by corrosion from within, resulting in violent implosion. Think Indonesia.
But with such a daunting list of challenges, you could be forgiven for asking where one begins. In fact, though, the task is not very difficult. All that the prime minister and other leaders need to do is to tap the latent desire for a change from today’s dreadful situation. If they are seen doing that, there will be a groundswell of support that itself creates an environment which facilitates other corrective action. The specific steps are in themselves not difficult to design. If our leaders cannot or will not take these steps, then they deserve to go. The country deserves better.