“Is it Mr. Narayan’s democratic’ aim that popular ministries should be replaced by President’s rule until such time the national character undergoes a sea change and produces a new set of highly ethical and able legislators? If corruption and maladministration are what he is up against, one would expect him to lead his followers to unearth hoarded grain and expose corrupt and incompetent men in office through the appropriate or established forums. He may well ask where such forums are that will help him achieve his objective. That might be a tough question to answer. But by bringing down the present elected legislature through demonstrations in the streets does he expect that a successor legislature elected in due course would be free of the ills he wants to eliminate?”
JUNE 11, 1974
Some thoughts for J.P.
IF THE ISSUE IN BIHAR TODAY WERE SIMPLY THE DISMISSAL OF the Ministry and the dissolution of the State legislature, many may agree with Mr. Jaya Prakash Narayan who wants both done. The record of the ruling Congress Legislature Party, with its endless factionalism and the Ministry’s consequent administrative ineffectiveness, would justify the imposition of President’s Rule for a fairly long spell before elections are held again. But for Mr. Narayan’s ill-timed agitation which has made it both an issue of prestige and of democratic propriety for the Government, even the Congress High Command might have come to that decision on its own. Especially as the Supreme Court’s opinion about the validity of the forthcoming Presidential election, with one or more State Legislatures out of existence, no longer imposes a constitutional compulsion to keep the Bihar legislature alive till August 24.
But the real question now is whether a duly elected legislature should be dissolved just because a students’ agitation, however eminently led, demands it. Mr. Narayan, who had so far chosen to remain outside the mainstream of politics and thus shirked his responsibility to shape it and the country’s affairs on what he deems to be sound lines, now seeks to enter the house by the wrong door and even bring it down on the heads of everybody. That a similar agitation got away with it in Gujarat and got the Assembly dissolved is no justification for another such attempt in Bihar. In Gujarat too, fight against high prices and war on corruption in high places were the most prominent slogans. It is doubtful if either battle has been won since the dissolution, though the Ministers are no longer there to be charged with responsibility for them.
Is it Mr. Narayan’s “democratic” aim that popular Ministries should be replaced by President’s Rule until such time the national character undergoes a sea change and produces a new set of highly ethical and able legislators?
If corruption and maladministration are what he is up against, one would expect him to lead his followers to unearth hoarded grain and expose corrupt and incompetent men in office through the appropriate or established forums. He may well ask where such forums are that will help him achieve his objective. That might be a tough question to answer. But by bringing down the present elected legislature through demonstrations in the streets, does he expect that a successor legislature elected in due course, would be free of the ills he wants to eliminate?
Bihar has had perhaps more mid-term elections than any other State in India and governments too of various kinds, both led by Congress and united fronts of the Opposition parties. And all of them have been notorious for the same ills, because the people of Bihar by and large vote on the basis of caste and manage to return more or less the same set of casteminded legislators, many of whom, do not think twice about crossing the floor or plotting against their elected party leaders, for personal benefit. A repetition of the mixture as before can hardly be ruled out in yet another election.
It is being said in defence of Mr. Narayan’s unhappy adventure that one of his aims in launching the agitation is to educate the people politically, so that they will learn to beware of the self-seeking and the corrupt, when they go to the polls next time. What seems more likely is that he may be educating the Biharis in anarchy. His call to the people not to pay taxes and the police to disobey official orders amounts to nothing less. What kind of democracy, of the partyless variety or any other, can he hope to usher in when the people and the officials are taught or asked to run berserk?
If Mr. Narayan’s objective is to show the powers that be that he is still a political force to reckon with, he may have demonstrated it by the one lakh crowd that he was able to mobilise for his recent Patna procession. But if he is keen about rescuing Bihar’s or the country’s politics from its depths and re-shape it to meet the country’s needs, the public would expect him to fight the elections, get the people’s mandate for whatever constructive programme he has to offer and show that the State and the country could be governed better.
From the following that counter-demonstrations to his own could muster, it is clear that even the bulk of the Biharis is not entirely behind his toppling move. It is also clear that what inhibits the Government’s firmer handling of the situation created by him is Mr. Narayan’s undoubted stature as a Gandhian and an upright man. Should he virtually exploit such public standing to usher in what are disorder and disrespect for law and order and the democratic set-up as a whole?
Reference:
The First 100
A Selection of Editorials, 1878-1978, THE HINDU, VOLUME I