Grass-Roots Party Lacking in India
RAO, C. R. M.
Grass-Roots Party Lacking in India By C. R. M. Rao New Delhi An eminent Indian and an outstanding Englishman, Dr. John Matthai and Hugh Gaitskell, recently warned the Indian people of the dangers...
...John Matthai and Hugh Gaitskell, recently warned the Indian people of the dangers that face their nascent democracy because there is no effective and responsible opposition to the country's Government...
...For, it is simply not true to say that there is no opposition at all to the Government today...
...Even now, what exists is a loud demand rather than any serious activity for opposition...
...Indeed, the vital task is to lay the foundations of democracy where they are truly and well laid—among the people...
...Matthai, a former Indian Finance Minister and Vice-Chancellor of Bombay University, deplored "the excessive use of the State for directing the personal lives of the citizens, the economic activities of the community and the moral and social habits of the people...
...The only real answer, he concluded, was a strong opposition...
...It is so much a passion of the day that few realize the party in power is not content with political and economic power, it also professes concern for the promotion of all those activities outside the pale of politics which the word "culture'' stands for...
...Only in a parliamentary form of government is it necessary...
...Thus the opposition must create a wider movement for the de-politicalization of culture and the building up of independent and genuinely democratic institutions through private initiative and the cooperative efforts of the people themselves...
...Nor, in fact, is democracy really dependent upon opposition...
...But if this were true, there would be no need for concern about the eclipse of freedom by the growing authoritarianism of an unbridled Congress rule...
...It is true, however, that this kind of amorphous opposition can never lead to the formation of a well-knit opposition capable of wresting power from the Congress party...
...The oppositionists scored a few significant victories, and some of them insist that the call for an alternative to the Congress party was the major issue of the campaign...
...But would a party that is strong enough to oust the Congress ensure real democracy...
...Assuming that a formidable opposition party does develop, is it reasonably certain that it will be a positive democratic force...
...After allowing for the exaggerations of these enthusiasts, it still may be conceded that the successes scored by the opposition parties (mostly on the left) were encouraging enough to sustain a serious and determined movement—if one had existed...
...There is another important reason for adopting this approach...
...All this clearly calls for a radical movement for democracy, not only a strong opposition party solely concerned with dislodging the Congress party...
...Obviously, only a democratic opposition can preserve democracy— mere opposition is not sufficient...
...Nevertheless, this demand has achieved some respectability because of the support given to it by several responsible leaders who are not active in the Government or politics, like C. Rajagopalachari, Jayaprakash Nar-ayan and Dr...
...For example, if the Praja Socialist party, which had an electoral agreement with the Communist party in the last elections, and the other smaller regional parties, which had separate agreements with these two, go a step further and decide to merge with the CP, and if the latter thus manages to form an effective opposition, will it be a triumph for democracy...
...That is why parliamentary democracy is most successful where democratic traditions already exist, where democracy has a social base and cultural roots and has been accepted as a way of life rather than simply a form of government...
...But it has taken a decade of Congress party rule, and the developing possibility of its perpetuation and complete identification with the state, for this need to he widely realized...
...But mere talk of "opposition" and parties struggling against each other in Parliament and the State Legislatures, or hurling abuses at each other in public, are no substitutes...
...Indeed, if the aims of India's freedom movement did not transcend the mere capture of political power by the Congress party, it is doubtful that even Gandhi could have gotten the people behind him...
...True, this may be a long, arduous and, for professional politicians, wholly unattractive job...
...In India there is still a tendency to equate opposition with democracy...
...About the same time, British Labor party leader Gaitskell told Indian Socialists that the threat to democracy in India lay more in the absence of a capable opposition than in the tendency of accelerated economic development under Government auspices to abridge human freedoms...
...Understandably, it reached its peak on the eve of the second general elections held a little over a year ago, and the final returns showed that the clamor for opposition was not altogether wasteful...
...Laying the very foundations of democracy where there are none, and expanding the horizons of freedom to give democracy new content and dimension are not among an opposition party's primary tasks...
...Theoretically, the need for an effective opposition has existed since the inception of the parliamentary system of government in India...
...Speaking at Madras University, Dr...
...And even then it is limited to the preservation of existing freedoms...
...Opposition" is the slogan that rends the air in India...
...In India, we have given ourselves a vast democratic paraphernalia without ever seriously attempting to create the cultural preconditions for the success of democracy...
...But their combined strength will not provide enough able ministers to go around...
...The Praja Socialist party, the Communist party, the business community and even a section of the press have all been consistently and often quite effectively critical of Government policies and actions...
...If joined, the existing opposition parties of the left might be able to accomplish this...
...Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly apparent that no political party can command the allegiance of the masses in this country unless it is something more than simply a political party...
...Consequently, the most urgent and primary task of a democratic opposition, even today, is not to scramble for seats of power or Parliament with the help of unprincipled alliances, but to go back to the people, and work for and among them while educating them in the democratic ways of life...
...An independent judiciary, he observed, would not be a sufficient safeguard for the people for, while it might impartially apply existing laws, it could not formulate them more sensibly...
Vol. 41 • May 1958 • No. 19
