Furore amidst celebration
An all-party attack on a school textbook containing an innocuous cartoon fully brought out all that is wrong with the democratic system in India.
PARLIAMENT marked its 60th anniversary with a special session last Sunday. From the President down, everyone warmly commemorated the event, noting the strengths of the largest democracy in the world. For once, members cutting across party lines seemed united in committing themselves to renew and re-invigorate the democracy institutions. At least for a day, there was no display of divisive passions and bitterness.
But it seemed so surreal because the same Parliament had just the previous day erupted in anger at the inclusion of a cartoon in a school textbook. Created 62 years ago, the cartoon was deemed insulting to the memory of Dalit icon and founding father of the Republic, B.R. Ambedkar.
Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal offered no defence of the cartoon and immediately ordered the withdrawal of the impugned textbook from the school curriculum.
The remarkable thing was that not one sane voice protested this feigned show of anger against the alleged insult to Ambedkar. However, independent observers were united in rejecting the claim that the 1949 cartoon, drawn by the legendary Shankar, was in any way critical of the Dalit icon.
The cartoon showed Ambedkar, who was chairman of the drafting committee, riding a snail labelled Constitution. Both Ambedkar and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru are shown, whips in their hands, coaxing the snail to move faster.
Clearly, the celebrated cartoonist reflected the general criticism at the delay in completing the task of constitution-making back then. Neither Ambedkar nor Nehru nor, for that matter, anyone else in 1949 or since had taken offence at the cartoon and in no way did it suggest that Amedkar was to blame for the delay in framing the Constitution.
Yet, after a lone Dalit member of the Lok Sabha from Tamil Nadu raised a shindy, everyone, including members of the Opposition, joined him in excoriating its inclusion in the Class XI textbook. It would poison the minds of the schoolchildren, said a member. It would spread hatred against Dalits, said another. And so it went till the HRD Minister ordered the withdrawal of this and other textbooks containing cartoons.
Juxtaposing the celebration of the diamond jubilee of Parliament with the all-party attack on the school textbook containing the innocuous cartoon fully brings out all that is wrong with the democratic system. It has become more intolerant and narrow-minded. Space for dissent has shrunk sharply. After all, 62 years ago when both Ambedkar and Nehru were around, nobody had whispered a word edgeways against the impugned cartoon.
Nehru, a Brahmin, was not whipping Amedkar, a Dalit. No. Both had whips in their hands and both were egging on the snail, named Constitution, to move faster. In fact, Shankar, the doyen of Indian cartoonists, was often complimented by Nehru for highlighting the failings of the rulers. In one of his famous remarks, Nehru told Shankar, “Please do not even spare me.”
Taking a cue from the vicious attack on the old cartoon, a group of people claiming to represent Dalits vandalised the office of a widely respected academic who had vetted the textbook. The mild-mannered don was unharmed but he rued the tendency to straitjacket textbooks and disallow the inclusion of thought-provoking cartoons and other illustrations which help to embellish the text.
Indeed, the text accompanying the cartoon was quite complimentary of Ambedkar. But, as it happens, not one MP had cared to read the text or even see for himself the “offensive” cartoon. They just joined the chorus on the say-so of a fellow MP.
Worse, a day after the 60th anniversary special session, MPS broadened the attack on all manner of school textbooks, alleging that most included offensive references to respected icons, past and present. It was open season on academic freedom and liberal education.
The furore over the cartoon distracted the celebration of the 60th anniversary of Parliament. It should have been a remarkable day because the country had proved wrong its critics who at the time of the Partition had lamented that Indians were unfit for democracy. In spite of various hiccups, including Indira Gandhi’s 1975-77 emergency when personal freedoms of Indians were suspended, democracy has not only survived but also deepened in the soil of India.
The proof lies in the rise of the hitherto suppressed castes and tribes. At the time of independence, Brahmins ruled while there was a token Dalit or two in the seats of power. The first Lok Sabha (1952-57) was dominated by upper castes, with Brahmins constituting nearly two-thirds of the members. The 15th Lok Sabha (current parliament) is dominated by Other Backward Castes, with Brahmins reduced to a small minority, though still higher than their actual strength in the population.
Also, up until 1967, a single party had ruled both at the federal and the provincial levels. The monopoly of the Congress Party, the party of the freedom struggle, was well and truly broken after the introduction of the Mandal reservations for the Other Backward Castes in the late 80s.
Since then, the subalteran castes have thrown up new leaders including Mayawati, a humble schoolteacher. Daughter of a telephone company linesman belonging to the cobbler caste, she was an important leader in Uttar Pradesh (UP), the largest state in the Indian Union. So was Mulayam Singh Yadav, an intermediate caste activist, whose party wrested power from Mayawati in the recent election in UP.
Of course, much has been achieved in the last 60 years. A large number of people has been pulled out of poverty, though some one-third still live below the poverty line. The economy has grown enormously in those 60 years. From being a net importer of food in the 50s and 60s, India is now an exporter of food. It has the biggest scientific pool, a world-renowned IT sector, and is an acknowledged nuclear power with a standing army of over a million men, among others.
However, old-timers lament that Parliament itself has become noisy and more disruptive than at any time before. The number of hours lost in disruptions has risen with each Parliament, a fact partly explained by the rise of regional and caste-based parties.
Another significant change is the failure of any single party to obtain a majority on its own since the late 80s. Both the main parties – Congress and the BJP – must necessarily rely on smaller groups to form a government. In turn, this has allowed smaller groups to hold governments to ransom.
In short, democracy has struck deep roots in the soil. Thanks to compulsions of a coalition government, the present regime of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is bogged down in economic and political mess. Investor confidence is low, the currency is depreciating, food inflation is in double digits and the fiscal situation is getting precarious by the day.
Yet, for one day when members gave up their Sunday to mark the 60th anniversary of Parliament, all these troubles were put aside to commemorate the resilience of Indians who, despite the odds, including poverty, illiteracy and ignorance, helped to sustain a very vibrant democratic system.