When I started my political work, it was only with the motive of being by the side of my mother. She bore with stoic fortitude the irreparable loss of a son who had been a tower of strength. She gave me no directions, no formulae, no prescriptions. She just advised me to understand the real India, its people, its problems. So, I plunged into work. Millions of faces in varying moods of joy and sorrow, of eager expectation, of triumph and defeat, filled my being, till they merged into the face of Mother India. I was exhilarated by what had been achieved in the short period since Independence. I was also saddened by what might have been achieved but was120 not, because of weaknesses in the Government and in the party. I kept my counsel to myself as I was140 an apprentice in the great school of politics.
After two years of incessant
travelling, meeting people, reading and reflection, 160 I felt I could go to
her with my perceptions. Listening to me, she thought I had gained some
understanding of the complexities of our society. Then she began to unburden
herself. She spoke of India’s enduring strength and of her hopes for India, but
also of her apprehensions and anxieties. She analysed with clinical precision
how the entire system had been weakened from within, how the party had once
again been infiltrated by vested interests who would not allow us240
to move, how patronage and graft had affected the national institutional
framework, how nationalism and patriotism had ebbed, how the pettiness and
selfishness of persons in political positions had ruptured social fabric. She
was clear that if India had280 to keep her ‘tryst with destiny’, so
much had to change. Then, suddenly, she left us. Her thoughts and reflections
on the state of the nation are an abiding influence.
We have cherished our democracy.
Democracy is our strength. 320 In 1984, the people of India gave our
party its largest ever majority. Their eloquent verdict strengthened the unity
and integrity of India. A nation sorrowing over its beloved leader drew from
its vast reserves of strength to protect the inheritance of360 its glorious freedom
struggle. We applied the lessons of the 1984 elections to the complex and
difficult problems in Punjab and Assam. Our basic concern was to end any sense
of alienation in the larger interests of national unity. We carried forward the
process to reach understanding and harmony, to dispel mistrust and suspicion
and to seek the420 people’s mandate for progress through
brotherhood. We had no narrow partisan considerations in view. The situation
demanded that we rise above mere expediency. The Congress, with its century-old
tradition of nationalism, put India first.
We have no illusions that all
problems have been resolved. But the democratic way of nation-building requires
patience, perseverance and a spirit of conciliation. Those who have480
been entrusted with responsibility have to constantly keep in view the larger
perspective of unity. They have to act in the same spirit of nationalism in
which we have acted. Enduring unity comes from the willing cooperation of all. We
proclaim and celebrate the unity of India. It is a fact of transcending
significance. But is it not also a fact that most of us, in our daily lives, do
not think of ourselves as Indians? We see ourselves560 as Hindus, Muslims or
Christians, and so on and so forth. We shed blood to uphold our narrow and
selfish denominations. We are imprisoned by the narrow domestic walls of
religion, language, caste and region, blocking out the clear view of a600
resurgent nation.
State Governments and social
organisations promote policies, programmes and ideologies which divide brother
from brother and sister from sister. Bonds of fraternity and solidarity yield
to the onslaughts of meanness in mind and spirit. Is this the India640
for which Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi sacrificed their lives? Turn to the
great institutions of our country and you will see that too often, behind their
imposing facades, the spirit and substance lack vitality. The work they do
sometimes seem strangely irrelevant to the primary concerns of the masses. Attempts
are made to taint the electoral process700 at its very source. Issues of crucial
national importance are frequently subordinated to individual, sectional and
regional interests. Our legislatures do not720 set standards for other groups to
follow; they magnify the conspicuous lack of a social ethic. A convenient
conscience compels individuals to meander from ideology to ideology seeking
power, influence and riches. Political parties twist their tenets, enticed by
opportunism.
We are amongst the few to have the
rule of law and an independent judiciary. But thousands wait for decades while
an elaborate and arcane machinery grinds ever so slowly. The poor have little
hope of timely redress. We value800 our free Press. It made a magnificent
contribution to our freedom struggle. After Independence, the national media
have helped to consolidate our unity and promote social and economic change.
But the question the media need to put to themselves is: 840 Does their
contribution to nation building measure up to their role in the freedom
struggle?
Our economy owes much to
the enterprise of our industrialists. But there are some reputed business and
industrial establishments which shelter battalions of law breakers and tax
evaders. We have industrialists untouched by the thrusting spirit of the great
risk-takers and innovators. The trader’s instinct for quick profits prevails.
They flourish on sick industries. Many have not cared to learn the fundamental
lesson that industrialisation springs from the development of indigenous
technology, not from dependence on others. Industrial empire built on the shaky
foundations of excessive protection, social irresponsibility, import
orientation and corruption may not last long. The trade unions have a glorious
heritage of960 nationalism and of
socially relevant radicalism. Today, they are a mere shadow of their past. They
feel little concern for980 the creation of national wealth. They only want a
larger and larger share in it. Nothing is considered illegitimate if one
marches under the right flag. Power without responsibility, rights without
duties have come to be their prerogative. Will productivity arise from such
stony soil? Let us not forget that the poor and the unemployed have to
sacrifice their development programmes to subsidise inefficient industry.
In the field of education, the nation
has much to be proud of. Access to education has been widened immeasurably.
Indian scholars are in the front rank of creative endeavour in the best
institutions across1080 the world. But the schools, the
universities and the academies of the Republic, which should fill our minds
with hope for tomorrow, cause us great concern. Teachers seldom teach and students
seldom learn. Strikes, mass copying, agitations are more attractive1120
alternatives. Where there should be experiment and innovation, there is blind
faith in dead ritual and custom, smothering creativity and the quest for
knowledge and truth. Where there should be independence and integrity, there is
the heavy hand of politics, caste and corruption. Where there should be a new
integration between modern science and our heritage, there is a dull
development recede into the background. What can we say about the iron frame of
the system, the administrative and the1200 technical services, the police and the
myriad functionaries of the State? They have done so much and can do so much
more, but as the proverb says, there can be no protection if the fence starts
eating the crop. This is what has happened. The fence has started eating the
crop.
We have Government servants who do
not serve but1260 oppress the poor and the helpless,
police who do not uphold the law but shield the guilty, tax collectors who1280
do not collect taxes but connive with those who cheat the State, and whole
legions whose only concern is their private welfare at the cost of society. They
have no work ethic, no feeling for the public cause, no involvement in the
future of the nation, no comprehension of national goals, no commitment to the
values of modern India. They have only a grasping, mercenary outlook, devoid of
competence, integrity and commitment. How have we come to this pass?
We have looked at others. Now let us
look at ourselves. What has become of our great organisation? Instead of a
party that fired the imagination of the masses throughout the length and
breadth of India, we have shrunk, losing touch1400 with the toiling
millions. It is not a question of victories and defeats in elections. For a
democratic party, victories and defeats are part of its continuing political
existence. But what does matter is whether or not we work among1440
the masses, whether or not we are in tune with their struggles, their hopes and
aspirations. We are a party of social transformation, but in our preoccupation
with governance we are drifting away from the people. Thereby, we have weakened
ourselves and fallen prey to the ills that the loss of invigorating mass
contact brings. Millions of ordinary Congress workers throughout the country
are full of enthusiasm for the Congress policies and programmes. But they are
handicapped, for on their backs ride the brokers of power and influence, who
dispense patronage to convert a mass movement into a feudal oligarchy. They
thrive by invoking the slogans of caste and religion and by entangled the
living body of the Congress in their net of greed. For such persons, the masses
do not count. Their life style, their thinking, their corrupt ways, their
linkages with the vested interests in society, and their sanctimonious
posturing are wholly incompatible with work among the people. 1600
