Dr.Rao VBJ Chelikani
I.
The Original Sin in Governance
Good governance or rather better governance is difficult to achieve in
its totality in the near future, particularly in most developing countries,
including present-day India, as Power or Force, political power imposes itself
as the source for all governance. The political power and, in short, all power
is now a monopoly of the political entity called the State, and it is operated
by the bureaucracy and the Representatives of the political parties. This has
not been the case in ancient India when India was not a single political
entity; the kingdoms did not claim monopoly and did not interfere in the
governance of economics, social and cultural matters and religious schools.
Only by confronting the invasions of Ghori, Ghazni and the like since the 11th century onwards, that the state structures in India began stronger and
stronger.
A.
The Origin of Power:
If we look at the human being of any era in human history, we can easily
understand that God did not create a perfect human being. However, we can
readily admit that all living creatures are of divine essence, and according to
the Upanishadic message, man is perfectible and that he can become god.
Charles Darwin and other
scientists helped us to understand that man evolved out of animals. The origin
of power can be traced to the beginning of the evolution of some species as
human beings; at least, it is visible from the Neanderthals onwards. They seem
to have the genes of some cannibal species as well, adding further to our
violent and predatory instincts inherited from inferior species. More
importantly, it is a heritage from the animal instinct for survival in order to
master the environment, domesticate other species and dominate over other
humans for survival. Religions have tried to subjugate these instincts, but
they have not been successful so far, since they have organised themselves as
power centres in order to convince, control and expand their believers, not
only in their beliefs but also in their way of life. Thus, on the whole, most
of the societies in the world have remained under the domination or total
control of the brutal political force to control other forces, though there are
stray instances of societies under the direct or indirect rule of religious
forces. Thus, power has been a necessary evil; an evil nevertheless.
Thus, the human being is not allowed gradually to transcend from this bloody,
violent, aggressive and predatory behaviour, as the whole society is governed
by the modern state which accumulated all powers over the human beings living
in its territory. Since the 2nd World War, democratic or not, all states are
being operated by the bureaucratic class and political classes. Both of them
enjoying the power and exercising authority to regulate all human relations by
politics. Finally, all states, starting with Nation-States, have become so
strong and so powerful that each state has its ambition to become more powerful
over its own citizens as well as over other states in the world, near and far.
The people in the society have become either the pawns to be mobilised at its
will or cannon fodder if it wants to fight against other states. The freedoms
and aspirations of human beings, their humanistic values or social development
to achieve other human accomplishments in social, economic and cultural spheres
have become secondary. Or, they are being directed by the state, while
glorifying the acts of the statesmen and the politicians. Human history is
written according to the phases of these invasions of one state over other
state. Internally it is described as a history of change from one regime to
another; from one king to another. The citizens are made to work for the glory
of the state and its development is national development. Society is made to
find its development in the national development. A citizen has acquired more
rights than a normal human being or a resident. The individual is left to find
his or her own development in national development, and not vice versa. Since
we are living in a political democracy, the citizens are free to try to share a
part of political power by contesting in the elections, or by joining a
winnable political party. Even after 75 years of rule by the people’s
Representatives, all the citizens are not empowered, but groups of them have
access to superior power to attend to their particular interests. But, those
who capture political power can retain the royal privilege of deciding the
destinies of the populations who voted for them, without leaving the
opportunity to the civil society to verify the motivations, utility and
efficiency of the state-acts.
B. How
to Emancipate the Human Being into a Noble Animal?
In the heritage of the human species, there are also animal instincts
that prompt us to survive better by avoiding suffering and searching for living
with satisfaction and joy. Initially, it started with trying to be fittest in
nature in order to survive. Now, human beings are technically in a position to
be able to mould Nature in harmony with human aspirations, in a sustainable
manner. The man remains a social animal and his social relations have become
more complex and complicated. Thus, there is a growing social interdependence.
We need to be together and to work with others and to share their sorrows and
pleasures. Above all, all species and more so human beings have, each one of them, soft powers which are
inherent, innate and infinite to express and share the inexhaustible capacity
to show love, affection, compassion and care towards all other humans beings as
well as to all other species. These expressions produce the joy of living.
Thus, aggressivity and violence in man created the need for power and,
it is needless to say that power has become a facet of life for all human
beings, either to exercise it or to obey it. Since the efforts put in by
humanist Gautam Buddha, statesman Ashoka, pacifist Jesus Christ and communist
Karl Marx, some landmark schools of thought conceived life of the human beings
beyond and outside the state, where one can work according to one’s ability and
take from society according to one’s needs. Sigmund Freud also reflected on the
ways to transcend the predatory nature in man. The above historic persons and
many more before and after them, have been trying to encourage the people to
live by cultivating, spreading and sharing noble sentiments like love,
affection, compassion, cooperation and sharing for better living.
C. Why
this is not Happening?
Here, our main contention is that these noble and natural faculties in
man are not being allowed to grow spontaneously in people-to-people relations,
as they are being totally controlled by the state. The operators of the state
are imposing themselves as the middlemen, norm-makers, law-makers, regulators,
rule-makers, controllers and judges. As a result, most human beings became good
citizens or subjects who remain eternal dependents and beneficiaries of a
strong and powerful state. The state is separating them as patriots or ‘enemies
of the state’. Those whom it considers as against its authority within the
state are not allowed to exist. More frequently, they are being persecuted and
even tortured, though the degrees of mental and physical torture are varied.
Further, the state defines the limits of friendship with other people in
other states, depending upon its diplomatic relations. After independence,
while championing the Non-Aligned movement, our diplomacy continued to be at
home in dealing with Russia, China and other authoritarian regimes, near and
far; but not with liberal democratic states. It is entirely due to the
temperamental compatibility between the two state bureaucracies. Ever since, our
dependence upon Russia was so much that we cannot publicly speak what we think.
We are unable to vote in favour of the UN Resolutions. The state bureaucracy is
so intimidating and dissuading that it is not possible for any civil society
activists to assess our defence preparedness.
At the same time, meanwhile, the dynamic people in India looked to the
other side of the world. The people-to-people relations with the liberal
democracies have helped India to be what it is today. During the first fifty years
of our independence, we have benefited greatly from the generosity of the
people in the Western world for grants, food, education, trade, employment and
for remittances back to the country. Some of those countries have integrated
Indians so well that they did not fear electing them to be their ministers,
prime ministers and presidents.
For example, right now, our diplomacy is spending so much of tax-payers
money and is devoting disproportionate energies and focusing upon the G-20
meetings, which are held in India, whose presidency has come to India by
routine in alphabetical order. These meetings are only between the Indian
bureaucrats and the foreign bureaucrats, who will, any way meet next year and
in other country. Here, the people are absent. Though these meetings are held
in different places in India for tourist purposes, the people of those places,
the legislators, the academicians, the scientists, the economic actors and
other intelligentsia have no opportunity to participate in them. Our foreign visitors
are interviewed before the glare of the Indian media channels to state how powerful
India is becoming.
The above facts are quoted only to show that the interests of the state
and the interests of the society have not yet become identical, even though we
have 75 years of rituals of democratic practices. The people have not become
more democratic enough to participate in the governance. The operators of the
state machinery-the bureaucracy and the political representatives of the
political parties are not allowing it to happen.
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