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THE INTERVIEWS
IMPRESSIONS
50 INDIANS
MEMORIES

A New Beginning

Fourth, 1996 saw a major electoral backlash against a discredited political elite (both leaders and parties) and derailed system of governance. The result was that no single party returned to power (in the sense of enjoying a majority in Parliament) and with the voters' preference for local issues, the system was forced to structure the process of governance around a coalition of small and regional parties which, incidentally, happens to be a coalition mostly composed of middle and lower castes in the social hierarchy.

Fifth, this necessity forced the acceptance of a far more federal system of governance (both regionally and socially speaking), than was ever achieved by the proponents of states' rights earlier on (including by a cabal of state level chief ministers in the early and mid-eighties). And sixth, and perhaps more basic than anything else, there has taken place an unprecedented coming together of secular forces, at both mass and institutional levels, for the first time putting on the defensive communal and fundamentalist forces.

The combination of these six factors, each one of them building on the idea of democracy which had been promised at the very dawn of independence, but had been sidelined due to the hijacking of the whole democratic apparatus by a small minority of politicians and bureaucrats in league with entrenched interests in rural, urban, professional and international arenas can lead to the beginnings of a transition - transformation - to a new system of governance.

The political process unleashed by this new awakening, will, of course, be subjected to a lot of backlash from those who have enjoyed power and privilege for close to half a century. Also, the new bearers of power from the deprived sections will not necessarily pursue the interests of the large masses in whose name they are likely to assume power (as some of them already have). There is still a long way to go as far as the masses are concerned. They will continue to have to press upon the merging new coalitions that come to power following 1996 and other succeeding elections.

In reality they will have to get engaged in transforming the very process of governance and the nature of the State.

In large parts of the world governments are found to pursue policies that prove inimical to the well being of large sections of the people. This includes governments that claim to represent - and some of them do represent - deprived social strata, progressive ideologies and sets of policies that were designed (at least to begin with) to benefit the poor and the oppressed.

There are always limits to what governments can do. The modern State is a complex of promises and betrayals. There is never a respite in politics, never a point of final arrival. Of all the things that India has inherited and imbibed, in both theory and praxis, democracy stands out as having the most cutting edge, at any rate for the poor and exploited mass of the people. As the torch of democracy passes down the social terrain, it must make things better. But it will still be an uphill task.

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