Protest all you want to, before and when George Bush visits India — we are a democracy. But maintain good form — we are also an institutionally grounded democracy. That applies particularly to public office holders. They, irrespective of their “ideology”, are sworn to uphold the dignity of the institutions they serve. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Bengal’s chief minister and an important Indian leader, was way out of line, therefore, when he ascribed mass murderous intent to Bush. The US ambassador, David Mulford, was right to protest. The Indian embassy in the US would have done no less had an elected Indian leader been given similar verbal treatment by an American public office holder.Civility and dignity are not signs of weakness in these contexts; they are a priori recognition that a democracy’s public office is larger than any person who holds it at that moment. That is why a delegation of Democrats — bitter opponents of Bush back home — visiting India had also taken objection to Bhattacharya’s remarks. That is why a German minister, who had drawn comparisons between Bush and Hitler, had apologised. Bhattacharya, who’s extremely unlikely to say sorry, has put a question mark on India’s systemic sophistication. That is sad because he’s proved himself to be an astute politician in other ways. Not all of his colleagues in the Left can be similarly complimented and, unsurprisingly if unfortunately, they are making the question mark bigger.The Left MPs’ decision to boycott a Bush address to Parliament has more or less killed what is a standard, gracious gesture to important state visitors. Manmohan Singh addressed the US House and Senate. So have other Indian prime ministers. Bill Clinton was given the honour here. There’s absolutely no justification for denying this to Bush. An address to India’s Parliament by the leader of a fellow democracy should be a matter unconnected with politics and passion. When it is a question of Parliament’s interface with the world, Left MPs must be MPs first and Leftists or Bush-bashers, second. That the government is reportedly arranging for an alternative way to allow Bush to address MPs — a Vigyan Bhavan gathering where a boycott won’t denigrate an institution — may strike some as funny. It is anything but. It shows that some leaders in the world’s largest democracy don’t follow a fundamental democratic precept — listen most to those you disagree the most with. Being civil to Bush would have cost his fiercest critics nothing. The lack of civility has cost India something.
