India has no Obama

Ever since Barack Obama was declared the next President of the United States last week, it has become something of a national pastime in our ancient, broken-down country to ask why we cannot produce our own Obama.

Ever since Barack Obama was declared the next President of the United States last week, it has become something of a national pastime in our ancient, broken-down country to ask why we cannot produce our own Obama. I have been asked the question by apolitical housewives, by big businessmen in hotel lobbies, by drivers in smelly Mumbai taxis, by anchors on television shows and more nervously by political friends who are worried by the 8216;Obama effect8217;.

It is a question worth answering if only because it might help our shining, white hope and would-be prime minister, Rahul Gandhi, understand that it is silly to talk about creating 8216;thousands of Obamas8217;. If he did make the remark, reported in this newspaper as having come from Dehra Dun, then he must be urged to give up his rural safaris and go back to political science class. Someone needs to explain to the Congress Party8217;s heir apparent that if it was that easy to create thousands of Obamas, then it would not have taken 200 years of democracy in America to produce one.

Obama represents change and hope and there are few countries that need this more than ours. Everything about our political system needs a change, right from the system itself. We need to seriously consider if we would not be better off with a Presidential system of government along American lines rather than a parliamentary system that has reduced the meaning of democracy to elections. We seem to be in a permanent season of elections.

Why is it not possible for the Lok Sabha and all our state assemblies to be elected on the same day every five years? If changing the system is too complicated, then why not at least this small change? You might understand better its significance if you keep in mind that in the middle of the worst economic crisis, we have a situation in which the Election Commission8217;s code of conduct puts an end to all development projects till the middle of next year. The code is already in force in five states and when these elections are over, it will be time for the general election.

Every time Barack Obama mentions the 8216;broken politics8217; of Washington, I find myself wondering what he would say about the Delhi Durbar. Come election time and the fortified palatial homes of our 8216;leaders8217; in Delhi become like Mughul courts of yore in which supplicants from far and near come to kowtow and beg for tickets. They come because they know that no matter what their qualifications, the 8216;ticket8217; will only come if they prove their loyalty to the Burra Sahib or Memsahib in Delhi. It is a system that is rotten to the core and the sight of 8216;ticket-seekers8217; lining up at the doorstep of their leaders is nauseating. But we do nothing to change it because nobody has given change a thought.

So we have political parties that rely not on the men and women who constitute them but on the men and women who lead them. If you want a ticket from the Bharatiya Janta Party, you need to kowtow to the great Rathyatri and the small coterie of Rajya Sabha MPs that surround him. If you want a ticket from the Congress Party you need to kowtow to the 8216;High Command8217; or Rahul baba. There is no other way. Sadly, the same is true of our smaller parties, who, in many ways, are even more feudal in their functioning and infinitely more corrupt. There is one political party that is notorious for auctioning tickets to the highest bidder. Guess which.

Broken politics results in broken governance. So with the world on the brink of the worst economic crisis in a hundred years, India remains among those countries that do not have basic buffers in place. We have the worst roads in the world. Our ports, airports and railway stations look like relics from another age and our cities and towns deteriorate rather than improve. There are vast tracts of the mighty city of Mumbai that would be declared unfit for human habitation in a more civilised country. Instead of trying to improve these things, the leaders of Mumbai make North Indians the issue and at the national level our leaders never seem to get beyond 8216;secularism8217; and 8216;communalism8217;. In such a bleak political landscape the only way to keep our spirits up is to hope that one day in the distant future things will change for the better. Meanwhile, we can amuse ourselves by watching our TV anchors speculate on whether our Barack Obama is Rahul Gandhi or Mayawati. The suggestion that either is anywhere close is so absurd that you can either laugh or cry.