Opinion An end in sight?

Much has been written about this government’s ruinous economic polices that halved the growth rate and weakened the rupee and there is little more that I can add. So this week,I would like to concentrate on the political damage done since 2009. It started almost from day one. No sooner did

Dr Manmohan Singh take office as prime minister for the second time than the political grapevine began to buzz with stories of how Rahul Gandhi would be taking over in 2012.

Those responsible for spreading these stories added that the only reason why he had not claimed his political inheritance immediately was because he wanted to prove he was a ‘real leader’ by winning elections in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. When this did not happen he virtually withdrew from public life but by then it was clear to everyone that the prime minister was subordinate to the Congress president and her son. It will take a very strong leader to repair the damage done to this most important office in a proper parliamentary democracy.

The truth is we have not been a proper parliamentary democracy for the past four years. We went back to the kind of democratic feudalism that prevailed in the times of Indira Gandhi. Just like in those times when

Mrs Gandhi’s powerful stenographers became more important than cabinet ministers,we have seen the emergence of kitchen cabinets around the Congress president and her son. Sycophants,socialites and a noxious species of NGO types have ruled the roost while senior ministers have been reduced to courtiers. The only time they have shown evidence of a spine is when they have openly defied the prime minister’s orders.

The worst aspect of the peculiar political formation that has governed India for the past four years has been a remarkable absence of accountability. The Prime Minister has almost never spoken to the media in his second term. Sonia Gandhi has never given an interview and neither has Rahul. Can you name another democratic country in which this contempt for accountability would be considered normal? I have thought about it and cannot. The damage done by this secretive genre of governance is so deep that whoever becomes the next prime minister will need to immediately institute a system of regular,televised conversations with the people and routine media briefings. Renouncing accountability is not an option that leaders can choose in a real democracy.

An open revolt against this distortion of democracy came when the likes of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev showed up in Delhi to demand accountability. One of the things they said repeatedly was that democracy cannot mean just holding elections every five years. Democracy has to mean that elected representatives remain accountable to the people all through the five years of their term. It was one of the few things they got right. If they had been more politically aware they would have realised that corruption was not the real issue but only a symptom of the real issue. Since they never managed to work that out,the movement and its political offshoot,the Aam Aadmi Party,have almost been forgotten. This does not take away from the damage done to democracy in the past four years by a government that is looking increasingly pathetic.

As I said at the beginning of this piece it may hobble along on wobbly crutches till 2014 but it would be a great pity if it did because India cannot afford to be governed any longer by leaders who believe they are not accountable. India cannot afford another year of being governed by a Durbar in Delhi. If you have guessed that I used that word purposely to promote my new book you would be right!

Follow Tavleen Singh on Twitter @ tavleen_singh