Speech by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP at book Launch of “Miracle of Democracy, by TS Krishnamurthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner”.

Bengaluru, 18th October 2008

Thank you to Janagraha for organizing this programme around Mr Krishnamurthy – our former CECs very interesting book- Miracle of Democracy and thank you for having me here as well.

It’s become fashionable in recent years to describe India as either becoming a superpower or in the case of some over-enthusiasts – having already become a superpower. This whole theme seemingly started with a marketing pitch at some exotic overseas venue no doubt – but the disturbing aspect is how this has become accepted as some sort of automatic destiny for our nation – this is the furthest thing from reality – because in reality we are nation which is work in progress – far from being complete!

Even Prime Minister Wen of China – a nation that’s had astronauts walk in space and arrange the best ever modern Olympics says this when he is asked if China is a superpower – “”

I usually don’t enjoy books written by ex-bureaucrats because they tend to be almost always centered around themselves, especially when most of us in our lives are subjected to their whims. I also don’t find books about Indian democracy interesting because they tend to simply eulogize and celebrate our democracy at a very conceptual level. So this book is a refreshing change in that its by an ex-bureaucrat but isn’t about himself, its about our democracy but also about the real challenges facing it. I quote from the book “Theres no point in eulogizing democracy if basic facilities for normal living are not accessible by its citizens”

I happen to be a member of the National Integration Council and earlier on Monday, attended a hurriedly arranged NIC conference – held after almost 4 years. There Admiral Ramdass , ex Chief of Naval staff and member said “I was 14 when India became independent and in the last 60 years I have seen our democracy keep sliding down and slipping..”. This is the correct assessment of where we are today as a nation.

There is a reason for this – while as a nation we conduct our elections and the CEC remains one of those untouched and un-politicized Institutions of our democracy – almost all our other institutions have either crumbled and/or capitulated or are being compromised by the assault of our politics on them. As K Subramanyam who is quoted in this book on page 199 says “if at all India is still a democracy, it’s because of the EC and the Supreme Courts and not to our legislatures or Political parties”. I agree – I think the heroes of India are not just the Entrepreneurs that our media iconize, but people like TN Seshan, Mr Krishnamurthy, Mr YV Reddy, Mr Damodaran – the bureaucrat/regulators who keep our democracy functional – for no gain other than a sense of commitment to our democracy and constitution. I strongly believe we need to recognize this group a lot more than we do currently, because they and their successors are the ones who are actually responsible for the miracle of our democracy and are the only hope we have, if we are to reverse the trend of decline in our democratic institutions.

A Entrepreneur friend of mine recently said, India needs new ideas for its next stage of growth. I don’t think so, I think what we need is to rebuild the old ideas that our founding fathers started with. We need to bring back the constitutional values into our Institutions and build or rebuild institutions. We are increasingly missing the woods for the trees and letting rhetoric and broad sweeps of visionary statements replace real solutions. It is precisely for this reason that the recent NIC meeting convened on security and extremism – not one speaker suggested the real solution – to rebuild the police into a apolitical and credible investigative and law and order institution! As a nation we are being dealt with either rhetoric from the Political establishment or an overdose of visions and ideas from the other group consisting media, entrepreneurs and misc commentators!

This book aptly titled Miracle of Democracy - touches on the real issues and suggests solutions – some you may agree with and some you may not – but it clearly identifies the actual issues that we as a nation to tackle and cross before we can think of being a superpower - In addition to the challenge and task of building independent and credible institutions like – Defining majority, Simultaneous elections,challenges of Minority and Coalition governments, Low Voter turnout – apathy or Fatigue, Challenges of Quasi-Federalism, Threat of Corruption, State and Local body elections etc.

One of the perks of being an MP is the access you get to the Parliamentary Library and I have enjoyed reading the constituent assembly debates – It is clear that our founding fathers left us pointed in the right direction, but we have gone off course and we need to get back to making India a democracy for its all people and not for a few. It’s up to this generation to take up where the last one or two generations dropped the ball on this task of building our democracy. If you fall into the category who doesn’t mistake the sound of your own voice for action, then this book is for you!