that would be periodically changed would be easily manoeuvrable. The political hierarchy would not only be far more accessible than the monarchs, it would also be in no position to ignore the interests of the business-world because the politicians required free flow of money for electioneering and other political functions. The manufacturers and traders would not mind parting with a small loaf in hope of greater returns. The movement for democracy could not have been successful if the dons of the world of business had not been kind on it.
The history soon witnessed the birth of different forms of democratic systems. Little wonder that the democracies prospered primarily in those lands where the industrialisation was in full swing. Multiple-party democracy was the obvious choice because in party-less democracy the individual leaders might have ignored the interests of the market as soon as they seized the reins of power. On the other hand, the parties had long term interests, and it was more improbable for the parties to forget the pre-election promises.
Though the avowed goal of democracy has been to fulfill the long cherished aspirations of the people, and to work for their all-round betterment, it has miserably failed in guarding itself against the damaging intrigues of the vested interests, particularly the industrialists. The power can be seized only through polls. The big business either fields its own sponsored candidates, or more often it supports a political party expected to best serve its interests. Any meaningful electioneering requires not only huge funds but also other extreme methods including the use of muscle-power facilitating the entry of criminals. Consequently, a permanent nexus has developed between politics, organised crime and industry. This is true of almost all the big democracies of the present world. The bracket has extended itself to include the bureaucracy, administration and media. Elections are regularly held and the people can exercise their right to franchise. But the issues on which the elections are contested are usually such as suit the game-plan of the economic fundamentalists. The media creates and un-creates issues and the masses are beguilingly reconditioned into thinking the way the media thinks. Politics has become highly expensive and hazardous. The word “moral” has ceased to exist in the political lexicon. Anyone with semblance of conscience does not dare to venture into the political arena, which has become a playground for the rich and the criminals. The upright and educated have in fact developed repugnance for it. Not only the politicians have harmonious relations with the criminals, the criminals also have developed fascination for politic. In the absence of any strict legal criteria for candidates, the undesirable elements gain a sort of legitimacy once they enter the election fray after joining one of the parties expected to fare well. While it is quite tedious for an intellectual or social activist to convince the party stalwarts of his claim for party ticket, the wish of the criminals to become people’s representatives is expressly granted. Once they enter the Parliament or the Assemblies, they acquire a halo of respectability and esteem. Big functions are organised to shower encomia on them for their “services” to the nation. After a few years of politicking, they become veterans, and ministerial chairs are often occupied by them. The ongoing politicisation of criminals breeds criminalisation of politics, and the criminalisation of politics enhances the prospects of the economic fundamentalists.
Had democracy been properly put into practice, it might still have been a sacred blessing for the common people. It might have guaranteed them a lion’s share in power and their rightful needs and aspirations might have been truly realised. It still holds true that they can successfully overthrow any government out of power. It is therefore mandatory for a party in power to keep the masses in good humour. But in reality, the remote controls of almost all the governments anywhere in the world remain in the hands of the big business. Through media, which blossom under its auspices, it succeeds in enthralling the imaginations of the people. The disinformation campaign in the media is too effective to permit them independent thinking and judgment. Consequently, the real issues hardly surface into prominence and the minor, insignificant and frivolous matters are made to appear as big issues that do not haunt but hunt the mind of the common man. The political bigwigs, when they ascend a public rostrum to deliver speeches that usually have plenty of rhetoric; cry their hearts out for the poor and the downtrodden. But in the comforts of their ministerial offices, they minister only to their industrialist benefactors, and their beneficences are gifted back multifold through convenient adjustments in policies and rules and regulations, grants of licenses and ministerial orders for their products or services. All through their terms, the problems of the masses never bother them; but as the expiry of their term and the new elections approach, they again revert back to their favourite theme: concern for the poor. A few schemes favouring, though marginally, and often only on the paper, are announced with great media hype. If they return to power, they are back in paradise; if not, still, they have great many privileges to enjoy throughout their lives. And of course, as opposition, they have now more opportunities to stand on the rostrum and harangue about the necessity to raise the standards of life of the poor. For that to happen, the best course for the public is to bring them back in the next election. Democracy, in effect, has become “Corporatocracy”, with “the government of the corporate, run by the agents of the corporate, and for the corporate” turning out to be its true definition.
To cut it short, in economic fundamentalism can be traced the roots of what can be termed political fundamentalism, which seeks to use all the possible means -- moral or immoral, to come to or stay in the saddles of power. Communalism that so ferociously struck India in the 1980s and 1990s, and continues to sway the mass hysteria in the 2010s is in fact the product of the political and not the religious fundamentalism, which has usually been the target of opprobrium. If the religion has been misused, it is none of the religion’s fault. The political fundamentalists have not missed a single opportunity for their elevation in the power-game, and have unabashedly used whatever sentiments can serve their purpose -- religious, linguistic, casteist and other parochial sentiments. Communalism, regionalism, linguism and racism, all are products of the political fundamentalism, and nationalism, especially in its aggressive avatar when nationalistic sentiments overrule the demands of justice, is its worst form. Patriotism is a benign and natural love for one’s motherland; but nationalism is based on the concept of supremacy of one’s nation over the others, and an attempt to dominate over them. When Nationalism ascends the ladder, it gets transformed into colonialism, and gives rise to the block politics at the international level. The majority of wars and separatist movements are the outcome of nationalistic fervour, based on one of the sentiments with which the people of a particular area identify them. No wonder that the geographical boundaries and international borders continue to change at regular intervals. The obvious outcome is the periodic emergence of new, sovereign states though occasionally two or more nations may coalesce to form a bigger nation.
It is also an open question why the communal strife in India reached its zenith in the late eighties and early nineties; did the economic fundamentalists have any role to play in these developments? The possibility cannot be ruled out that, with the fall of Soviet Empire, and the emergence of globalisation, the transition in India from the closed to the open market could not have been easily achieved if the attention of the people and the politicians had not been diverted to other sentimental issues. And in India, with the ghost of Partition always ready to strike back, nothing could have been as engaging for the masses as Hindu-Muslim rivalry. Once the privatisation was on strong footing, communalism started tapering down. Even the leftist organisations, which could have become the biggest stumbling block in the economic proselytisation, had no time left out of their total involvement in the campaign against communalism to devote to what was happening at the economic front. Their historical failure to stall privatisation and globalisation of Indian market must be a subject of analysis for the social and political pundits. T
he economic transformation has now reached a stage that, even if the centrist and leftist parties have a rethinking, it would be a herculean task for them to stem the tide. The latest round of the communalization of politics, which began after the BJP Government of Narendra Modi came into power, seems also to be the direct effect of the second round of privatization, which has begun under this government. The media, instead of focusing on the real social and economic issues like inflation, rapidly increasing economic disparity and the increasing hegemony of the corporate class, is again busy in keeping the people engaged in debates on emotional issues.
Not only in India, Presidents and Prime Ministers of almost all the countries are normally not in any position to make any drastic change in policy against the interests of the economic lobbies of the country. The world has witnessed how American President Obama failed to change the gun policy of the country despite his huge efforts in the wake of the ever increasing incidence of mass