How Civil is Our Civil Society?

*Dr. Saumitra Mohan

India has slowly and steadily been growing as a modern state. However, we are still far from being a country that our forefathers visualized, a vision aptly enshrined in the lofty ideals of our Constitution. The most sacred document of the Indian Republic envisaged India to be a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic which would secure to its citizens justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. We have all these traits in the extant Indian state, but given the state of affairs today, cynics find each of them to have been hugely compromised.

            As citizens of the largest democracy, we desire them all but flinch from doing anything as are expected of its people. While government, politicians and bureaucrats are the favourite punching bags of almost everyone, we definitely lack the character to deserve the honour of living up to our Constitutional ideals by repeatedly engaging in conduct unbecoming of a ‘great nation’. Many observers hold poor value education to be the parent reason for a poor national character which focuses on self-aggrandizement at the expense of the community. A sense of duty is conspicuous by its absence in a predominant majority of our civil society. People are usually apathetic when it comes to their duties vis a vis the country.

            Today, venality and crimes as rampant in our society definitely don’t offend our sensibilities. This is very much reflected in the iterated returns of many lawmakers with criminal background as they are supposed to be treated as such till proved guilty. People see absolutely no problem with the same. In fact, such people are often admired and idolized. There is a general love for mediocrity or easy success which leads most of us to seek refuge in short-cuts through reservations or nepotistic politics as the movements of Jats, Gujjars or Patels demonstrate. While the Supreme Court, in a welcome judgement, recently quashed as unconstitutional section 8 (4) of the Representation of the People Act (RPA) that protected the membership of an MP or MLA if he or she files an appeal within three months of conviction, there still remain many grey areas which compromise the said landmark judgement.

            While the common citizens often excoriate the powers that be for their involvement with various public wrongs, there are innumerable instances where citizens themselves have been found to be engaging in dubious acts given an opportunity. One has come across several instances where citizens unduly pocket wages under the employment guarantee scheme without any work, where government grants for housing are not utilized for the original purpose or where people granted government funds for a particular purpose seldom used the same for the purpose allotted. We regale ourselves by indulging in vandalism of government properties or by enforcing a crippling strike or ‘bandh’ to finagle a demand.

            Today, a mob of ten to twenty persons are sufficient to sabotage a positive initiative. There are organised cartels of middlemen who flourish on these systemic weaknesses by masterminding encroachment of government properties. They also ensure sabotage of a well-conceived government initiative in collusion and connivance with the entrenched vested interests. The system being opaque and byzantine, the common citizen has to run from pillar to post before she gets her rightful due but definitely not before a few palms have been greased. A common citizen still finds it difficult to get her way through the complicated mumbo jumbo in a government office to obtain a particular service. However, the same citizen would not forgo an opportunity to tweak the system if she has an opportunity.

            We have internalized spitting, littering, open defecation and urination as our birthrights. Someone rightly said, tongue firmly in cheek, that an Indian can’t resist the sight of a wall though observers would also point towards the dearth of sufficient number of public conveniences across the length and breadth of this country. But even where there are, we resist using them to save a penny or two. As a nation, we don’t want to be subjected to any regulation to prevent us from indulging in these civic improprieties though we are usually at our behavioural best while abroad.

            We admire better hygiene and better traffic discipline abroad, but would breach the same back home at the first instance. We condemn our system for churning out unemployed youths, but don’t like working hard to acquire knowledge. There have rather been numerous instances where students have demanded their right to copy in an examination. It is the same discards who later become a burden as they fail to acquire a skill with employability. Rights are forcefully demanded, but duties are detested.

            As citizens of a functioning democracy, we love populist policies and government bounties. Free electricity, free Wifi, free water, free books, free housing, free transport, free health facilities, free education and et al are some of the things we always desire the state to be providing its citizens and we take them for granted. One does not mind as long as they are provided to the deserving sections of society, but problem starts when undeserving segments try to corner these benefits through devious means. Not only that, after we get these government-provided benefits, we care two hoots for using the same responsibly. So wasting water, electricity or prostituting any free service is our favourite pastime. It is this want of deference for public resources that come back to haunt us through poor infrastructures as symptomatic of a backward country.  

            We want the State to be prompt and efficient in its service delivery but conscientized citizens of the same State, we ourselves would not do our bit wherever applicable to ensure the same. They forget that it is the people who make the country and not the other way round. We resent nepotism and favouritism in government service delivery, but would not mind peddling influence to seek undue favours through communitarian favouritism or in other inappropriate ways as are usually experienced in an underdeveloped country. The proposed plans to develop smart cities would prove still-born if we don’t have smart citizens who would be willing to make expected sacrifices for a dignified living.

            We underreport our income and consequently underpay our taxes but we resent it when the government complains of resource crunch to provide for the basic amenities. Digging the road for a private purpose, piling building materials or shop stuffs on public roads, tapping of water sources or electricity is a common sight in this country but the same people would complain of congested roads, contaminated water or load-shedding without realizing that it is their selfish actions which are affecting the qualities of many of these services.

            Observers feel that notwithstanding a huge number of laws and rules, the corresponding enforcement continues to be problematic. While you pay a hefty 1000 dollar fine for littering in a developed country or for a traffic violation, you can get away without any penalty in India through various ‘desi jugad’ (influence-peddling). Sometimes, the systemic imperfections also hamstring the functioning of rule of law in this country as the law-abiding citizens have no ways to get their rightful dues. Today, hundreds of thousands of applications for a fire license or a building plan are allegedly pending in different government offices for aeons, unless you decide to pass on the speed money to those in the gravy train.

            Many services in the government today are rightly being outsources for the inability to deliver the same to the citizens in a timely, transparent and efficient manner. Similarly, many other critical services with substantive time and cost overruns including passing a building plan or issuance of a statutory license should also be outsourced with detailed oversight mechanism. Information technology need to be suitably harnessed for provisioning of most of these services as already being done for various types of government services. E-governance is definitely the way to the future.

Till the citizens understand and appreciate their responsibilities, as a country, we shall continue to grovel in the dust. One only hopes that we shall soon awaken as a nation by acting as responsible citizens of a great nation that we want to be otherwise the time may soon run out on us.

*The views expressed here are personal and don’t reflect those of the Government.

Living in Intolerant Times

                                                                                                                *Dr. Saumitra Mohan

                We Indians don’t tire of boasting about our democratic credentials including our proud civilisational history and a salad bowl co-existential culture. And there are strong justified reasons for doing so. After all, it is India which has given many progressive philosophies and theories of peaceful co-existence to the world. Most of the leading religions have germinated in Indian soils and have grown up to provide muscular ontological cushions for human civilizations. However, lately there have been many disturbing developments which go against the very grain of our vaunted culture of tolerance and respect for divergent discourses.

                Indians appear to be increasingly intolerant of dissenting perspectives. These trends have the potential to balkanize our country by warping our nation-building processes. There have been umpteen instances in recent times when there have been attempts of cultural policing by the self-appointed guardians of Indian culture. Be it booking unmarried couples from Madh Island and Aksa beach in Mumbai, banning 857 porn sites, plan for imposition of prohibition, banning of books, films, art exhibition or valentine day celebrations, Indians have been increasingly orchestrating a regressive mindset.

                John Stuart Mill was right when he said, “My freedom to move my hand stops where your nose starts.” We may not like a particular idea or act but there are legitimate ways to express our reservations or revulsions rather than acting in a way which shames our existence as a civilized society. And, all this is often done in the name of stopping people from hurting the sensibilities of other individuals or communities. After all, how can one justify prohibiting an artistic expression if the same does not violate a particular law or rule. The subjective interpretation of the said rule or law has often been the reason behind such objective acts of cultural policing. Today, if we have one religious extremism rising in reply to another, we go nowhere. After all, two wrongs never make a right. Gandhi was right when he said, “Eye for an eye and the entire world will be blind.”

                The recent quashing of section 66A of the IT Act which allowed arrests for objectionable online content or striking down of porn site ban by the Apex Court is a step in the right direction as the same infringes citizens’ fundamental rights of expression or privacy. There have been further instances of vigilantism when the Group Admin of a ‘What’s App’ group has been arrested for undesirable posts or knifing of the Group Admin by a member. The members always have an option to opt out of the group in case of revulsion or of making a separate group rather than indulging in disproportionate reaction. The recent killing of the noted Kannada litterateur MM Kalburgi or the bloggers in Bangladesh or violence against some expressions or acts in social media is yet another example of growing intolerance in our society.

                We call ourselves the proud torch-bearers of an enlightened civilization but we still have obscurantist thinking shaping our outlook thereby negatively influencing our behaviour to certain societal developments. As Indians we don’t like amorous expressions in public including kissing, smooching or canoodling but conveniently wink at domestic violence including beatings of wife on the plea of it being a private affair. What else is an expression of love as represented by an embrace or a kiss? But we still have intolerant societal reactions to such expressions as exemplified by ‘Operation Majnu’.

                We are so intolerant and disrespectful of a divergent opinion that we immediately brand someone to be a quisling as was recently on display when the ilk of Salman Khan made some sympathetic statements for Yakub Menon. While none doubts the justification behind Yakub’s comeuppance, but as an individual, he definitely had his friends and admirers who were entitled to their convictions and viewpoints whatsoever they maybe. If at all they made some statements of sympathy for a friend, why should a section of our society be so perturbed about the same? Mind you this country still has sympathizers for Nathuram Godse, the assassin who killed Mahatma Gandhi. A vibrant debate is a desideratum for a vibrant democracy as it is through clash of ideas and opinions that truth always emerges.

                Voltaire was right when he said, “I do not agree with what you say, but I would defend till my death your right to say it.” As citizen of a democratic country, we have every right to express our views howsoever wrong they may be as long as the person concerned does not do something to violate a rule or law. So, some Indians were right in expressing their disagreement with Salman’s tweet, but they definitely had no business to agitate against the same by indulging in arson and vandalism. There are views of many great thinkers with whom the society does not agree but we still admire them. As a mature democracy, we need to be more restrained in our reactions otherwise we would be no better than those banana republics who believe in kangaroo courts and instant justice a la our ‘khap panchayats’.

                After Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw shoes at the former US President George Bush in December 2014, several similar incidents were reported in India thereafter, the most celebrated being the ‘shoe-throw act’ by Jarnail Singh at a former Union Minister. Similarly, the face-blackening incidents involving some politicos and activists have also occurred in this country from time to time. Violence against RTI activists or media-persons is the reflection of the same ailing mindset. Now, in all these cases, the perpetrator is often a small-time bumpkin who mostly undertakes such adventures to claim his 20 seconds of fame but the very fact that such acts transpire is only because of the vicarious pleasure we derive out of such incidents. But for a silent societal approval, such acts would never recur. The extremism of a minority is often due to the passivity of the majority.

                As we all know, intensity of recurrence of a societal vice is conditional upon society’s permissive value system. If corruption, crimes against women or violence against public property keep recurring, it only means that societal conscience is still not greatly shocked by the same. Our value system somehow approves of speed-money, short-cuts, dowry, violence against women, nepotism, violation of traffic rules, littering, vandalism of public property et al and hence, their continuance. We continue to be a mute spectator as long as it does not affect us but we protest the moment they start hurting us. So a political party today decries and criticizes opposition for immobilizing the legislature but would not mind doing the same if the roles are reversed.

                Isn’t it high time that we start addressing such existential contradictions of our individual and corporate value systems? Most of these problems would go once our rules and laws are duly enforced as the half-hearted homeopathic enforcement of our laws is the prime reason behind recrudescence of these societal pathologies. One just hopes that these signs of being mired in history, to use the expression of Francis Fukuyama, would fade as we mature as a society. The government and administration have to be as much watchful as the citizens themselves to secure their individual and community rights otherwise we would soon be ruing the destruction of the civilisational leviathan called India.

Dr. Saumitra Mohan is an IAS officer presently working as the District Magistrate, Burdwan in West Bengal. The views expressed here are personal and don’t reflect those of the Government.