The Retreat of Liberal Democracy

                                                          *Saumitra Mohan

The world seems to be moving increasingly backward with the march of time much to the chagrin of all Panglossian expectations of the humanitarian values bringing about an eclectic, cosmopolitan and catholic human society. The incursions of regressive and retrograde forces on liberal-democratic ethos of our times are more stark and insidious today than ever before.

            When the Berlin War came down in September, 1990 or when the former USSR disintegrated, people like Francis Fukuyama had vainly proclaimed ‘end of history’ with the battle of ideology having putatively been won by the liberal-democratic forces. But it was around the same time that there were prophets of doom like Samuel Huntington who warned of an impending ‘clash of civilisations’ looming large on the horizon because of potential clashes along the cultural fault lines. However, the latter was excoriated as the gusts of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation (LPG) were sweeping the world off its feet. Who thought that the tide would turn soon to make Huntington sound prophetic today?

            If we look around ourselves, something appears to be really putrid about the time we live in. The negativities in thinking and action coupled with sinister developments all around us quite often repulse and disgust us. While we should have constructively occupied ourselves with resolution of our multifarious developmental problems, the societal discourse seems to have got stuck in a vicious time-warp. The insular and reactionary forces are running amok prescribing gastronomical and cultural norms, both nationally and internationally. The ascendancy and appeal of chauvinistic forces at the expense of liberalism, as reflected in their swagger on the world ramp, are staggering and somehow reveal the cerebral atrophy of this era.

            There have been multiple developments in recent time which prove that we, as a society, still have not resolved our existential dilemmas. This often compromises and impinges on the normative narratives which have all along defined and delineated the hoary Indian civilisation. The same holds true for many nation states across the world. The seemingly ‘innocuous’ cultural and intellectual excesses of fellow human beings often cross the boundaries to start interfering with the fundamental niceties of corporate living.

Here, an attempt to build a monolithic straitjacketed social order is made by conversion of the ‘salad bowl’ into a ‘melting pot’ in the garb of ‘Swadeshi’ and ‘Nationalism’. And when this happens, Goebbelian lies and cultural McCarthism become rampant. A cultural conformism is sought to be imposed through intimidation and violence. Real issues facing the society go to backburner and sensationalist emotional subjects overpower the hoi polloi with a dash of jingoist fervour and deemed cultural nationalism. Instead of endeavouring to build a strong, well-knit futuristic society, we have started chasing an anachronistic chimera and creating Frankenstein which may eventually devour this civilisational entity.

So, the self-proclaimed cultural custodians, by their diktats and fiats, not only deprive millions of their livelihood but also take off the menu millions’ preferred food by proscribing and tabooing beef. This they do without realising the economics of the move and by alienating a significant section of our citizenry. In fact, by throwing millions into unemployment, a huge section of the populace gets disaffected and is a sitting duck to the preying revisionist forces. What one fails to fathom is the limit of such inanity. If beef is banned because the same is taboo in Hinduism or for various benefits it brings to the society, what about sundry other non-vegetarian diets which are still not banned and consumption whereof may hurt the sensibilities of million others. When this country is failing and flailing in macro-managing its larger interests, we are trying to micromanage things which are better left to the citizens.

            It is notable that India not only loses billions of dollars because of the measure, but also creates further liabilities of maintaining the unproductive cattle which have to be cared for and for which we have no adequate resources or fodder available. The culture vultures, encouraged by a section of powers that be, have found ready excuses to take law in their hands because they suspect someone of dealing in or consuming the prohibited victuals, thereby compromising the fundamental right to life and liberty of common citizens as enshrined in our Constitution.

            The ‘Love Jihad’ and ‘Ghar Wapasi’ are other inanities which are masquerading in the name of cultural vigilantism. You are no longer allowed to go out or seen with the love of your life in certain parts of this country. It is really ironical that people have serious objections to people displaying their affection in public, but look the other way if people indulge in affray, rioting or battery of fellow citizens. Be it banning books, films, liquor, Pakistani artistes and players, we love the ‘B’ word without realising the irrationality of the same in this world of free information and communication signified by World Wide Web.

It is these nefarious attitudes and thoughts that are reflected globally in the rise of Donald Trump, rise of entities like Taliban, Al Qaida and ISIS, terror attacks in London, Paris, and elsewhere, killing of liberal writers and scribes, revisionist and irredentist Chinese incursions on neighbouring countries, Grexit, Brexit or ban on Muslims or Visa cuts for emigrant workers by countries like the US and Australia. If we revel in ‘Swadeshi’ and would like to ‘Make in India’, others would do a reactive tit for our ‘nationalist’ tat. The ‘Quit India’ calls for Sonu Nigam, Sharukh Khan, Kanhaiya Kumar, Aamir Khan or Khusbu are reflections of intolerance swaying this country these days. People are sought to be crucified for being vocal and expressing their opinion. Media is sought to toe the dominant line.

As Voltaire rightly said, “I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it”. The opinions expressed may be wrong, but expressions of the same make the truth appear brighter. Beheading threats for Kerala and West Bengal CMs, banning late night parties in Goa, attempts to ban dance bars, face-blackening or throwing shoes at people ‘we don’t like’ are some other instances of growing intolerance in the country. What is surprising is that while we have time for attending to such non-issues to reclaim our cultural pride, we find ourselves at our wits end when our soldiers are cursed, abused or manhandled in Kashmir or when they are lacerated by enemies?

            Balkanisation of countries has happened in the past because people have tried to impose one culture or way of life over other. Pakistan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Congo, Indonesia and many other countries divided simply because they could not value the plural sub-nationalities existing in these countries. If India has so far succeeded in pulling along in once piece, it is simply because our forefathers essayed to build Indian nationhood in a spirit of consociationalism. Consociationalism is a form of democracy which seeks to regulate the sharing of power in a state that comprises diverse societies by allocating these groups collective rights.

            It is by respective our pluralism and multi-culturalism that we have pulled off the impossibility of building a successful model of a mind-bogglingly diverse society as India. Slowly but steadily, we have been progressing from being a state-nation, a geographical congregation of a motley princely states, in 1947 to a nation-state with strong liberal democratic traditions and foundations. If we don’t soon resolve these contradictions, we shall only be self-destructing ourselves as the mythical ‘Bhasmasur’ did to himself. Whether we shall survive in one piece as a country would greatly depend on how effectively and swiftly we resolve these existential dilemmas and contradictions.

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

           

           

             

Regulating Our Food Habits

*Saumitra Mohan

          Amidst all the negativity, gloom and doom centring around multiple incursions on libertarian values of a painstakingly built plural democratic society in this country, there is something very positive one came across the other day. This relates to a purported move by the Union Ministry for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution to regulate the amount of food to be served by different restaurants and hotels to their individual customers to prevent potential wastage of food.

          The Hon’ble Minister also supposedly questioned the large portions of food served to each person which often results in unwarranted wastage. A section of critics has questioned the proposition as an infringement of personal liberties of citizens as it is not practically possible for anyone to fix up a uniform regime for all classes of citizens as dietary needs vary from individual to individual. Critics have argued against the government’s quantitative food prescription for every individual.

          While there is definitely some merit in this criticism about imposition of dietary uniformity across the country in our eateries and restaurants, the spirit behind the move is definitely admirable. The move requires further debates and discussion for converting the same into implementable law backed by supportive rules. One really finds it outrageous when one glimpses piles of leftover food on used plates in various restaurants, eateries and hotels. The people often order more than they can consume and end up wasting food unwittingly. Huge food has also been noticed to have been wasted in various marriage ceremonies, festivals, parties and other occasions in our country.

          Such food wastage borders on criminal wastage of national resources in a country where millions still have difficulty getting two squares of meals or in a world where millions go hungry every day. The money we waste may be ours, but the resources belong to the whole humanity and we certainly have no right to waste food, howsoever, moneyed we may be.

          It is notable here that there are many countries across the world which have actually put in place strong mechanism against such intentional or incidental food wastage. Such progressive countries inter alia include France, Germany and Switzerland. It is notable that in Germany, the customers in restaurants and hotels are fined one to two Euro if they don’t polish off the food on their plates as part of its ‘eat up or pay up’ policy.

The system was put in place after the customers were found to overload their plates during the buffet meals which come against a fixed price. Customers were found to be conducting themselves irresponsibly after they had paid up the buffet charges by piling their plates with us much food as possible, often beyond their eating capacity. The idea of ‘penalty’ was put in place to make people order or take only as much food as they could consume.

          In another example, people can eat to their heart by paying up a fixed price in Switzerland. However, none is allowed there to waste food by leaving large leftovers on their plates. If anyone is noticed doing that, they are to be charged additional five Francs as a fine. Accordingly, the eateries in Switzerland add five extra Francs to the customer’s bill if he/she does not finish everything on the plate. The symbolic penalty is levied to discourage people from wasting food. It is notable that two million tons of ‘good food’ is wasted every year in Switzerland.

In a yet another positive development in this direction, France recently passed a new law that requires large grocery stores to donate all unused but still edible food to various charitable organisations operational in that country. All the large market chains, malls and stores are required to do an advance planning to this effect by signing formal agreements with various charities with regards to deemed donation and use of unused, but ‘safe-to-eat’ food.

As per this new French legislation, any food that was packed wrong, damaged or is past the expiration date but is still safe to consume must be donated. The law has prescribed specific penalties for stores that fail to follow the government directions and deliberately spoil unsold food thereby pre-empting their consumption by the needy.

          It is noted with concern that there are many rich countries across the world where huge amount of ‘fit-to-be-consumed’ food is wasted every year. As per a 2014 report, 133 billion pounds of food i.e. 10 per cent of its total consumption are thrown away each year in the US. According to a recent report, India loses 21 million tonnes of wheat every year owing to lack of suitable infrastructure and food storage facilities including refrigerated transport, poor roads, inclement weather and corrupt practices. According to another estimate, food grains worth 60,000 crores are lost every year in this country.

India has the world’s largest public distribution system operational with an estimated food subsidy bill around Rs. 1.35 lakh crores and we procure about 62 million tonnes of food-grain every year to meet our national food security requirements. It is against this background that the idea to penalise food wastage is worth commendation and needs to be pursued in right earnest. Our food Security Bill may not have any provision to penalise wastage of food or it may not cast any obligation on the government in power to ensure that the people in charge should be held accountable for their failure to protect food-grain, but we should definitely start thinking about the same seriously.

In a country like India we can ill afford to allow criminal wastage of food by people howsoever resourceful they may be. Having resources at our disposal does not allow us to criminally waste food at the expense of millions who don’t have access to the same. Food security for all will not come only by improving access by providing subsidized food to everyone, but will also be ensured by checking irresponsible behaviour on the part of our citizens who need to inculcate some ‘table manner’ including habit of valuing our precious food.

While we already have a well laid-out protocol against any food wastage in the various FCI go-downs, however the same needs to be implemented suitably to ward against any food wastage including construction and creation of the requisite food storage space across the country as has been done in West Bengal recently. However, instead of quantitative prescription of food for individuals, one feels, a la Germany and Switzerland, we should also have provisions in the proposed law to proscribe any food wastage in this country in any form, be it in a restaurant, eatery or a hotel. This is an idea whose time definitely has come.

It has been suggested that if everyone on the planet consumed as much as the average US citizen, four Earths would be needed to sustain them. While we definitely need not try to keep up with the Joneses, the arrogance of mammon has to be reined in if we really wish to have a sustainable development and save this planet for our posterity. This small initiative to be implemented in due consultation with all relevant stakeholders, as rightly mooted, shall definitely go a long way in reinforcing our food security effort.

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