K Chandrasekhar Rao’s fast in 2009 and Anna Hazare’s latest one can raise the question whether it is possible to take the wind out of the sails of those who indulge in such moral coercion by ignoring them.
Otherwise, as in the case of terrorists, the more the government succumbs to such blackmails — or is it whitemails? — the greater the chances of other adventurists using similar pressure tactics. However, if the government remains aloof as a matter of policy, this exhibitionist trend may die out.
The reasons why officials and their political bosses lose their nerve when someone threatens to go on a hunger strike are obvious.
One is its association with Mahatma Gandhi which automatically places the gesture in a high moral category deserving of praise and deference rather than condemnation. The other is the fear of public repercussions in case of death.
As Potti Sreeramulu’s fast to death in 1952 in support of a separate Andhra Pradesh showed, the sacrifice of one’s life could not but force the government to bend.
As an aside, it may be worthwhile to consider why self-immolation is not seen as an option, as it has been done in Vietnam and Sri Lanka. Except for the solitary exception of Rajiv Goswami, who set himself on fire in protest against backward caste quotas in 1980, there has been no other such major incident.
The reason why this form of suicide is not preferred is probably that it does not have the salience of the Gandhian method. Besides, it is not a part of the Indian tradition where fasting to death in old age is a chosen method of the Jains, which was followed by Chandragupta Maurya in the pre-Christian era and Vinoba Bhave more recently.
Moreover, the impact of fasting is greater in political terms since it demonstrates a mental readiness to undergo prolonged self-punishment in support of a cause, which is bound to arouse admiration and shame the rulers.
Self-immolation, in contrast, can be regarded as a momentary burst of determination or a lapse into insanity. In contrast, the slow wearing away of one’s physical self as a result of fasting denotes a greater and more sustained strength of mind.
Although these may be some of the reasons why the government succumbs to the threat of a fast, the time has perhaps come to take a fresh look at such an attitude. For a start, it will entail an administrative and political assessment of a possible death. Will the government be able to cope with the resultant disturbances? Considering that the violence following Indira Gandhi’s death could have been controlled but for the political backing of the anti-Sikh riots, it can be argued that it is possible for a sufficiently determined police force to restore order within a short time.
As Harsh Mander, a former IAS officer and now a member of the National Advisory Committee, has said, no outbreak can last for more than a few hours without political connivance.
As the Gujarat riots show, political support is what sustains the law-breakers.
There is little doubt that death from a fast, which in itself is a political act, will be exploited by the opposition parties to attack a government. Their criticism will be all the more effective if the cause of the hunger strike has popular support.
Both Chandrasekhara Rao’s fast for Telangana and Anna Hazare’s at present fall in this category. Even then, the fact that the government has been able to stall the first demand and that the Jan Lokpal bill has its critics means that backing for them is not universal.
Arguably, it is precisely for this reason that fasts were — and are — being resorted to since the proponents of the two causes are aware that their cases are not foolproof.
In the case of the unofficial bill, for instance, it is open to question whether a gargantuan quasi-judicial body probing everyone from a peon to the prime minister will be able to function at all or collapse under its own weight.
What is more, the preference for such a body which will virtually be above parliament, government and judiciary points to an adolescent admiration for a dictatorship, which dispenses with the cumbersome paraphernalia of democracy.
Not surprisingly, there are professed Maoist sympathisers among Anna Hazare’s supporters. Even as a government, knee-deep in scams, allowed the movement to gain ground, its threat to the democratic system cannot be discounted.
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