When Populism Rules the Roost

When Populism Rules the Roost

Nidhu Bhusan Das

Democratic India has changed a lot.A bullet train project,first of its kind in the country, has recently been inaugurated,with loan from Japan and Japenese technology.This is that Japan which was doomed in 1945 under the severe impact of two atom bomb blasts on Hiroshima ( 6 August) and Nagasaki ( 9 August). India got Independence in August 1947 - two years from that doom of Japan.

True,India suffered from colonial exploitation for a couple of centuries and received Independence conceding the partition plan of the British.But it was not reduced to ashes like Japan which could have turned around and be back to the path of prosperity soon enough.It was possible because of the sheer determination of the Japanese and their political leadership.The discipline, etiquette and work culture of the Japanese are enviable and worth emulation.

Japan has not been in the throes of populist politics as we have in India.The politics there, evidently,is mainly focused on economy and economic welfare through effective employment of people.An epitome of humility,they are willing to work with diligence and always wear a smile.We have foregrounded politics and failed to provide a level playing ground for all sections and castes of the population despite the lofty ideals and dreams of the members of the consembly as found expression in our Constitution.Instead,we have succeeded in bringing in identity politics, and thereby divided the polity into myriad fragments,all for gains in electoral politics.We do not have an work culture which may be compared with that of the Japanese.

The consequences are there for us to see and suffer from.We are far behind Japan.We have played minority and caste cards but it has not helped their economic uplift.Whenever a government in recent times gave primacy to economics,and pulled the economy back to track from the brink of collapse,it was rewarded with rebuff at the hustings.The Narasimha Rao

government was denied a second term.Mohammad - bin - Tughlak is denigrated even today with the pejorative “Tughloki” for,inter alia,his economic measures.The humiliation of Narsimha Rao when he was Prime Minister is a matter of record.We heap Shahjahan with praise and consider him with awe as the architect Emperor for his Tajmahal and other architectural sites.However,historians of subaltern school highlight the miseries suffered by his subjects because of famine following the drainage of the exchequer as a consequence.What is in store for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government is right now a matter of conjecture if the electorate is swayed by populism.

Corruption is a bane of Indian politics.A section of influential politicians wear the garb of secularism and try to shield themselves as saviours of the minority when corruption charges come up against them and legal proceedings are drawn.In India populist and identity politics has often been found to  set in motion or accelerate corruption.