In public perception the national leadership is yet to give signs of taking the cue from street protests and devising ways to check corruption
While the nation hears from its leaders on Independence Day about what has been achieved, and what ought to be prominent on the agenda, it also expects a realistic evaluation. Typically, however, the President and Prime Minister do not talk to us about where we are falling short, especially on account of the shortcomings of the executive. They use broad-brush strokes and offer generalisations.
So, self-criticism is usually not on the menu. But the people employ their own yardstick to make an assessment. They are seldom swayed by rhetoric unless the social, economic and political environment induces a sense of achievement or well-being. That can hardly be said to be the case on this 65th anniversary of our Independence.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Wednesday will doubtless hold centrestage as the country looks for clues to gauge the direction in which the government plans to go in the remaining two years of the term of the current Parliament, on the expiry of which fresh elections will become due. However, on the eve of Independence Day, President Pranab Mukherjee has candidly observed: “We must restore the credibility of those areas of our polity, judiciary, executive and legislature where complacency, exhaustion or malfeasance may have clogged delivery.” It is not the first time that a major national leader has spoken of delivery being clogged. (It was none other than Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who told the country 90 paise in every rupee were taken away by unscrupulous elements from our development expenditure.) But the President’s remarks come in a milieu of continual agitations and protests over the past year on the question of corruption in various areas. We will do well not to be alienated from the context.
This newspaper has hardly been appreciative of the populist, rabble-rousing solutions frequently offered by the protagonists of protest movements, and of their gumption in seeking to hold the elected institution of Parliament to ransom. The President too has quite rightly spoken of the capacity for chaos if such prescriptions are carried to their logical end. It cannot be gainsaid, however, that in public perception the national leadership is yet to give signs of taking the cue from street protests and devising ways to check corruption, and bring about accountability in government. There is not so much time left now, with the shadow of the next general election looming large over our political processes and the protest agendas of those who claim to be non-political. There can be little question that the government needs to move with alacrity on the corruption front, and on key economic issues concerning the national economy and the lives of ordinary people.