By Justice Markandey Katju
Indian 'independent' mediapersons like Ravish Kumar, Siddhartha Varadarajan, Shekhar Gupta, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Urmilesh, Arfa Khanum Shervani, Karan Thapar, Barkha Dutt, Ajit Anjum. Abhisar Sharma, Punya Prasun Bajpai, Ashutosh, Tavleen Singh, etc and the much touted 'liberal intellectuals' of India like Ramchandra Guha, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Shashi Tharoor, Raghuram Rajan, Bibek Debroy, Ashis Nandy, Yogendra Yadav, Arghya Sengupta, Arundhati Roy, etc, who strut around the public stage like peacocks, never ask the relevant questions which need to be asked today : are elections relevant in India? If not, what is the alternative for Indians? And how is that to be achieved?
When Ravish Kumar left (or was sacked from) NDTV, a large number of people raised a huge hue and cry, and gave massive support to his new YouTube channel, when the fact is that apart from being an upright journalist there is nothing in his head. The same can be said about the other journalists mentioned above.
And as regards our 'intellectuals', many of whom are named above, most of them are self-proclaimed 'liberals', though in fact totally inane, superficial and frivolous, puffed-up and arrogant, who have been strutting around like peacocks for long on the Indian stage. They have managed to bedazzle and befool most people, particularly the gullible youth, into thinking them to be profound paragons, embodiments and quintessence of wisdom and learning, who have to be followed, like children following the Pied Piper of Hamelin.. But the truth is that they have little in their heads, and the half baked knowledge they have is mostly bookish and superficial.
Our academics in Universities and Colleges ( who have mostly gobar or cow dung in their in heads ) are mostly content with getting their salaries and perks and rarely make penetrating analyses of anything.
Today, India is facing a terrible economic crisis, with massive unemployment, skyrocketing prices of food and other essential commodities, appalling levels of child malnutrition, etc, but our Professors of Economics in JNU, Delhi School of Economics and other Indian Universities, Colleges and Institutes, who get huge salaries and perks, have no clue about its cause and solution. Media persons, who are almost all inane and superficial, with half-baked knowledge, often give puerile explanations about it, posing as experts in the field.
These 'intellectuals' and 'liberals' often cry hoarse about the curtailment of democracy and freedom of speech and expression in India today, but they may be asked: if you have freedom of speech, what will you do with it? What will you speak when you know little yourself? You will mostly spout nonsense.
So how does it matter whether your freedom is curtailed or not? Freedom of speech is not an end in itself; it is only a means to an end, and that end is giving the people better lives. But our 'liberals' and 'intellectuals' have made it a fetish and a holy cow.
Parliamentary democracy is clearly unsuited to India since it mostly runs on the basis of casteism and communalism, which are feudal forces, and hence have to be destroyed if India is to progress, but parliamentary democracy further entrenches them.
So we have to devise an alternate system of government, and that is possible only by a historic united people's struggle, i.e. some kind of a revolution, led by patriotic, modern-minded leaders. But the mere mention of the word 'revolution' sends an electric shock through the heads of these 'liberals' and mediapersons, who run from it as if it were the plague, though the stark truth is that everything in India has collapsed, the state institutions have become hollow and empty shells, and the economy has stalled.
Everyone in India knows that when most people in India go to vote they rarely see the merit of the candidate, whether he is a good man or bad, educated or uneducated, criminal or not, etc, but only see his caste or religion ( or the caste or religion which his party claims to represent ). Hence we have caste and communal vote banks, which most Indian politicians are experts in manipulating, polarising society, and inciting hatred. A large number of persons with criminal backgrounds are in our legislatures.
Casteism and communalism are feudal forces, which must be destroyed if India is to progress, but parliamentary democracy further entrenches them, as it runs on their basis. Hence it must be replaced by another political system, led by secular, patriotic, modern minded leaders determined to rapidly industrialise and modernise India, as that alone can solve our massive socio-economic problems.
This is not possible within the present framework of the Constitution of India. In other words, the solutions to India's huge problems of massive poverty, record and rising unemployment, appalling level of child malnutrition , skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, almost total lack of proper healthcare and good education for the masses, atrocities and oppression of minorities, etc lie outside, and not within, the present Constitutional system
The test of every political activity and political system is one, and only one: does it raise the standard of living of the people? Does it give them better lives?
So even if we have free and fair elections, how will it matter to the vast majority of our people? Their lives will remain as miserable and poverty-stricken as before.
It is only by a mighty historical united people's struggle, which will be protracted, arduous, and in which tremendous sacrifices will have to be made, that we can create a just political and social order in which our people will get decent lives.
All this the geniuses abovenamed, as well as their kin, cannot understand.
Their minds are caged within the system of parliamentary democracy and electoral politics, which to them is a fetish, a permanent political form, and they would be horrified to think that there can be an alternative outside it.
(Justice Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. These are his personal views.)
