Why doe India have more of a Democracy than America ?

[krsna]

 

 

HAROON SIDDIQUI

 

If it's not to be an Italian-born Catholic, the next best available symbolic choice to lead India at this time is a bearded and turbaned Sikh. Either way, India ends up with its first non-Hindu prime minister. After a decade of sectarianism, the world's largest democracy could not have a chosen a better moment and a better way to reassert its secularist credentials.

 

Sonia Gandhi may have the halo but Manmohan Singh has the gravitas to end the political and economic uncertainty that has gripped India for a week.

 

As finance minister in 1991, he abandoned socialism and ushered in economic liberalization. When the Bank of Nova Scotia went to India, he was there for the inauguration. His many honours include an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta.

 

In a culture of corruption, he has the distinction of being an oxymoron: an honest politician.

 

But the 71-year-old has not been in good health, and may prove a stand-in until the Congress Party finds the next leader — perhaps Sonia's son Rahul, 34, just elected to parliament, or her charismatic daughter Priyanka, 32, who managed the Congress election campaign.

 

Sonia's decision to sacrifice her ultimate chance has few precedents. One can't conceive of, say, Paul Martin passing up on the prime ministership because some Canadians were distraught over his corporatist past. Or George W. Bush conceding the 2000 election to Al Gore because the Democrat won the popular vote.

 

India has had a tradition of Muslim Sufi saints, Buddhist monks and Hindu sadhus renouncing the world for the monastery, the mountain or the jungle. But in the game of politics and power, the only parallel one can think of is that of another Gandhi — no relation of Sonia's.

 

Mahatma Gandhi led India to freedom from British rule but had no interest in anything but moral leadership. He blessed younger colleague Jawaharlal Nehru to become prime minister.

 

Sonia's motivation may be no more than a desire to live, given the record of assassinations that have occurred on the subcontinent.

 

As is well known, her husband, Rajiv, was killed in 1991 by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber for having decided as prime minister (1984-89) to distance India from Sri Lanka's insurgency.

 

Sonia's mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi, died in her arms in 1984 after being gunned down in retaliation for her attack on the holiest Sikh shrine, the Golden Temple, to flush out the separatists holed up there.

 

In Sri Lanka, President Chandrika Kumaratunga lost an eye in an unsuccessful 2000 Tamil assassination attempt.

 

Her predecessor, Ranasinghe Premadasa, was killed in 1993 by a Tamil suicide bomber.

 

Her husband, Vijay, was killed in 1988 by a Sinhalese extremist. Her father, Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike, was assassinated in 1959 by a Buddhist monk.

 

In Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Mujib-ur Rahman was murdered with all but two members of his family in 1975 in a military coup.

 

Pakistan's first prime minister, Liaqat Ali Khan, was shot dead at a public rally in 1951 by a person whose motive was never established.

 

In 1948, Mahatma Gandhi himself was shot dead for being too soft on Muslims. He had just come off a fast protesting the killing of Muslims in sectarian riots. His murderer was a Hindu nationalist, a member of a group that is still part of the political umbrella of the just-defeated Bharatiya Janata Party.

 

In its last six years in office, the BJP distanced itself from its religious extremism to present a moderate face in the election. Yet sensing a Sonia victory, it stoked nativist sentiments in a vicious anti-foreigner campaign.

 

But voters wouldn't be fooled.

 

Not only was the BJP trounced in rural areas where many drought-stricken farmers have committed suicide, it lost in the major urban centres. It was wiped out in three of the four southern states that tend to be the most secular.

 

More significantly, it lost in the western state of Gujarat where a BJP premier had presided over a massacre of Muslims. In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, it even lost the riding where its cadre had stormed the Ayodhya mosque in 1991, unleashing sectarian killings.

 

Thirty-three of its ministers lost their seats, including the education minister who had Hindu-ized history textbooks.

 

While outgoing Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was gracious in defeat, his underlings weren't. They've been saying that making Sonia prime minister would be "cultural suicide,a national shame," and "an insult to the soul of India." They were to boycott her swearing-in and launch a national campaign to amend the constitution to bar the foreign-born from the top job.

 

By stepping aside, she has nullified the BJP tactics of turning defeat into an opportunity to revive its fundamentalist base.

 

Having Singh as prime minister may also help Congress reconnect with the Sikhs, who had abandoned it after the Golden Temple fiasco.

 

Beyond partisan considerations, the tumultuous turn of events of the past week should be celebrated as a victory for India — and democracy.

 

P.S. Wasn't it remarkable that this dirt poor yet highly developed nation got millions of illiterate people to vote electronically and then counted all 380 million ballots within hours?

 

Note to Florida: Call India.