Is India dangerously running towards a 1975 like internal emergency? If the symptoms of political instability at the centre due to loads of high level corruption charges against UPA ministers and impeding loss of Congress in state elections are any signification, then probably a forced emergency is not far off from today. There is also another important incident that will also add fire to the fuel is the inability of UPA in passing the Lokpal Bill in the monsoon session, which would anyway erupt the ire of middle class citizens who just took part in the trailer orchestrated by Anna Hazare. The nation will be compelled to watch the whole movie “India rises against corruption”, if the UPA government fails to pass the bill or deliberately stages series of conspiracies in diverting the public attention.
Maybe, there is no pertinent sign yet which can trigger the worst political crisis for the UPA government, but the things are not going well either in governance front, as every other day another scam is being unearthed and ministers are entangled into the larger scheme of that scam. Perhaps, few months down the line some more new scams will catch the headlines and the pressures from each block of democratic setup will be mounted on the UPA government beyond a tolerable limit, and that could be a tempting point for the ruling party to do something unusually gross, but not unprecedented.
If we analyze the political and economic situation in 1975, India was living in a complete dark age, no growth, no aspiration, no citizen empowerment, extremely battered by poverty, state-run sick enterprises, no consumer power, and moreover, sycophant media houses who were licking the boots of the then ruling party leader. However, 36 years after India has proved to be an emerging superpower in many dimensions, be it IT/ITES, telecom, biotech, pharma, R&D, retail, finance, or media, each segment has significantly contributed to the growth engine of this nation. The liberalization has completely transformed the image of India among the first worlds.
An interesting case of highly people empowerment can be drawn from this incident. During 26/11, when the government displayed some false empathy to Ratan Tata for supporting the security of Taj in the aftermath of terrorist attack, the legend of Tata Group snubbed and retorted that he can better take care of his property than what the state can afford to. What could be a more befitting response than this to the political masters of this country who think they are still the epicentre of power? There is much power polarized outside the Parliament. A country with 1.21 billion population coupled with boundless consumer power and 24x7 access to information can negotiate the gargantuan power of state with extreme tact and efficacy, and that's the beauty of democracy. I wish that nothing of that emergency-like scenario would happen again in India, but if that still happens it will be the permanent death of political democracy in this country. People are innovative now and they can formulate a new form of governance in this country with accountability, transparency, and certainly free of corruption.
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