Government by Discussion

Editorial:
“Democracy is not just about ballots and votes, but also about public deliberation and reasoning, what – to use an old phrase - is often called ‘government by discussion’,” writes Amartya Sen in “Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny”.
There is no earth-shattering revelation here, but with the act of stating the obvious, the Nobel laureate is making a strong statement. By devoting an entire chapter to fleshing out this point, he holds up the mirror to the country forcing us to admit that the world’s largest democracy appears to have forgotten what democracy is all about.
Democracy has meant politics in India for far too long, leading to the aberration of politicians and political commentators wearing their ignorance on their sleeves, and without the slightest hint of embarrassment, holding forth on how wrong the Centre was in conferring with the ‘civil society’ while drafting the Lokpal Bill. This is odd. It should be standard practise for every new rule and every new law to be drafted after the counsel of the experts and the interested and affected parties was sought and included. But that is a courtesy lost to limiting democracy to elections, because then politics itself gets reduced to the segregated equation of those in power and those in Opposition. Debates stop being about ideology and get directed by positions. The ruling coalition does what suits its interests and the Opposition protests everything. With vote-banks already identified and appropriated, the focus is only on keeping these secure. A sorry state of affairs... When a writer who also presented a case for the ‘Argumentative Indian’ reminds the same Indians of the need for pubic deliberations and reasoning, the message should become clear – the nation needs to relearn many things. Amartya Sen’s “The Argumentative Indian” was the highest selling book in India in 2005-06. His next, quoted above, should also have been read more widely, and then, maybe, the nation would have indulged in some introspection and that might have saved us from the chagrin of watching the political rhetoric of people’s representatives mouthing empty platitudes on an issue which has so obviously captured the imagination of the people of the nation at large. Instead of genuine concern, one is being subjected to pompous self-righteousness.
Let’s reflect on Sikkim. Has anyone heard of public deliberations here? Unlikely. And that is why in Sikkim there is rarely consensus, only diktats and protests. It is unfortunate that a people who at one time were so enamoured by the idea of democracy that they took on a 300 year old monarchy and even gave up their individuality as a nation state just so that they could have democracy, have, since then, pulled away from public participation in the public domain. Public deliberation does not mean that the people start debating at formal seminars; it is enough for them to become more involved in the process of democracy and its implementation. With their involvement, they will secure accountability – first at the local body level and from there upwards and across to the executive. Their involvement will force the elected representatives to make the right noises at the right places and times and motivate them to get more involved in the decision making process themselves.