Title: Presidential
angst over achievements
Author: Meenakshi Jain
Publication: The Weekend
Observer
Date: February 5, 2000
If a common thread runs
through the foreign minister's commendation of the Taliban and the President's
indictment of the nation in his Republic Day Address, it is our extreme
loquaciousness as a people. We tend to turn garrulous the moment the spotlight
is focused upon us our verbosity substituting for hard headedness and even
awareness of reality.
Thus, a nation of talkers
witnesses the spectacle of its foreign minister heaping praises on the
Taliban even after it was clear that they were abettors of the hijacking
drama. And the equally bewildering sight of the Head of State showering
recriminations on the Republic in precisely those areas where the achievements
of half a century have been quite laudable.
While the consequences
of the foreign minister's feeble grip on reality are becoming more visible
each passing day, the President's diatribe is also not without repercussions.
The Head of the Republic has virtually- repudiated the gigantic strides
independent India has taken towards the upliftment of its weaker sections
by describing the status of women and Dalits as 'the greatest national
drawback and our greatest shame'. The President has not only. lamented
the plight of Dalits, but has also said that the female half of the population
continues to be regarded in the same manner as it was in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries. While it is not clear what he implies by this
statement, it is obvious that the comparison is derogatory. The President
has also warned that the fury of the patient and long suffering would be
unleashed unless 'safe pedestrian crossings' are provided for unempowered
India. (For details on the President's Republic Day Address, see The Hindustan
Times 26-1-2000).
Given the President's
obvious scepticism of India's track record and his deep concern for the
welfare of Dalits and other weaker sections, it may be worthwhile to consider
the views of other observers before pronouncing a verdict. The President
has chastised the privileged classes for getting tired of affirmative action
provided under the Constitution. "Let us not get tired of what we have
provided for our weaker sections," he has admonished. Narayanan has, however,
omitted to tell us on what basis he has arrived at his conclusion on upper
class fatigue, given the "Prime Minister's personal commitment to ensure
the Scheduled Castes quotas even for promotions, within the services.
In an essay entitled
'Pursuing 'Equality: An assessment of India's Policy of Compensatory Discrimination
for Disadvantaged Groups' Professor Marc Galanter states that the policy
of compensatory discrimination has been pursued with remarkable persistence
and generosity if not always with vigour and effectiveness." Further, he
adds, "there is no open public defence of the ancient regime. Public debate
takes the form of argument among competing views of what is really good
for the lowest and for the country".
Describing reservations
as 'a forced draft programme' for the inclusion of Scheduled Castes and
Tribes into national life, Prof Galanter says that though its benefits
have not reached the vast mass of landless labourers, it has undeniably
accelerated the growth of a middle class within these groups. Members of
these groups, he states, have been brought into central roles in society
to an extent unimaginable a few decades ago. Reserved jobs, he says, though
small in actual number, "bring a manifold increase in the number of families
liberated from circumscribing subservient roles, enable them to utilise
expanding opportunities and support high. educational attainments." This,
surely, is what empowerment is all about.
Equally heartening is
a major study on Dalits recently published by Cambridge University Press,
which statistically maps their progress in the decades since independence.
In 1961, the study says, just ten per cent of the Scheduled Caste population
was literate. But by 1991 the figure had jumped to thirty-seven per cent,
"an extraordinary and accelerating improvement." Dalit literacy now lags
behind that of the general populace by only about a decade, and is predicted
to reach the national average by the next census (2001) if current trends
persist. And the year 2001, it might be added, is literally just round
the corner. Female literacy among Dalits has made equally admirable gains,
a giant leap forward from six per cent in 1971 to twenty-four per cent
in 1991.
Even in matters of employment,
the figures are reassuring. Scheduled Caste employment in Class I jobs
in the Central Government has risen from less than half per cent in 1953
to eight per cent in 1987 (the last date for which figures are available),
and in Class II jobs from one per cent to ten per cent during the same
period. The figures could have only gone up further in the subsequent years.
These figures surely substantiate the success of the policy of positive
discrimination for Dalits in independent India.
An indication of the
emerging reality can also be had from a statement made by Bahujan Samaj
Party leader Kanshi Ram in 1994. He said that out of some five hundred
IAS officers in Uttar Pradesh, as many as one hundred and thirty seven
were from the Scheduled Castes. As against this there were only seven IAS
officers from the backward castes, and of them six were Yadavs. Equally
indicative of the trends in Dalit empowerment is the fact that two Dalit
politicians are the leading contenders for the chief ministership of the
two most populous states of the Union that are expected to go to the polls
in the near future.
The President's scathing
observations on the status of women are similarly out of tune with reality.
It is amazing that he has overlooked the entire spectrum of legislative
and judicial enactments empowering women which rank among this country's
proudest accomplishments in the last five decades. Inheritance laws granting
women equal share in family assets to the point of equal share in the family
home and land, can honestly be regarded as nothing less than revolutionary
in their intent. The stringency of the Penal Code in matters relating to
dowry harassment and death also leaves little ground for complaint, though
there may be problems in actual implementation. Likewise, the state has
taken upon itself the free education of the girl-child up to a certain
level and floated schemes for their higher education at minimum cost thereafter.
Devolution of power to
women at the panchayat level similarly aims at dismantling the old status
quo. Indeed it can be nobody's case that the Indian state has not been
guided by the most enlightened ideals while framing policies for its female
population. None can honestly accuse it of being neglectful of its responsibilities
towards them.
The President has expressed
outrage at the perceived assault on women and the downtrodden, but remained
surprisingly silent on the grim assault on our civilization from vested
interests without, and their sympathisers within. It is not by physical
attack alone that we are being undermined, insidious efforts are on to
encroach on our cultural and spiritual space. In the name of freedom of
conscience and human rights, external agencies are challenging our very
right to our people.
Yet no call to shore
up our foundational ethos has emanated from the President's address. There
is no stirring appeal to strengthen our flanks, no rallying cry for a return
to roots. Just dire warnings of violence and social unrest. Alas our leadership,
neither upfront nor inspiring.
(Dr Jain is a Reader,
Delhi University)
