Cooking Geese

This, it is now clear, is the season for goose-cooking in India. Consider, for instance, the number of VIPs whose geese have been cooked recently. To name just a few fat ones:

Ottaavio Quatrocchi, friend of Rajiv Gandhi via his Italian wife, Sonia. By revelations of his role in the Bofors deal;

Sonia Gandhi, Italian wife of Rajiv. By joining the Congress Party;

Sitaram Kesri, Congress president. By nursing a hundred vipers in his party, including, or especially, Sushil Sharma;

Laloo Prasad Yadav, by Deve Gowda, for getting in his way.

Deve Gowda, by Sitaram Kesri for getting in his way.

 

Narasimha Rao, by Siboo Soren et al.

The list, as everyone knows now, is endless. It includes scores of lesser politicians, senior bureaucrats, policemen and businessmen. Virtually every one of yesteryears big shots are on the run, for one reason or another.

When something happens on such a large scale, not just episodically but persisting over a period of time, it suggests that, well, something is happening. What could this some- thing be?

The pessimists say everything is going to the dogs because these happenings are causing the moral authority of the state to break down and its legitimacy to be questioned. The end, it is feared, is nigh.

The pessimists turn to tribal societies and their totems. In such societies, they never blame the totem. When things go wrong, it is always the witch-doctor who gets it in the neck. That way authority and legitimacy are both kept safe from damage.

It could have been that way with the Congress Party also but Indira Gandhi made her family not just the witch-doctor but the totem as well. So now when you question one, the other is automatically questioned. Whence the plight in which the Congress finds itself.

And that matters because, indubitably, the Congress was the dominant political force for close to a 100 years. So the misgivings over the larger issues of authority and legitimacy are natural, even if exaggerated.

But in the meantime, until new witch-doctors, if not totems, are found, these apprehensions will persist. The important thing, clearly, is to separate the totem from the witch-doctor, or what is the same thing, stop treating political organisations as private fiefdoms.

But the Congress doesnt seem to be learning any lessons; witness its frenzy over Sonia Gandhis announcement. And, surprisingly, it has found an adept pupil in Laloo Yadav too who is busy becoming totem-cum-witch doctor.

Sonia Gandhi seems to want to use the Congress Party to protect her family on the Bofors affair. Which is what Laloo is doing with the Bihar Janata Dal on the fodder scam. So much then, for Sonias sophistication or Laloos simplicity. There is nothing, really, to choose between them.

The optimistic explanation is that all this heralds a new beginning, the process by which India is changing from a feudal democracy to a modern one where the political executive is brought to heel by the other institutions of the state.

Two questions arise from this. One, will India succeed in separating the totem and the witch doctor; and, two, how long will the process take?

The answer lies in the culture of the different political parties. The Congress appears beyond redemption. So, too, the Janata Dal.

Like it or not, that leaves the BJP and the Communists. Take your pick.