A Girish Nikam website Every report that concerns India

By Girish Nikam (गिरीश निकम)

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Having watched the Democrats convention in Denver through the last week, which culminated in the truly historical nomination of Barack Hussein Obama as the Presidential candidate, one is tempted to do some comparisons between India and the United States. Talking of historicity of the occasion, it has to be stressed here that it was more historic for the Americans than for us in this part of the world.
Americans----the liberals and the democrats and those changing their mind about the Republicans---- are all going gooey eyed and wiping their tears of joy about what they see as the realization of a 45 year old dream of a black preacher, who had said in Washington DC, “I have a dream—“.
And what was the dream? To see the realization of the American creed, “---- that all men are created equal”. For us sitting across the oceans and with this belief in our mind that America is a great country of opportunity and equality, that this dream took so long to realize is a wonder. A Black man being nominated by a major political party for the Presidentship. And he has still not won, mind you.
That aside for the moment, the American Presidential elections this time around has really woken up the world like never before. Here is this black man with a “funny name”, as his wife Michelle admits, son of a white American mother and Kenyan black father, who has captured the imagination of the world, and has sent hopes soaring among all those who have been discriminated against all these years in that “great” free country.
But do we Indians need to be as much overawed with this “historic” transformation that is on?
Consider this. When that black preacher was making that historic and evocative speech in 1963 even as his fellow-blacks were reeling under racial discrimination, legally mind you, we had already put in place laws against discrimination on grounds of caste, religion, race, colour, 13 years earlier. And who was the person who headed that drafting committee to write those laws? An “untouchable” B.R.Ambedkar. While America is hailing itself today for nominating a black (well, half black actually) as a Presidential candidate, we had elected another “untouchable” once, K.R.Narayanan as President years ago.
As the Democrat primaries were on, there was this euphoria generated about the possibility of the first woman Presidential nominee. But Hilary fumbled somewhere along the way, and had to give way to Obama. The thought of the first woman Presidential candidate and possibly the President was also something Americans were excited about. They thought finally the glass ceiling would be broken. But we here had broken that glass ceiling over 40 years back, by having Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister. We even went on to have a Woman President last year, while America will now have to wait awhile longer, if ever it will, to have one.
And we have Mayawati, another one from the “unwashed classes” who has shown the guts, some would dub it as audacity, to declare her ambition to be the next Prime Minister of India. And it is all part of the accepted democratic game, which we have practiced and nurtured for the last 61 years.
But for Americans reeling under the “black charge” now, it is all a new and overwhelming experience--- as one could see by the number of moist eyes and lumpy throats as Obama made that grand acceptance speech the other night.
And therefore we have very little to emulate the Americans when it comes to dealing with discrimination and biases, and providing equal opportunities for the politically, socially or even educationally discriminated. We do have caste and religious bias in our society and we still have untouchability practiced. But we had the courage to accept it and made laws to combat it much before Americans came to admit it and try to legislate against it. If they had, Martin Luther King would not have been a hero of the oppressed and racially discriminated and their supporters as late as 1963. If they had overcome the racial bias, they would not have been celebrating the nomination of a black man for the Presidentship today. Though the racial discrimination was banned in 1964 through the Civil Rights Act, it took them a full 45 years to reach this stage, and ask the American blacks or even the indigenous Indians (Red Indians), they still feel the oppression even today.
Coming to elections on the other hand, we incidentally have far more effective, fair and uniform system of elections than the United States. It is entirely another matter that some do manage to still abuse the system. But who can forget those pregnant and hanging chads in Ohio, which used the outdated punching system, and confusion in Florida which all resulted in Al Gore losing the elections? Not once in all our elections since 1952 have we witnessed such confusion in counting votes in our country. And never has a loser been declared a winner without a challenge. That could not have been possible under our Election Commission, which has become the envy of the democratic world.
Having said all this, it is not that we don’t have anything to learn from the democratic process in America. Watching the primaries of both Republicans and the Democrats over the last several months, and the way they finally zeroed in on their candidates for the President’s race, is truly enviable. When can we even think of having such transparent, stimulating, open and frank (of course cheeky and nasty too sometimes) contests among the aspirants? When will we shift from concentrating during elections on petty political and personal points, to larger issues concerning the nation and the world? When will the aspirants from within a party aspiring for top political posts come face to face publicly and pit their knowledge, skills and policies?
As one watched all those debates between the Democratic or Republican aspirants, right from the beginning and the elimination process, it was an overwhelming feeling. That the most influential and powerful political family like the Clintons had to finally yield ground to a man from nowhere, like Obama and come on stage in Denver and endorse him, shows the strength and the firm foundations of inner party democracy. An aspect in which we are aeons behind America. Though one sees some initial and hesitant steps being taken by both the Congress and the BJP.
Obama however has made history already and if he does manage to become the President, as many across the democratic world, why even the non-democratic Islamic world, is hoping, he can certainly pick up a thing or two from India.