In spite of all the negative factors, including caste tensions in UP, Bihar and Maharashtra, India celebrates its 29th republic day today in the calm confidence that it does not face a crisis of unmanageable proportions. The security environment has become somewhat uncertain as a result of the pro-Soviet communist coup in Afghanistan and the current upheaval in Iran and the resulting change in US policy whereby Washington appears to have decided to back with military hardware the junta in power in Islamabad. But so long as New Delhi maintains in a reasonably good shape its relations with the Soviet Union without either alienating the United States or closing the door to a steady improvement of ties with China, this country can more or less insulate itself against external turmoil. If there is no room for complacency, there is none for anxiety and alarm either. Within the country, the new ruling Janata is not homogeneous as even the faction-ridden Congress was both under Mr. Nehru and Mrs. Gandhi. It continues to function as a coalition of its former constituents with the result that it does not possess and is not likely to possess a unified leadership and that it must find it extremely difficult to move towards genuine integration. But it is not about to fall apart leading to instability at the Centre itself. For, whatever one’s reservations about the reinduction of Mr. Charan Singh into the Cabinet as finance minister and of his supporters in other portfolios, one must acknowledge that the possibility of a split in the party has receded as a result of it. This is especially so because almost simultaneously the prospects of the Congress (I) and the Congress (S) coming together also appear to have become less bright. The two are to some extent interlinked. For instance, Mr. Charan Singh’s exercise in brinkmanship would have been less credible than it was if it was not possible for him to threaten, even if by implication, to bring the government down with the help of a reunited Congress. Thus while the Janata may not be in a position to provide what many of us would regard as effective and purposeful government – that is, a government that possesses a clear sense of direction and the capacity to take the country in that direction – it can be depended upon to keep the administration going.
Indian democracy has never functioned in a manner which can be said to be designed to promote rapid economic growth. But with the exception of the United States, members of the European Economic Community, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and perhaps a few others here and there, which democracy has ever so functioned? And one has only to pay passing attention to the magnitude of India’s problems and the limitations of its resources to appreciate that a comparison between its performance and theirs is not in order. Indeed, it is no small achievement for this country to have operated a democratic system and achieved a modest rate of growth which has, on the one hand, kept ahead, even if by a small margin, of the growth of population and, on the other, placed it among the first ten most industrialised nations in the world. The two are doubtless interlinked not in the sense that the economic growth has been dependent on the democratic political system but in the sense that the latter could have not survived without the former. Indeed, the political system came under unbearable strain in 1974 and was temporarily suspended in 1975 primarily because the economy had done poorly in 1971, 1972 and 1973. By this reckoning, it is reasonable to infer that India does not face a similar danger in the near future. The economy, as is argued in the editorial below, is in a sufficiently good shape to enable the country to absorb political difficulties resulting from maladroit decisions like the reservations of jobs for the so-called backward castes in Bihar and UP, infighting among the leaders and constituents of the Janata, and the consolidation of regional parties like the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, the CPM in West Bengal, the Akali Dal in Punjab and the National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir at the cost of the Congress and the Janata. Given a more competent, effective and determined leadership, India could have moved ahead with greater speed and confidence. But at a time when so many other nations are floundering in confusion and chaos, even modest orderly progress and that, too, in the framework of liberty is not something for which one can be ungrateful.
The Times of India, 26 January 1979