SIT summons for Mr Narendra Modi

Powerful debate yesterday. I liked the fact that the debate didn’t really get stuck around the Modi issue alone. There is a larger issue at stake here and that came out quite well in the discussion. Establishing the rule of law is clearly important for a progressive democracy. To ensure this happens, the criminal justice system needs to gear up to keep up with the needs of the country. Bhagalpur, the anti Sikh riots of 1984 and Gujarat are clear indicators that our criminal justice system runs the risk of rendering itself obsolete if it doesn’t ensure timely delivery of justice. As the Gujarat example show when justice is delayed other much stronger forces tend to take over and end up bypassing the institutions of civil society. In the debate yesterday there were some interesting comments from the younger participants as well. Someone asked if development since Godhra can compensate for the Godhra violence itself. Someone else answered that morality should be viewed as an issue separate from development. Comparing the two is like comparing apples and oranges. I think that is a dangerous argument. Perhaps in the short term it does work that way. However, if we turn back to history there are numerous examples to show that once development has been used as an excuse to subvert social and criminal justice it doesn’t just stop after one incident. As this acceptance sets a precedence and becomes widespread everything gradually becomes subservient to objectives of development and ultimately civilizations and empires collapse because there just isn’t enough of a value system to sustain them. In its early years Great Britain was established as a nation state based on some of the finest democratic principles. Its conversion to an imperialist power is one example of this phenomenon. Ultimately the empire on which ‘the sun could never set’ was lost. Some would say, in the post war period, the US has too has been drifting the same way. Communist Soviet Union also crumbled as it gradually departed from its lofty pro-poor ideology to an ideology that was solely focussed on preserving its regional/global hegemony. Last but not the least, Hitler’s Germany was also a victim of the syndrome that development justifies all kinds of excesses. Starting with the ancient civilizations history is replete with such examples. And we appear to have taken a few steps in the same direction with Gujarat in 2002 and with the ongoing conflict in tribal areas of the country now. We have gradually come to adopt the idea that development is a justification for police/military action. So, no, I don’t think development can compensate for loss of human values. And I don’t think the two reside in different buckets either. Lasting prosperity can only be had by upholding these values. In a democracy these values can only be upheld by presence of strong and ever vigilant institutions like the criminal justice system. But in the long term the real force that upholds the integrity of such institutions themselves are neither the people who run them nor the laws and procedures that underpin them. The real force is provided by the value system of the people who these institutions are meant to serve. In post independence India we have given ourselves a national constitution and a set of laws. But it would be a mistake to believe they alone can our sense of ethics and values. It is the other way round. As a people if we do not protect and continuously redefine our values and ethics all our pillars of democracy will ultimately collapse. In my view our education system which is so devoid of a focus on ethics and values, is primarily responsible for the weakening of this moral force. There is a strong need to re-visit our curricula to enquire if there is a need for a change of focus. The problem today is that our education is so devoid of morality and values that those who at least do have the benefit of education can hardly think of anything more important than a sustainable GDP growth rate. Education is far too much sanitized and rendered quite devoid of a robust ethics and value base. Amazingly enough there is hardly any debate or discussion on these issues. If we continue to produce educated youngsters whose skills and ambitions are not underpinned by a robust value system we should not expect our pillars of democracy remain strong. This hopelessness that seemed so evident by the end of the debate would only continue. We will continue to have more Godhras and many more equally polarized debates without any real progress. The people who subvert the law will just keep taking advantage of this state of affairs for their own short term gains. Unless, of course, education reforms step in quickly to stem this moral rot.