By Sadaf Hussain
Sadaf Hussain is a freelance writer with an experience of more than 7 years in working with policy and grassroots organizations. He has worked with the Centre for Civil Society (CCS), Zee News and other media houses. Sadaf is also a consultant chef based in Delhi, and a TEDx speaker.
Raja Ji founded the Swatantra Party in 1959 with the idea of a limited government, a move for the protection of each individual citizen against the increasing trespasses of the State. Prior to establishing his party, he was sworn-in as the Governor of India on 21st June 1948 and served his position until 26th January 1950. He was very clear about what kind of Governor and governance he was going to bring to the nation. According to him, no territorial or racial or religious community can hope to thrive or maintain its happiness through force without the willing and full cooperation of other people and the utmost intercommunication. It is, therefore, necessary that all communal and territorial isolationisms should be abandoned and the best talents in every community should seek to serve the whole state.
The history of the Swatantra Party
What prompted Rajaji to start the party? After Sardar Patels death, Rajaji realised that there was no one to question Nehru and that dissent was strongly discouraged and silenced within the Congress party. Frustrated with this state of affairs, at the age of 81, he went against the party politics and forged the Swatantra Party along with leaders like Minoo Masani, NG Ranga and others. This party went on to become the single largest opposition party against the then-largest party, Congress, in the fourth Lok Sabha, and in legislative assemblies of many states like Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Orissa. The voice of this party was different, very unique. They dared to question the socialist regime and the kind of democratic order that they witnessed.
The Swatantra Partys agenda was very clear; they wanted to create policies based on the faith of voters and not out of state compulsion. According to them, the role of government should be minimal, the business of government should be government. They insisted that the government should not make it big at the freedom of ordinary citizens.
The current political scenario in India
Leaders like Rajaji are missing in present India. There is barely any voice being heard, let alone liberal ideas and liberal discussions. There is hope to be found in todays urban middle-class youththey are interested in knowing and learning about alternate options, keen to explore new ideas and look beyond the rhetorics of socialism. This youth is ready to engage in policy debates. Perhaps we can credit the Anna Hazare Movement and the rise of the Aam Aadmi Party for thisthey made policy debates sound interesting and ‘cool’, and their appearance, as an alternative to the status quo, was a refreshing change that re-enthused the political market, explaining the reengagement of youth on policy. Young leaders like Kanhaiya Kumar, Jignesh Mewani and few others are taking charge of politics and are trying to establish a strong opposition based on individual freedom and consent, which is missing in the current regime. The young people today are not necessarily socialist or liberal, but are open to debate the ideas and find a middle ground.
This resurgence of youth is critical. What we are missing today in India is a strong opposition as an institution. The onus is on civil society members and those who question policy and demand freedom and power to choose, eventually, get shut down; they end up in jail or get censored. Today, freedom is being curtailed in the name of false nationalism and citizens are being questioned for what and who they are, simply for having a dissenting voice. The recent example of four judges coming out in public to raise their concerns about the independence of the judiciary is a clear reflection of the malaise of what is not right in India. According to ‘The Freedom of Thought’ report 2017, India scores four out five on freedom of expression and humanist values, sharing the score along with extremist countries like Israel and Lebanon. This is not a very comfortable position to be in. Statistics on inter-communal violence show a 30 percent increase in the first half of 2015 with a total of 330 attacks, of which 51 were fatal, compared with 252 attacks, 33 of which were fatal in the same period of 2014.
This is why, while the civil societys dissent is crucial, it is not enough. There must be a strong, official, legislative oppositionthis is not a role that can be substituted for by peoples movements, effective as they may be. It is this role that the Swatantra Party served in between June 4, 1959, and August 4, 1974. They gave people an option to vote for people within the party, and dissent was invited at every step. The Swatantra Party offered choice to Indias voters. They offered an alternative of less state intervention in the lives of citizens and a much larger role for the same citizens in the countrys governance.
The ideologies followed in the party
The party also invited dissent from within the party. Rajaji believed that every member of the party should be completely free to express his own views and opinions and should not be restricted by the partys whip. The Swatantra Party was perhaps the only party which stood for individual initiative and enterprise in its truest sense. It allowed people to think for themselves and come up with their entrepreneurial ideas. They believe in social justice and not socialism. The party was very clear with respect to how much and when they should intervene. Rajaji once mentioned in one of his speeches ”compulsion kills initiative and regulation kills interest and responsibility. We want all policies to be based on the faith in people as the moral foundation of government, discarding compulsion.
The Swatantra Party stood for freedom of trade and employment. It opposed the nationalisation of banks. They stood for the maintenance of the rule of law and restoration of fundamental rights to the people in the true sense. In fact, at the inauguration of the Swatantra Party, in his speech, Rajaji said, “the State is becoming a giant entity by itself menacingly poised against the citizen, interfering with his life at all points, mistrusting the people, imposing restrictions, introducing a series of controls and regulations, stepping into the fields of agriculture, industry and trade, creating an army of officials, tremendously increasing the cost of administration and therefore the taxes paid by the nation, hypnotizing the people with slogans that are mistaken for thought and wisdom, a scheme of Government in which it is taken for granted that the citizen is ignorant of what is his own interest. Although he said this in 1959, it is true in the current political system as well.
Today, as we see the role of the opposition pawned off to the citizens rather than our elected representatives, we realise the criticality of having a legislative opposition. We also see that while the parties differ in the mandate, the policies they legislate look very much like one another. Hence, not only do we need a strong opposition but we also need a third party in what is fast-becoming a two-party rule. An alternative. A liberal alternative that will stand up for individual freedom, for increased choice and accountability, for limited government and maximum governance. Of the people, by the people and for the people.
Featured Image Source: hi.wikipedia