june 11, 2011
A Demagogue, the State and Civil Society
A demagogue is able to make New Delhi panic and shoot itself in the foot.
T
he United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s belated
efforts to scuttle the dubious Baba Ramdev’s political
ambitions show up a series of messy miscalculations.
Just when Baba Ramdev and his patrons in the Sangh parivar
were about to get isolated, at one stroke the government helped
him to bounce back by unleashing the police on his supporters at
Ramlila grounds in the midnight of 4-5 June. This has turned the
Baba into a hero. It is incredible that the government went to such
lengths to first appease a demagogue whose demands included
the death sentence for corrupt officials, and the abolition of
Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes. Now from his ashram in
Haridwar, protected by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of Uttarakhand, he has given an open call to youth to
undergo military training under his guidance. The long rope given
hitherto by the UPA government to Ramdev and the support that
he enjoys among a wide public spectrum, ranging from gullible
believers in his miraculous healing powers to rich non-resident
Indians promoting his image as a Hindu icon abroad, are now
coming home to roost.
The four-day drama that preceded the midnight police swoop
began in reverse order – with a comical anti-climax at the Delhi
airport that ended in a distressing finale at the Ramlila grounds.
When Ramdev announced his threat to fast against corruption, a
panicky UPA cabinet still reeling under its capitulation to the
Anna Hazare-led fast and fearing yet another threat, this time
from a high-profile, jet-setting guru, dispatched four of its senior
members, headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, to the
Delhi airport on 1 June to genuflect before the Baba and persuade him to give up his decision. The days that followed saw
hectic rounds of secret talks between him and the ministers, the
former gradually gaining the upper hand by declaring that
the government had accepted most of his demands, and openly
displaying his Sangh parivar affiliations by sharing the dais with
the notorious Sadhvi Rithambara and other RSS-VHP leaders.
The shameless display of deference to the Baba by the UPA
ministers, who had become objects of public ridicule, irked sections within the ruling Congress Party, as well as Anna Hazare
and his team (members of the government-appointed joint committee to draft the Lokpal Bill) who suspected that the government was trying to propel Ramdev as a countervailing force
against them. Since the joint committee was already looking
into most of the demands that were being made by Ramdev,
Economic & Political Weekly EPW june 11, 2011 vol xlvI no 24
why was the government bending over backwards to placate
him? Civil society groups also distanced themselves from
Ramdev’s anti-corruption campaign because of his open proSangh parivar image.
In the meantime, the UPA ministers worked out a behind-thescenes deal with Ramdev, coaxing from him an undertaking
(signed by his aide Acharya Balkrishna) on 3 June, stating that
instead of an indefinite fast, he would sit in meditation only from
4 to 6 June as the government had accepted most of his demands.
As a face-saving device, this suited Ramdev – since he knew well
that no government in its senses could accept all his populist pressbutton measures. By 4 June, Ramdev was clearly on the defensive.
But, true to the UPA habit of flaunting its petty triumphs, Union
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal – a key negotiator – waved Ramdev’s
note of undertaking at a press conference in the capital, adding
that his government knew how to “rein in” (Ramdev). After the
exposure of his deal, a cornered Ramdev had no option but to
keep his promise of fasting to rein in the tiger that he was riding – his
followers who had been whipped up to a frenzy of expectations.
Even after this, the government could have called his bluff by
adhering to the advice given by the special commissioner (intelligence) of Delhi Police to “defer any action till his followers thin
down”. While the huge number of participants at the Ramlila
grounds on the first day of the fast would have indeed shrunk
after the week-end holiday (with most of them going back to
work), the Baba could have been left to stew in his own juice with
all his yogic powers to help him survive. But, again in another
ham-handed approach, the government unleashed the police to
clear the grounds – provoking a public uproar.
Curiously enough, similar police actions with more murderous
consequences, against farmers staging a dharna to save their
lands from corporate sector encroachment, or against villagers
protesting their displacement by big dams, which are carried out
almost on a daily basis in different parts of India, seldom arouse
the sort of vociferous condemnation from Opposition parties and
civil society that the events of 4-5 June have. Even the Left parties
and democratic rights organisations, which keep their distance
from religious charlatans, have been stampeded into voicing
protest against the use of police force to disperse Ramdev’s followers. It is apparent that the issue of public grievance against
corruption – hitherto ignored by the Left political parties and the
human rights groups – is being usurped by godmen and Hindu
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EDITORIALS
sadhus, backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party which is waiting in
the wings to replace the UPA. Sadly however, the leader of the
other anti-corruption movement, Anna Hazare, by his intemperate
utterances and behaviour, has quite often betrayed a pro-Ramdev
bias, to the extent of observing a one-day fast in his support. One
expects sober and secular-minded members of his team to dissuade him from such aberrations, and instead make serious efforts to draft a Lokpal Bill.
Impassioned Slogans, Half-hearted Actions
What will it take to help save the girl child?
I
ndia’s child sex ratio (CSR) has been steadily declining for
decades and, according to the Census of 2011, has reached
914 girls for every 1,000 boys (0 to 6 years). The reasons for
the decline are all too familiar: the low status of women and “son
preference” leading to selective abortion of the female foetus.
From the mid-1980s onwards, women’s rights activists have been
fighting to prevent the misuse of ultrasound or sonography to
determine the sex of the foetus. Medical practitioners who use
technology for female foeticide have used every “innovative”
trick in the book to remain ahead of the legal restrictions. From
devising sign language to overcome the prohibition of indicating
the sex of the foetus to using mobile clinics (vehicles) fitted with
portable imaging machines, these strategies have ensured that
the number of India’s missing girls has multiplied. The government’s measures to halt the fall in the CSR have come up against
the usual roadblock of faint-hearted implementation.
If any further evidence of the phenomenon of a falling sex ratio
is needed, the result of a new study provides unambiguous
information (“Trends in Selective Abortions of Girls in India:
Analysis of Nationally Representative Birth Histories from 1990
to 2005 and Census Data from 1991 to 2011”, The Lancet, 4 June).
The study which analysed population census data and tracked
the birth history of about 2,50,000 children born between 1990
and 2005 found that when the first child was a male, there was
no fall in the sex ratio of the second child. But when the first
born was a female, the sex ratio of the second births declined.
The study confirms yet another familiar and disturbing trend:
selective abortion of the female foetus is the highest in the most
educated and in the richest 20% of the households. Despite the
sociological fallout of the declining sex ratio such as the nonavailability of brides for young men in many of the worst-affected
districts of northern and western India, medical technology
continues to be used to target the female foetus. Anyone with just
six months training or one year’s experience in image scanning
can use the ultrasound machines, thus making sex determination easily accessible.
The government’s half-hearted actions give the lie to its impassioned slogans and announcements on saving the girl child. For
example, the Central Supervisory Board was supposed to meet
every six months to monitor the implementation of the PreConception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act,
1994. The board last met in December 2007. Incidentally, until
now only around 6% of cases filed against doctors involved in
sex-selection practices have resulted in convictions. This means
that of the 805 cases filed since the Act came into effect, only 55
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have reached a legal conclusion. Now the union health ministry
has reconstituted the board and will place further amendments
to the PCPNDT Act before it. Mobile genetic clinics where prenatal
diagnostic tests are done will have to be registered, including
vehicles carrying portable ultrasound machines. There is also a
proposal to ensure that only gynaecologists and obstetricians and
practitioners who have Diplomates of the National Board (DNB)
will be allowed to use ultrasound machines. The Bombay High
Court recently ruled that ultrasound machines being illegally
used for sex determination can be seized by the government.
Yet, the government’s attention lies elsewhere. A new proposal
that has been reported to be on the table is to make abortion
rules stricter. This has given rise to apprehensions that it will
make life difficult for women who seek abortion for reasons
other than female foeticide. In Maharashtra, women’s organisations are protesting that the state supervisory board on the
PCPNDT Act has been more interested in making statements
about regulating the sale of the “morning after” pill than in targeting the problem of sex determination. Any move to make
abortion rules more stringent will only affect poor women and
the unmarried who will thus be pushed to risk the services of
quacks and illegal clinics.
In the battle to save the girl child, one of the strategies that has
shown positive results has been the involvement of community
leaders in changing the attitudes of parents. For example, one of
the worst-affected districts, Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab, has shown
a turnaround due to the involvement of Sikh religious and community leaders in the campaign against sex determination tests.
For years now women’s rights activists have been demanding
that the unholy alliance between local medical and paramedical
practitioners on the one hand and government health officials
and sonography clinics on the other must be destroyed, public
health programmes must be delinked from family planning ones,
the value of women’s work must be recognised and women’s right
to inheritance and property must be ensured. Some of these are
long-term goals which obviously require sustained and committed
action, but work on short-term goals like stringent implementation of the PCPNDT Act must start immediately.
Punishing the illegal use of ultrasound machines for sex determination may have some effect but deep-rooted prejudices against
the girl child calls for different measures. Strict enforcement of the
Hindu Succession Act of 2005 (which allows daughters to inherit
ancestral or joint family property), the anti-dowry law and implementation of measures that enforce gender justice and care for
senior citizens will go a long way in weakening “son preference”.
june 11, 2011 vol xlvI no 24 EPW Economic & Political Weekly