Translating political independence into freedom

This editorial is being written on the day of India‚s 60th anniversary of political independence following almost two centuries of British rule over the subcontinent. Certainly, the survival against all expectations and predictions of independent India ‚ arguably the most culturally heterogeneous and pluralistic country of the contemporary world ‚ as a genuine political democracy is good cause for celebration. Yet three score years on after the British Union Jack was hauled down from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Delhi and replaced by the Indian tricolour, the ground reality is that over 70 percent of the one billion strong population of independent, democratic India is compelled to subsist on less than $2 per day, and over 700 million citizens experience chronic deprivation of food, clothing, shelter, education, healthcare and meaningful law, order and justice. While contemporary India is indeed an independent nation, the great majority of its people have yet to enjoy freedom.But even though to make up for the lost decades a lot needs to be done in every sector of the economy, there‚s the danger of the renewed national development effort being spread too thin. Therefore an emergency development strategy with clearly defined national priorities needs to be adopted to enable this laggard democracy to reap its fortuitously abundant demographic dividend. It is submitted that India‚s top two priorities at this critical juncture in its history are state provision of law, order and justice and high quality education for all. Imposition of the firm rule of law will enable the country‚s productive citizens to go about their business without let and hindrance and drive up annual rates of economic growth. And provision of upgraded, near-equal education to all of India‚s children will secure the future. If these two pre-conditions of development are given the priority they deserve, all the other problems of Indian society will be automatically resolved. Of course this prescription is easier written than administered. It requires the establishment in New Delhi and the state capitals to bite the bullet and insulate the country‚s 18 million police personnel from political interference by adopting the Sorabjee Committee‚s model Police Act (2006). Simultaneously the provision of timely justice requires the judicial establishment to insist that the ratio of 10 judges per million citizens is increased to 100 per million, on a par with the judge-population ratio in the US. And on the education front ‚ as has been consistently argued and road-mapped in this publication ‚ the annual national outlay for education has to be raised to 6 percent of GDP with immediate effect. While 60 years of independence is certainly a momentous landmark in the nation‚s history, the lack of establishment and middle class empathy for the cruel deprivation of basic necessities suffered by 70 percent of the population is deplorable. As deplorable as the establishment‚s failure to draw up simple development priorities to translate political independence into true freedom for rising India‚s cruelly short-changed majority.Sanjay Dutt case: grave miscarriage of justiceA maelstrom of confusion and…