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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | This new politics-Yogendra Yadav

This new politics-Yogendra Yadav

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published Published on Jan 2, 2013   modified Modified on Jan 2, 2013
-The Indian Express

Our reactions to the current protests triggered by the gangrape in the capital reveal a paradoxical state of mind. We welcome the spontaneous nature of these protests, underline the fact that most of the ordinary women and men who joined these protests were not mobilised by any organisation and caution against the entry of “political elements”. At the same time, we criticise the protesters for the lack of a clear agenda, we blame the movement for allowing miscreants in, and bemoan the lack of clear leadership. We applaud the cause but regret the consequence. This could be seen as collective hypocrisy: we want politics, but not from the front door. Or, it could be read as a quest for a new kind of politics that doesn’t look like politics in the conventional sense.

This is a subtle but crucial difference that leads to two opposite but partial readings of these protests. Those who celebrate these protests welcome the arrival of a new citizen-activist — conscious, determined and very angry — who will now hold political power accountable. They name this new actor according to their own taste — aspirational or egalitarian — and hope that this new citizen is going to usher in an India of their dreams. This romantic picture invites the critics to point out, rightly so, that many of these protesters are in the urban areas if not in the metros, they are mostly middle classes and overwhelmingly men, even on this issue. They do not forget to remind us that these protests are not quite spontaneous, they are invariably preceded by an intense media gaze and accompanied by live television coverage. Both these readings have an element of truth, but both of them miss the real point.

Urban street protests, first against corruption and now against the violence that targets women, are the beginning of a new kind of politics that has come up to fill a gap in our democratic functioning, that articulates pent-up grievances that have no redress in our system. The new citizen-activist has a narrow social profile, but not necessarily a narrow social vision. Product of our situation, this politics does not follow a prescribed script. This development institutes a new kind of uncertainty in our democratic life. It offers resources to deepen our democracy, yet it carries the seeds of destabilising the system. Like all democracies, it depends on how political forces handle or mishandle the situation.

We must learn to place this new citizen-activist outside our comfortable binaries. These are not a bunch of urban well-off netizens out to secure their self-interest at the expense of the rest of society. Despite superficial resemblance, these protests are profoundly different from the anti-Mandal agitation backed by the same social group. These protesters seek something beyond their own self, they seek to connect their own lives and problems with the rest of society. At the same time, theirs is not the selfless renunciation of the Gandhian or the Naxalite type that turned its back on the middle class comfort zone in a quest to connect to the real, if remote, India. The new citizen-activist is engaged in the politics of an extended self whose limits are not pre-determined.

This new politics does not speak the formatted language of 20th century ideologies. Familiar slogans like “we want justice” barely conceal the new message; the “justice” they want is neither a liberal order nor a socialist or feminist ideal. Therefore, any attempt to judge these protests and their demands from the certitudes of the received ideologies is not very helpful. At the same time, these protests are not merely about negating. The anti-corruption and anti-gender violence protests seek an alternative, even if in a warped language, such as the demand for capital punishment. They seek alternatives here and now. Theirs is a politics of feasible good.

This politics also invites us to think beyond the binaries of individual or collectivity. These protesters do not carry the obvious markers of caste or community that tend to dominate our public life. Nor do they enter as members of the established political organisations, parties or their mass fronts. Their desire to keep “politics” out is clearly a quest for freedom from the stifling frames of traditional political organisations. At the same time, these protesters are not free of all identities; the affirmation of gender identities is symbolic of the acceptance of other identities. Theirs is not an anarchist desire to keep away from all forms of organisation. This new politics is waiting for a new political form and seeks a radical amendment to the existing form of party politics.

We do not know as yet if that is going to happen. Indeed, this new phenomenon carries negative possibilities as well. It would not be real if it did not. Camera-happy crowds out on the streets demanding instant gratification is not exactly a recipe for good governance. Such protests can be hijacked by authoritarian leaders. They can turn inwards, in terms of articulating the narrow interests of the protesters. They can push the governments into hasty populist measures that achieve very little for the objectives that the protesters set for themselves. And chaotic protests can simply die without leaving a legacy, making life more difficult for future crusaders.

As of now, this new, as yet inchoate, and partially visible politics is playing the role of a much-needed corrective in the system. It has already begun to disturb settled and cosy equations of power and create moments of accountability, though not structures of responsiveness. Anna Hazare’s fast had our government and parties bending backwards, at least for some time, in a way that bigger mass movements could not do. Exposes by Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan made the political establishment more nervous than any parliamentary debate. Similarly, the present protests against the violence perpetrated on women have made the police and their political masters answerable in a way that decades of painstaking work by women’s and human rights movements could not. Perhaps, the poverty of political judgement in our ruling establishment has prematurely inflated the power of this movement. Their long-term staying power, their force, and indeed their direction is as yet unclear. It would depend on how swiftly and how well this new energy gets to shape the core of party political contestation in our democracy. But one thing is quite certain: democratic politics has to contend with a new animal now, someone our political establishment cannot call back at its will.

The writer is senior fellow of CSDS and national executive member of the Aam Aadmi Party

The Indian Express, 2 January, 2013, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/this-new-politics/1052980/0


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