Freedom notes: On the Independence Day speech and beyond
India must make its governments more accountable to the people
That Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi was seated in a back row of the audience at Red Fort where Mr. Modi delivered his customary address is instructive. The government’s explanation for this breach of precedent, that the seats in the front rows were given to members of this year’s Olympic team, is hardly a reasonable one. The government needs to be less unilateral and more consultative if it is truly committed to advancing a unified national agenda in the seventy-eighth year of India. A uniform civil code in a country as diverse as India requires consensus building, and ending the opportunistic use of the issue to attack the Muslim community. The government cannot fight corruption by investigating only Opposition leaders and overlooking serious charges against functionaries such as the SEBI chief. Criticism of the government is not a conspiracy to destabilise the nation, and labelling it as such is appealing only to a diminishing number of people. Independence Day should be a good occasion as any other to remember that the nation is not the government, and certainly not synonymous with the party in power. The freedom is for keeping the government of the day accountable to the people through a political process.
