Politicisation and All That

Author(s): K. S. Krishnaswamy
Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 25, No. 7/8 (Feb. 17-24, 1990), pp. 383-384
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
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 PERSPECTIVES

Politicisation and All That dividual. A second and more difficult

question is whether there are in fact any
decisions that a government can take
K S Knshnaswamy
which are not in some way or other in-
fluenced by considerations of advantage
Whereas political activity is not onl, inherent for some group in society which either
in any policy of
constitutes the government of the day or
social and economic change but is a necessary condition for supports
it, we such a government.
have come to invest the verb 'politicise' with connotations of
Much of the current exchange of ac-
partiality, chicanery, skullduggery and even immorality. Thiscusations
is a about politicisation belongs
reflection of the manner in which governments and politicalmainly to the first category. As is well
parties have abused the authority of the state in India. known, the constitutional provision for
the establishment of an inter-state coun-
cil has been neglected all these decades by
IN a famous exchange between Alice and position but is becoming common among
the parties in power, mainly the Congress.
lWeedledum-'TWeedledee, the profound the press and the public generally. Some
In the early years of independence, the
question arises: Who is to be the master, of the government's decisions are in their
fact that the Congress Party ruled not
you or the word? Words, maintain the very nature political decisions, such as
only at the centre but in all of the states
twins, have to mean what you want them establishing the Inter-State Council and
resulted in the practice of intra-party
to mean. Despite its apparent denigration requiring the governors to resign. But
discussions being substituted for inter-
of etymology, the twins' position is not many others are also to a greater or lesser
governmental discussions. In the subse-
a piece of flippancy or absurd semantics. extent political decisions, in the sense that
quent decades, particularly after the
Words are, indeed, often given connota- apart from any other characteristic they
advent of Indira Gandhi on the scene,
tions which may not be the- ones found might have, they also imply a political
even this pretence disappeared and sup-
in Oxford or Webster's dictionaries. judgment in the strict sense of the term.
pression of the inter-state council became
During the US presidential campaign of This by itself should not make them un-
part of the deliberate act of aggrandise-
savoury.
1988, for instance, 'liberal' became a term ment by the centre. Thus the decisions to
of abuse, carrying insinuations totally What indeed is this strict interpretation
set up such a council now is no more than
that one might give to the adjective
contrary to its historical meaning of being a long needed correction to a governmen-
favourable to democratic reform and in-'political' which does not necessarily carry tal practice which ran counter to the let-
dividual liberty. It was used by Bush in with it a pejorative flavour? The dic-
ter and spirit of the Constitution. In any
much the same way as Joe McCarthy and tionary meaning of political is in the first
event, the council is clearly a political
others had used the term 'communist' instance anything that affects the State, body and the decision to set it up-or not
during the notorious witch-hunt of the its government or public affairs. The
set it up-cannot but be political.
1950s. somewhat pejorative connotation of
belonging to or taking sides in politics or A more recent and controversial matter
Likewise, we have now come to invest
the verb 'politicise' with connotations ofderiving from a person's status or in- is the president's letter to all state gover-
fluence or personal interest in public nors to resign. This is in substance the
partiality, chicanery, skullduggery, and
even immorality to the exclusion of allaffairs is also admitted etymologically. decision of the National Front govern-
positive meanings implicit in its deriva- But this latter is essentially the conse- ment, taken with a view to removing those
tion. The odd thing is that even those quence of vulgarisation of politics. The governors who in its opinion were pure
whose full-time occupation is politics havewide prevalence of this secondary vulgar and simple political appointees of the
not protested against this usage. They interpretation of 'political', 'politicising', Rajiv Gandhi government. Obviously no
seem quite content to accept that 'politi-etc, is clearly a reflection of the manner government can be expected to honour the
cisation' of an issue or a decision in which governments and political parties previous government's decisions or judg-
have so far used-rather, misused-the ments if they have been taken patently to
necessarily implies departure from the
authority of the state in India. serve that party's interests rather than
norms of decency, social justice or
We have therefore two dilemmas to those of the concerned state or the coun-
technical validity. If this trend continues,
chances are that in course of time, the resolve: first and in a sense the obvious try. On that basis V P Singh's government
community will come to equate political question is whether any particular deci- can claim to have the right to correct what
activity in general and politicians in par-sion of the new government is itself in- it considers a misuse of the centre's
ticular only with what is anti-social and troducing into civil administration an prerogative.
unfair. element of partisanship or private advan- However, there is also the broader ques-
The tendency to use 'politicisation' as tage, or whether it is correcting a past tion whether governors ought as a matter
a term of disapproval, even abuse, is decision which was patently taken for the of convention to resign or be removed
with every change of government at the
already much in evidence. In recent weeks, benefit of a particular group or in-
every move of the new government-
whether it is the intention to give debt
relief to farmers, the reappointment of Jag
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tion is not confined to the parties in op-

Economic and Political Weekly February 17-24, 1990 383

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centre. In whatever way one judges this
issue, the decision is necessarily a political of the polity. It is, for instance, arguable
one in the true sense of the term-namely,
a matter of concern to both public affairs
in general and administration in par-
ticular. What is essential in all this is to
establish the convention that the governor
of a state, like the president of India,
should function demonstrably in a man-
ner which upholds the spirit and stipula-
tions of the Constitution. When a
governor fails to do so, replacing him can-
not be objected to on the ground of its
being a political decision. Whether only
some and not all governors should have
been asked to resign is also a matter of
detail in state-craft.
A somewhat more difficult issue is that
of the reshuffle of senior civil servants by
the new government. We have for long
accepted the thesis that permanent civil
servants should be kept out of politics
since they are selected on merit rather than
any group affiliation, and owe allegiance
to 'government' irrespective of the colour
of the party elected to office. This is
basically a British concept, which implies
that in return for the status and security
they enjoy, civil servants can and will
function as true guardians of public
interest. Senior civil servants who are close consistency is disturbed or contravened
to decision-makers at the centre or the
states, ought to be both willing and able
to take a completely objective position
when they advise the government on
matters of public policy and administra-
tion. If this is not true and civil servants
become courtiers or agents of the party
in power, they can no longer claim to be
the guardians of public interest. They
become as much a part of the political
party as any of the ministers in govern-
ment, and their continuing to hold the Ram Avtar Agnihotri
same office as before with a change in
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for questioning the basic assumption that
civil servants are at present servants of the
public, functioning outside of party
politics.
Indeed as evidence of the close connec-
tion between vested interests, political par-
ties and bureaucracies mounts in every
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whether a permanent civil service is con-
sistent with a multi-party democracy
becomes relevant. More so under a federal
system where besides other things it is vital
that the administrative machinery does
not become an instrument for disturbing
inter-governmental relations in such a
manner as to weaken the federal character playing politics arise. All social or
economic development necessarily in-
that the all-India services are in themselves volves disturbing some established or pre-
a means of over-centralisation and hence conceived balance of group relations, and
basically unsympathetic to the federal thus creates a problem of 'government'. in
philosophy. These are large questions and the sense of political administration of
merge with the second aspect mentioned that society.
earlier, namely, whether there can indeed Political activity is not only inherent in
be any act of government which is totally any policy of social and economic change,
non-political. but is a necessary condition for it. One
This takes us to areas well outside the cannot eschew politics, or the politicisa-
hurly-butly of press or party accusations tion of decisions, as long as one is a par-
and counter-accusations. The issue is this: ticipating social being; to do so would
political activity in a basic sense is amount to accepting exploitation by those
inherent in any organised society because who are more active of aggressive. It is,
every society is to a greater or lesser extent of course, possible that expediency rather
non-homogeneous. There are in all than justice and fair play will influence
societies, groups of one kind or another, the political judgment of even those who
whose interests do not coincide on all may be entirely ethical in their private
matters or at all times. Since politics is the dealings. Bt the test of maturity lies in
act of establishing a balance between the minimising this and other more reprehen-
diverse pulls exerted by such groups, with sible elements in 'govermmental' decisions.
a view to ensuring the survival and pro- Politicisation of social activity is inevitable
gress of the whole of society, it has to under all systems of organisation-
touch on all aspects of social life. Hence democracy, socialism, market economy,
it is that decisions which are prima facie planning or whatever-and in all walks of
concerned with economic or cultural or life. Whether we like it or not, all of us
technical matters tend to be valid in prac- play politics in our limited spheres. It is
tice only with some combination or com- only honest that we recognise this and
binations of group interests. It is when this engage in it explicitly rather than pretend
to be above it or adQpt a sanctimonious
that group tensions and accusations of attitude towards 'politicisation'.
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384 Economic and Political Weekly February 17-24, 1990

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