C Rajagopalachari | The Genius of India (1966)
(The following piece was published in the Swatantra Party Souvenir, a collection of writings and speeches by C Rajagopalachari)
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The Genius of India is peace. Even parliamentary parties opposing the government party is looked upon by the uneducated masses as a kind of undesirable and avoidable conflict. We do not find it easy to convince our people that debate is not conflict and that useful debates in parliament cannot be had without the previous conflict called election and the continuous conflicts implied in the formation and growth of political parties. The people see that when political parties come to power, one party behaves very much like another. In actual administration there is little difference which the common man may see between one party and another. Simple folk may then well ask, why then do they fight with one another?
The answer is that the basic principles of the party in office effect policy and pace in office a subtle manner and this makes a great difference for the people governed. It may make all the difference between a happy and a troubled State.
The Swatantra Party is thoroughly convinced that production of additional wealth is a condition precedent for doing much by way of helping the poor. The production of national wealth, the Swatantra Party is convinced cannot be efficiently done through Statist policies. It can only be achieved through individuals with a keen interest of their own in such production. The proper business of the State is to watch and prevent abuses and not “to get into the kitchen and make a mess of things”. In short the Congress Party believes and believes only in the State while the Swatantra Party believes in the individual. The State is a thin concept built on the reality of officials working for salaries with no other concrete bond to hold them together
As I wrote in May, 1963: The Swatantra Party believes in the citizens liberty and in limited government, and in free enterprise. The Congress Party, on the other hand, believes in utmost authority for the State in daily practice. The Congress Party believes that individuals are more often dishonest than honest, whereas the State and its officials can always be trusted. The Swatantra Party holds that this is an illusion and that maximum efficiency is obtained through the urge of self-interest in private management. The Congress looks on private management as an evil which must be reduced to the smallest proportions.
The Swatantra Party believes that the State and its management are conceptual and that the actual functioning agents are individuals who are as honest or dishonest as others and who, when invested with great power and opportunity, are inescapably liable to become selfish and dishonest. The Swatantra Party wants people not to forget that the State being incorporeal has no arms through ministers and officials who are not angels and are not different from men not holding office. The Swatantra Party believes that apathy and indifference characterize public management whereas the profit motive results in vigilance and good husbandry. And this has been amply demonstrated in recent reliable surveys by non-political distinterested men.
Many parties operating under various names carrying the word Socialism or its grammatical variations, also feel as strongly as the Swatantra Party does, that Statism cannot help to attain socialism’s legitimate objectives. That the objectives are identical with the stated aims of the Congress Party does not amount to much. The methods adopted lead to excessive compulsory subservience of the citizen to the bureaucracy and to the political party in power, which Statism necessarily involves, a result none of the non-Congress socialist parties desire to bring into being. The crux of the matter is maximum freedom for the citizen and the involvement of the citizen’s own self-interest in the production of national wealth, as against the excessive domination of government which prevails today under the Congress Government. The policy of reducing private profit is carried to a dangerous degree, so dangerous as to kill interest. Even the support of congressmen to this Statist policy is based on the fact that today they are in office and power. They do not realize that they would not much like this excessive power for the State and its officials if they went out of office and power as a result of a general election and another party came into power. What is laid down as law by the ruling party should be such as it would like to be enforced by any party in power and not only when Congress is in power. It would be wrong to lay down policies on the assumption that you will be always in power and will never be thrown out. We should make laws to be good and useful under all conditions and not only when we are in power.
Having said all this, I must confess the genius of India is peace. The people desire to be left alone while government should be run by a composite body of worthy and able people prepared to make adjustments with one another and taking advice from a parliament of mixed delegates. They do not see much good in party conflicts. I do not express my opinion in this but only say what our people as a whole appear to think and desire and we must take note of it.
May 11, 1966
(You can access the original piece here. Visit indianliberals.in for more works by Indian Liberals dating back to the 19th Century.)
