Freedom Fighters or Ageing Revolutionaries?

A V Ram Mohan

Chapter 1: The future feeling sorry for itself

By 2035 the world was a vastly different place than it was a hundred years earlier. No, I don’t mean it in a good way. Life in every part of the world, except in pockets, was way worse than what the humanity had experienced before. For one thing the concept of democracy as the enlightened and liberated way to arrange man’s political and economic affairs was coming to the end of its brilliant two hundred year run. There was deep cynicism in the air about man’s ability to govern himself and prevent mankind from killing one another for commercial profit and political gain. Let me elaborate.

When Francis Fukuyama published his seminal article ‘The end of history and the Last Man’ in 1989 it was an immediate hit in the political and intellectual circles all over the world. In it he argued that the worldwide spread of liberal democracies and free-market capitalism of the West with its lifestyle might signal the end point of humanity's sociocultural evolution, to become the final form of human government. If he felt very confident of his conclusions at that time, Fukuyama soon had the mortification of seeing the gradual and definite collapse of liberal democracies and witnessing the pernicious aspects of free market capitalism. Over forty or so years beginning in 1980 approximately the Anglo Saxon world which swore by liberal democracy till then was becoming progressively illiberal with deep divisions becoming visible in the society. Divisions of race, colour and religious beliefs began to crack open the coherent functioning of governments, particularly in the US and UK. They were further exacerbated by several negative developments in pursuing free market capitalistic policies in the western world. Over a fifty year horizon, unfettered capitalism aided by its close cousin corporate funded democracy brought a totally unbalanced economic and hence social structure in the developed economies. What else would you expect if the top 1% of the players owned about 65% of assets, and earned about 70% of incomes in the society? Crumbling infrastructure, visible poverty, gun violence at the slightest provocation, overpowering drug culture everywhere: the whole of America was beginning to resemble downtown Detroit and Cleveland. In short the US was finished as an unchallenged economic and military super power, a role it played since 1940.

Further East, the situation was worse. The Middle East, the social and political developments within which were a constant security threat for over hundred years since 1940, was beginning to lose its cachet for money. For one thing, they discovered that petroleum oil and its derivatives had only so much capacity for exploitation. But the situation was beginning to get worse well before the oil wells began to go dry. In the immortal words of Sheik Yamani a cerebral oil minister of Saudi Arabia in its heydays, ‘The Stone Age came to an end long before the world ran out of stones; the same would happen with the Oil Age’. With the advent of fuel cells and EVs the global dependence on petroleum progressively declined, and dramatically so. The oil rich economies of the middle east which squandered all their wealth on fancy buildings, highways, posh hotels and airports were testing the limits of an expat oriented economy. Dubai and Abu Dhabi the darlings of the western expat population in the go-go years began to wear a look of desolation. What else do you expect if the GDP shrinks by 60% and the immigrant populations decide to go homeward bound? It was a story of ‘camel to camel in three generations’ in the Middle East.

The economies which did not whole heartedly swear by liberal democratic theories and completely free free-markets were the ones which seemed to be holding up well in 2035. Not unsurprisingly, the European Union for all its tentativeness in its early phase, became a strong and cohesive economic force in the first decades of the new century. The social welfare net, always a feature of European thinking, with healthcare, balanced qualify of life and high individual taxation to support social policies seemed to be standing up rather well. That it was at the cost of some individual freedoms and limits on capitalist ambitions didn’t seem to matter to EU. Japan, which always swung to a different beat was one country relatively unchanged for many decades: its homogeneous population, relative isolation from western induced economic theories and social cohesion ensured Japan continued its indifferent, nevertheless prosperous place in the world order.

What about China and Russia? China continued to preserve itself as a communist chamber of commerce in running its economy: by 2035 China’s achievements in modern infrastructure and economic performance were unparalleled in the history of mankind. It was no longer flexing its defence muscle, since it didn’t need to do it anymore. By then China’s military might was universally acknowledged with Nato and company recalibrating their strategies to one of living in peace with this powerful dragon, or at least not provoking it. Russia, oh Russia. Once ridiculed as a ‘gas station with a capital’ Russia was recovering from a powerful post-coital stupor induced by the Putin years. It was an unbelievably strange compendium with a miss mash of oligarchic capitalism, strongman flavoured politics and liberal intellectuals running for cover. Russia was by then a spectacularly failed experiment in how to implement liberal democracy in an erstwhile communist superpower.

Adding to the global uncertainty and troubles was the impact of a deadly virus called Covid-34 which originated towards the end of 2034 and spreading wildly across all borders. While the pandemic was handled differently by different national governments, its impact on toll it had on populations was uniformly disastrous.

All of the above is a dramatic way of saying in 2035 the world was a listless place. Past certainties like liberal democracy which worked so well for so long seem to have given up the ghost. Social dissension and each one for himself were the order of the day. The thinking man was grappling with the impression that there were not many useful, workable ideas to grapple with. Articles were beginning to appear in the New Yorker with ponderous titles like ‘Are we entering the new dark ages?’. In short there seem to be no hope, people were running out of ideas and there was nothing to look forward to. 

Forget about the rest of the world, what about our own India in 2035, you ask. For that you have to attend a seminar with a keynote address by Prof Pratap Bhanu Mehta at the India Investment Centre in Delhi. Sometime in early 2035.

Chapter 2: Stormy goings on in the Seminar

At 8 am one morning Ashok Rajguru was in the law library of his law chambers in posh Nizamuddeen East. He had an important case that morning in the Supreme Court where he was appearing for a multi national corporation, against a State Government. He was particular that he personally verified the case references he was going to use that day, and that wast the reason for many legal tomes kept open on the table in front of him. He had had a fitful sleep the night before, having woken up by the sounds of sporadic gunfire followed by the sirens of police and ambulance vehicles. What is this city coming to, he remembered thinking as he was drifting back to sleep. Irrespective, when he appeared in front of the three man bench at the court, he was full of concentration and poise. He wound up his closing arguments thus, ‘At the very bottom, m’lords, this is a case on contracts and the rule of Law. We have here a State Government trying to wriggle out of its written commitments to a company, all done within a couple of years after signing the contract with them. My clients have invested several hundred million dollars on the original promises, no make it original written promises, of the State. That this simple matter of the sanctity of contracts has reached your Lordships after clearing several judicial steps speaks to how casually the system takes the State’s written assurances. Does the word of the Sovereign matter any more?’ He could not make out the reactions of the Justices on the bench to his peroration, only impassive looks were in evidence. He decided to chance it and went further, ‘This is not the first case in this genre, m’lords, as there are several State Governments violating what they had promised to prospective investors in the recent times. How do they expect international investors to flock into the country when they play ducks and drakes with written contracts like this?’

As Ashok Rajguru was walking towards the car park, he heard someone addressing him playfully. ‘My, isn’t he the Perry Mason of Nizamudeen East himself taking a victory lap?’ He turned around to see the smiling face of Rashmi Malhotra, a young lawyer making a name for herself representing women in many sexual harassment and discrimination cases. He had known her for sometime in the familiar legal circles of Delhi, and had a great respect for her legal abilities matched by guts to go with them. He had a soft corner for her and it was widely predicted among his friends about when, not if, he would pop the question to her. ‘Want to attend a seminar on the state of democracy in India on Saturday? My own hero, Pratap Bhanu Mehta is the keynote speaker’. Ashok replied, ‘Oh yes, of course, it should be interesting to attend. Subject to one condition, and that is you will have dinner with me afterwards’.

May be it is time to introduce Ashok Rajguru properly. In his early thirties he was seen as a comer in matters of corporate law, with a sound understanding of Law as well as theories of finance and accounting. Besides corporate matters, he had a sideline: he was a keen amateur scholar on Constitutional Law, having studied how constitutions of various democracies like the US, UK and the EU have evolved over the years. He had by then authored several papers on the Indian Constitution with interpretations of the framers thinking on various formulations. He had his own theories about how well the constitution is holding up in the recent times against the onslaught of the political class vis a vis ambitious democratic aspirations. His summary observations that morning in the Supreme Court on written agreements would be a sample of his thinking on how the political class treated the document. More of that later.

The provocatively titled seminar ‘The health of Indian Democracy in its ninth decade’ promised to be interesting as well as being topical. Besides PBM there were other high powered speakers in the line up. It was an invitation only event, and there were only about three hundred people attending it at the India Investment Centre conference hall. Top businessmen, political babus as well as senior civil servants were milling around in expectation. They were not disappointed. PBM kicked off the seminar in his trademark detailed word drawings done in polished and restrained delivery. What started off in 1950 as a confident democracy focussed on self reliance, he seemed to say, India went through three distinct phases each lasting about thirty to forty years. The first of these was based on a Fabian ideology of social development and ownership, with overtones of Soviet style of central planning and control, to the exclusion of market oriented western capitalism. The next phase was one of liberalisation of economic policies done tentatively and half-heartedly in the beginning, and gathering steam to reach an unexpectedly virulent form of crony capitalism. The final thirty years or so were marked by religious majoritarianism, fundamental beliefs overriding economic policies and an unrestrained focus on winning at any cost. The result of these varying and diversely focussed approaches had left the country with several problems. For one thing, the institutional framework of the country in all sector of society had progressively eroded, with adhoc political style decision making replacing a thoughtful approach to governing. The judicial system from the Supreme Court downwards was now a handmaiden of the ruling party, clothed only with a thin veneer of independence meekly displayed. PBM concluded his remarks saying, ‘the Indian Democracy at ninety is not a vibrant and optimistic force it was in 1950, and that should cause concern’.

The speakers who followed PBM were not not as polished or restrained; gone was PBM’s allusive style of speech, making only a circular reference to difficult and pointed issues. Others let fly their observations in rather dramatic terms. The first panelist talked in detail about the level of endemic corruption overpowering every aspect of life in India. What started off as political corruption, had spread over to include the civil service, business and industry as well as the judiciary, she pointed out. The next speaker highlighted the politicians’ lack of knowledge and skills in managing the economic machinery of the country. ‘What we have is not democracy, but Kakistocracy wherein the untalented and ignorant rule over a nation’, he said. A globally respected economist followed them to highlight the parlous state of the economy. ‘With unemployment at over 40% and US dollar at Rs 150, India is as close to a basket case as you can imagine; the only growth industries are private security services and galloping sales of guns and ammunition, a sad commentary on the security of private citizens’ he pointed out. All in all there was palpable anger against all politicians in the air, irrespective of the political ideology they represented. ‘This is what four generations of the Indian political class has brought the country to; the political operators and their cronies running industries are the winner in ninety years of democracy’ was a common lamentation. Somebody suggested at this time, only half in jest, that the title of the conference be changed to ‘India: is it a failed state already?’.

During tea time, Rashmi introduced Ashok Rajguru to her uncle, Justice Raghuvir Khanna, an eminent jurist who was also in attendance. Justice Khanna had spent a couple of year at the International Court of Justice at the Hague, after retiring from the Supreme Court of India. ‘I have heard good reports about you, Ashok, let us keep in touch’ he said to Ashok, and it was Ashok’s turn to be surprised. While they were talking Lt Gen Brar, a retired general and CK Deshmukh a former cabinet secretary joined them. The way they were pointedly quizzing Ashok while appearing to be casual, it occurred to him as if they were taking a measure of him for some assignment. Just then a respected industrialist from Mumbai, CD Menon, joined them asking more questions of Ashok about the proceedings of the seminar, further confirming his impressions. Ashok decided to find out more from Rashmi after this seminar.

When the seminar reconvened after tea, the atmosphere was even more electric, since the focus turned towards how to remedy the state of the Indian democracy. In a fiery speech one of the labour union leaders representing the working classes pushed for concrete actions, saying ‘No point talking further, we have reached a point of action here. The focus should not be to explain why the situation is as we find it; the point is to change the whole thing. A wholesale process of cleaning the cobwebs in our democratic process is the only solution I can see. The question is, do we have the stomach for upsetting the status quo?’. In a manner of speaking the labour leader was channeling Karl Marx, but then Marx was a forgotten figure in the mid twenty-first century. That question hung in the air as it did in the minds of everyone as the seminar concluded.

Chapter 3:

Violence, turmoil, division and disease in the air

Not far removed from the academic and sophisticated conference atmosphere of the India Investment Centre, there lurked a disturbing and even unsafe environment. Not only in Delhi NCR but in every corner of the country. The most visible part of this unrest was the sight of unemployed groups of youth protesting government’s lack of action in every major town; not an entirely unexpected phenomenon, if you take into account that the country was running at an unemployment rate of over 25%, and a net annual population growth of 1.5% adding millions of youth joining the unemployment pool every year. These protests were not always peaceful, as one can expect, and there were instances of uncontrollable violence and police firing on unruly mobs. With the avenues of lawful and formal employment closed for them several youth indulged in petty thefts and even carefully planned heists: automotive thefts, violence against the rich and bank robbery became commonplace after 2025. Newspapers were devoting two pages to daring exploits of thievery in executing new and innovating capers. 

Political and administrative corruption, always a negative feature of the Indian landscape took on a more ugly and overpowering avatar as years rolled on. By 2035, there was a high percentage, informally estimated at two thirds, of every project and revenue expenditure eaten up by the political and administrative class. The civil service, particularly the IAS, which was relatively stain free of bribery, also became active participants in such schemes. Concomitant with corruption there was a sharp increase in lawlessness by a restless public: the number of cases of assassination of political functionaries was on the rise. One morning the nation woke up to the story of an entire political family which usurped nearly 60% of high end land properties in Chennai murdered in sleep. Political bosses in Maharashtra and Gurgaon who made a killing in land transactions there became the victims of mob executions. Many managers of nationalised banks who sanctioned loans of billions of dollars to dubious entities were found shot to death, along with their political sponsors. There were vigilante groups roaming the streets targeting unprincipled politicians, civil servants, bankers as well as corrupt businessmen. A pent up backlash against the political class, suppressed for nearly 50 years, came to the fore bringing violent assassinations as a regular feature. The tide was firmly turning against the traditional politician who took the indifferent public opinion for granted all these years. From being a predatory overlord the corrupt politician became the most hated and hunted figure overnight.

The economic performance of the country was on a sharp declining curve, with all parameters like inflation, unemployment, balance of payment and national deficit showing levels which can only be termed as bankrupt and hopeless. The hopelessness sprang from the fact that there was no responsible authority in the form of government ministers or the bureaucracy including the RBI which had any practical ideas on how to check this trend, in the present economic format the country was operating in. With USD hovering over I50 to the INR, oil at 200 USD per barrel and inflation running at 35% per annum, Indian economy was a scene of economic carnage. ‘Can the basket case of Asia ever recover?’ was the verdict of a sneering Wall Street Journal.

Added to all of the above were the divisions in the political class. Wholesale disenchantment against the ruling political groups from the States in the Hindi belt, against the dominance of UP, MP, Rajasthan and Bihar, was very much in the air everywhere. First of the mark in this regard were the Southern States raising the spectre of separation in the name of political autonomy. Successive political machinations by the ruling party at the Centre had put off politicians both in the Eastern and Western States. In short the much vaunted federal structure of the nation state was straining at the leash, and threatening to break into pieces anytime soon.

In the midst of all this turmoil, the umpteenth general election was on the horizon, sometime in June 2035. With the country divided in so many different ways in regional, religious beliefs and economic levels. With the population generally tired and disbelieving the political class, no one was expecting a clear and simple majority for a single national party. It was going to be yet another mishmash of loosely coordinated coalition with the sole objective of dividing the economic pie among a few governing parties. Some political commentators were confidently predicting that 2035 was going to be the last general election in India. Its inconclusive outcome was going to determine how the country was breaking up, with more social and economic unrest to follow. It was a serious prospect, a high probability event. Complicating the political and economic environment in the country, was the relentless spread of the pandemic: Covid-34 was surefooted and attacked the population in every social strata of the society. Its early mortality statistics were bewilderingly high. How a general election could be safely conducted amidst this diseased atmosphere was on everyone’s mind.

To sum up, by 2035 it was no longer speculated in the Western press if India was a failing state. Matters had by then long gone past any need for speculation, with everyone concluding that India had indeed irredeemably and hopelessly failed. ‘A sorry denouement perhaps for a once-proud and hopeful democracy with independent visions of itself, but failure is the present reality for India’ a mournful NYTimes intoned in its editorial.

Such a failed status attracted serious attention from other members of the QUAD, set up around 2015 or so, to protect the world from the onward and upward march of China’s military aspirations. US, Japan and Australia which depended on India to support their collective efforts, both military and economic, to provide an alternative approach to collective global governance and to set themselves apart from China, became very concerned at India’s declining situation. In early 2035, the Deputy Secretary for International Affairs in the State Department, a number two functionary in the US foreign policy establishment, met with his counterparts in Australia and Japan. They met after office hours at a dimly lit bar off the waterfront in Alexandria, Virginia, a short driving distance from the capital. As soon as they ordered their drinks, the Dep Sec introduced a fiftyish man only as an expert on security matters relating to India without giving away his departmental affiliation. The Australian and the Japanese officers instinctively knew they were in the presence of a CIA functionary, and were intrigued at the need for him in their meeting. The CIA man plunged into a practised thesis about India, ‘Gentlemen, right in front of our eyes India is fast becoming a failed state. No, delete that and make it an actually failed state. In every sense of the word, political, economic, social and who knows even on military matters. It is no longer a reliable member of the QUAD who can be a firm bulwark against Chinese aggressive aspirations in Africa and Asia. And more importantly India itself is in serious risk of getting broken up into many parts’ As he paused for breath the Australian foreign office man asked, ‘What is it we can do about it? Are you proposing a drastic intervention in India? It is en entirely unmanageable country, man, and even you guys in Langley should know about it’. 

The CIA man took his time to respond to this outburst. ‘Fortunately for us there is already a large group of top people in India seized of the problems they are facing. They represent or till recently represented the higher echelons of the judiciary, civil service, defence services and economic policy making in India. There is also a fair sprinkling of industrialists and businessmen frustrated by the lack of governance and security in the country, and itching to do something about it, working with this group. I must however tell you that at the present time it is all loosey-goosey, with this group making tentative moves at finding out how they can come up with a cohesive action plan. We are not doing anything about it, and certainly not involved in it one way or another, but I must also tell you that our friends in China and Russia are also keeping an eye on what is going on Delhi. And here is the strangest thing. Even China and Russia do not believe that India should fail, as its violent failure would affect the stability of the entire world. In that sense all of us including our traditional adversaries have the same goal, which is how to save India from its inevitable fate’

‘However, nothing direct can be there, things such as take over of the country are entirely unworkable. Unmanageable as you rightly say. Indians must solve their own problems, and all we can do is to push this process along. Watch the space’ he concluded. The QUAD minus one group broke up agreeing to keep a close watch on the progress of this group of alternate patriots and to jump in should this group needed any support at a later stage. 

Chapter 4: 

Preliminary moves to attract a new recruit in a series plot.

‘Did you see what these old codgers were up to during tea time? They were conducting an impromptu interview with me, sizing me up for something. Out with it, did you put them up to it, you clever so and so?’ He pushed Rashmi for answers as they were driving together for dinner. She readily admitted that her uncle Justice Khanna was the one who suggested inviting Ashok Rajguru for the seminar, as he was keen to meet him. She further elaborated that this foursome was always meeting in various locations, always in public places, always in serious discussions about some important matter. Ashok knew then and there that his association with Justice Khanna and company was just beginning and not going to end anytime soon.

The following week he got a call on his mobile phone. It was Justice Khanna. ‘Are you in for a spot of bridge this weekend, Ashok? We are short of a hand and I thought I would give you a chance to lose some of the money you have been over-charging your clients’ laughing at his own joke. They decided to meet at the Delhi Gymkhana on the following Saturday at 6 pm. When he reached the club that evening, Ashok Rajguru was not surprised to find Gen Brar and CK Deshmukh seated alongside Justice Khanna. After the usual preliminaries they repaired to the commodious card room of the club where at least fifty tables were set up for bridge enthusiasts. As in all bridge rooms, there was an air of serious thinking before making bids, muffled conversations among the teams, sharing of jokes and gossip among friends with mildly suppressed laughter. They started off their game, with Ashok partnering the General, who briskly dealt the cards for everyone. As they were beginning their bids while evaluating the relative strength of others’ hands, they casually talked about the previous week’s seminar. The wily old men were keen to hear what Ashok had to say. Ashok was expecting some such stunt from them and he was ready with his thoughts. ‘Most of what was discussed are the outward symptoms of problems with the Indian democracy. Things such as endemic corruption, high unemployment, poor economic performance and wholly unqualified political class in the governing roles of a modern, complex economy are obvious fall outs of a basic problem,’ he started off. Given encouraging looks by the other three, he continued, ‘The fundamental issue is that our constitutional framework as it is conceived enables our political class to achieve their ends, in a perfectly legal way, or very nearly perfectly. Unless dramatic changes and substantial alterations in our Constitution take place, and urgently, we can keep having seminars like that for the next ninety years. A lot of hot air and no action’. If Ashok was expecting his dramatic observation on the Constitution of India to be hitting his companions hard, he was disappointed. From the meaningful looks they gave each other and their eagerly nodding heads, it was clear that they too had come to the same conclusion independently. At this point, the justice smoothly cut in to say, ‘lets have a more detailed discussion on this matter, Ashok. I know you are an amateur constitutional scholar and lets put your knowledge to test soon’. After the game, the conversation turned towards other matters during dinner which followed. Gen Brar and Deshmukh seemed to be bringing Justice Khanna up to date on matters of security and civil administration respectively, as if it was some organisational update. They seemed to identify and indeed predict divisions in defence forces, police personnel and administrative functions which would behave in certain ways when certain political developments took place. Ashok kept his counsel all the while, keeping a discreet silence and concentrating on his soup. ‘These men may be retired from active service, but they are very sharp shooters, at least when it comes to bridge. Here I am the youngest in the foursome down by two thousand rupees in one evening!’. He promised himself that he had to be careful when dealing with these high powered retirees. 

Chapter 5:

Thoughts on recasting the Constitution

Predictably enough about a week later, Ashok Rajguru got a call from Justice Khanna. ‘Ashok, why don’t we take our morning constitutional, pun fully intended, in the Lodhi gardens this Saturday? If you are okay with it, 6 am near the Khan Market end then’ he rang off quickly. Ashok found the justice in his walking gear briskly warming up before starting on his several laps. There were several hard core joggers and exercisewalas already doing their stuff on the jogging track and the the lawns. Ten minutes after setting an acceptable walking pace, the justice casually turned towards Ashok and asked, ‘I was somewhat intrigued by your remarks the other day on our constitution not being fit for today’s purpose; can you elaborate on the theme?’ It gave an opening for Ashok to elaborate on his pet themes, bordering on obsession, about the fundamental flaws in the Indian Constitution.

He took on a professorial air and began to speak. ‘You will agree, Justice Khanna, that our constitution is a slave to the idealism of a newly independent nation, and made several assumptions about the behaviour of its citizenry based largely on Western experience. It was harking back to the nineteenth century notion of honour, decency and public spiritedness, largely a product of the Western educated notions of the framers. Nothing wrong with that as it appeared to be the best way of resolving complex matters in a diverse society at that time. However ninety years on, the fault lines of our constitution are showing in a dramatic fashion, exposing the fundamental weaknesses of what I would call a democratic overreach by the framers’, he intoned. ‘Are you going to be more specific, or are you practising for a lecture in the Constitution Club?’ Justice Khanna joked. ‘Yes of course there are specific areas where the democratic overreach can be seen. First of all look at the size and the number of legislative and consultative chambers as the central focus of law making in this country. We have the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in the centre, with Legislative Assemblies and Councils, in all States. Taken together we have 8 to10 thousand elected and selected representatives of the people, resulting in a noisy, quarrelsome, divisive and yes, self enriching, legislative mechanism. If I were to do it again, I would shrink the size of this law making bodies substantially, both in number of chambers as well as in the number of representatives.’

‘The second focus should be on the quality of people’s representation’ Ashok continued, ‘today anybody and his brother, irrespective of his or her abilities can become an MP or MLA, thus vitiating the quality of debate in framing policies affecting the country. It is astounding to think that past criminal activity is no bar to entering the legislative chambers. What is the result? We have over 80%, yes, I mean fully eight out of ten of our legislators have some sort of criminal record: corruption, fraud, rape and even murder charges. Is it now a wonder that India has turned into a largely criminal society where a criminal stench is all pervading. Therefore I would tighten the entry standards both in terms of ability qualifications and standards for verifiable probity or uprightness in past behaviour’

‘The third aspect is one of defining very closely the role of governments, both Central and State,’ Ashok went on, ‘in terms what the state can do and more importantly what it should not do. Governments should essentially focus on fundamental aspects of a society’s well being and avoid all kinds of adventures outside its remit. Security, public health, justice both on social and economic matters, education, foreign relations and public infrastructure are the only areas the government should focus on. The government should have no business running airlines, distributing liquor, running lottery schemes and many other casual public policy excursions done in the past. While I am at it, I will also closely define the State and Central boundaries so that states do not interpret their role as having unimpeded freedom to go against a basic policy framework in making decisions in their domains. Small but efficient government should be the objective focus of a new framework, moving away from a mindless expansion of the government’s role in society.

‘The next aspect is one of complete judicial independence from the executive; today, the High Courts as well the Supreme Court are functioning as handmaidens of the cabinet and state secretariats, largely the outcome of the court’s appointment mechanisms. As a result we have a judiciary which actively enabled or silently watched the questionable actions of the government in social and industrial sectors. What do we call a system in which the State and Central governments are able to approach courts overnight to get favourable judgments for themselves? If the PMO can call the Supreme Court on the telephone to direct them, literally direct them, to do its bidding, who is having the upper hand then? While we are making the judiciary independent I would also review the entire machinery, right from the role of lower courts and all the way up to the Supreme Court, including statutory tribunals and how they function.

‘Finally, on the economy. In the past decades several state and central governments had played around with industrial and economic policy making, with all kinds of combinations. We had the commanding heights of the public sector, private sector largely limited to a few spheres, followed by a half hearted liberalisation process and finally crony capitalism in its full avatar. Suspicions about foreign investments, real or imagined, had kept direct investors at bay denying the country of technical ability and employment opportunity. We have a creaking economy, massively unmet deficits, high inflation and above all unconscionably high employment rates. Fundamental aspects of economic management needs to be spelt out in the Constitution so that succeeding governments are not tempted to branch into new directions outside.’

By this time they had taken a couple of laps of the outer perimeter of the park, and were huffing and puffing. Justice Khanna was evidently a regular in Lodhi Gardens, smiled and waved at by many friends at periodic intervals. The justice who was silently absorbing Ashok’s remarks till then, began to speak, ‘I would say your observations about our constitution enabling the political class, however unwittingly, are spot on. Your prescriptions about shrinking the size of legislatures, defining the member qualifications closely, creating a truly independent judiciary, directly spelling out the role of governments in the economic activities are wholesome solutions if somewhat overblown. The question is are we swinging to the other extreme in our enthusiasm to refine the status quo. Why don’t we work with me to refine your ideas more fully to create a presentable document which we can call ‘The Indian Constitution, a realistic version’. Why don’t you and I spend a week in my guest house in Dalhousie in the coming month, sweating the details to come up with a final document?’

Ashok Rajguru stared at Justice Khanna intently for a minute before asking ‘Before we do that, sir, may I ask you something? Are you and your other card playing friends up to something? I can guess what you are planning on, but cannot believe that a former Supreme Court justice is working with retired generals and cabinet secretaries, and god knows who else, to overthrow the government? Please do let me know before we book our tickets to go to Dalhousie.’ At this direct question, Justice Khanna smiled at him and said, ‘I like your calm and measured way of posing difficult questions. I will of course give you the full picture, but all in good time. At the present moment, along with me there are more than twenty recently retied senior members of the civil service, defence and judiciary, similar to the profiles Gen Brar and CK Deshmukh. Each of us are working in our own areas of work defining what is appropriate for India and coming up with specific policy documents. Nothing more than that, as of now.’

‘And coming to the work we propose to do together on the new version of the Constitution. It is right now only a theoretical exercise we propose to work on. From your point of view, as an amateur constitutional theorist surely that should be an interesting exercise to get involved in, yes?’

‘Yes, of course, right now it is only an academic discussion. What about later?’ Ashok asked the justice. ‘All in due course, Ashok, as I said earlier. I have invariably followed a practical policy of crossing bridges only when I come upon them. So no more questions but come with me to Dalhousie. Let me adjudicate if your reputation as a constitutional scholar is really merited or not!’ Justice Khanna prevaricated.

‘Theoretical exercise, indeed. More like borderline sedition, if not actual treason. Let me see how far it goes before I decide to pull the plug on these recently retired top shots trying to relive their glory days’ Ashok was telling himself, rather unconvincingly.

Chapter 6: 

The final product: an accessible Constitution fit for purpose

People in the know would swear by Air Conditioned, First Class on the Jammu Mail as the only civilised way to travel from Delhi Junction to Pathankot Cantonment station. For one thing it leaves DLI shortly after 8 pm and reaches PKCT at daybreak, giving you enough time to have a proper dinner and sleep through the journey. From Pathankot to Dalhousie town is a short drive through a picturesque and winding hill route. During this journey and for the next four days or so, Ashok Rajguru discovered several new dimensions to Justice Khanna. He was an entertaining raconteur ever ready with stories of judicial misadventures encountered during his long and his distinguished career in Law. He was what Wodehouse would classify as a boulevardier bent upon having a good time under any and all circumstances. Above all the justice had a penetrating judicial mind, able to absorb and process several complex questions of Law, to come up with final positions acceptable to all. Most importantly he had supreme confidence in his command of English and Hindi, with precise articulation and an accessible choice of phrases. Even for Ashok who had encountered several legal eagles in his time, Justice Khanna was a formidable force evoking respect and affection in equal measure.

As they were nursing their drinks while waiting for dinner on the train, Justice Khanna turned towards Ashok to say, ‘I must say I like the way you characterised the constitution being hijacked by unscrupulous political class to enable their shenanigans. You and I are going to reinvent the whole constitution, every aspect of it, in the next five days. What Ambedkar and company took two years to do, we are attempting to do in ten man days. However, we have the original template to work on, and that should make it easy.’ He went on, seeing Ashok nodding in agreement, ‘But this time what we produce must be a readable document accessible to every citizen, however moderately educated. It should be a living document with every Indian knowing the structure, mechanics and guidelines governing our democracy, and not just an aspirational piece of paper. How well we do our jobs this coming week would be felt several decades into the future’.

The Dalhousie visit, though set in agreeable surroundings, was no picnic for either of them. For the first time Ashok Rajguru was able to witness a top class intellect in direct action, drafting and correcting things. For the first two days of the visit they were taking long walks during the day amidst scenic trekking paths, overlooking the peaks of Dhauladhar range. Thus refreshed by their exertions outdoors, they parked themselves indoors for the rest of their time to draft their ideas into serious legal clauses in right earnest. Together they cut through several elements of the Constitution which they thought were clogging up the democratic process and came up with some dramatic alternatives, many of them shockingly revolutionary in thinking. They drastically cut down the strength of Lok Sabha to 200, less than half of today’s 525, with tighter qualification standards for who can be an MP. Rajya Sabha was altogether done away with, and replaced by a ‘Parliamentary Advisory Group’ of 50 eminent scholars and intellectuals across several fields, partially elected and partially selected. Likewise in the State Legislatures, the proposal was to limit the size of the assembly between 75 and 125 MLAs, as well as to abolish State Legislative Councils to be replaced by ‘Legislative Advisory Groups’ of about 15-25 members in each State. The idea of the advisory groups, both in Delhi and in State Capitals, was to ensure the law making process in the lower houses were running on democratic norms, following due consultative processes among its committees. They gave some teeth to the advisory groups, both Central and State, to ensure that law makers do not step out of the line drawn in the Constitution. Most important of all, was the provision of qualification standards with some test of knowledge for anyone wanting to participate in an election at any level, be it Municipal, State or Central. A movement away from the first-past-the-post system (FPP) towards proportional representation system (PR), was also part of the package, moving away from winner take all approach to lawmaking and governance. If finally implemented PR would be a breakthrough development in the world of democratic governance in general and India in particular. 

At this stage, Justice Khanna was chuckling away. ‘If the political crowd thinks these are dramatic changes, wait till they see the provisions on the roles of governments, both Central and State’ he said. They had closely and carefully prescribed the activities for the government to work on, and they were limited to Security, Defence, Infrastructure, Public Health, Foreign relations, school level education and Local Administration, with responsibilities for State and Central Governments carefully listed. All other activities outside of this closely defined list were proscribed, and they could not blunder into them except by exceptional circumstances not easily justified. On the economic front, the role of the government was thought to be one of prescribing limits or regulations within which the private citizens were free to participate, more or less in line with the western economies. Likewise in higher education, private players were completely free to operate provided they adhered to professional qualification and accreditation standards.

It was in the judiciary and the mechanisms it employed, that the divorce from political influence was complete, liberating the Supreme Court downwards right down to the district and municipal courts to be completely free from any and all local political influences. Starting with judicial appointments at every level, including the priority of addressing pending cases and strict interpretation of the law on the books were spelt out in the chapter on Judiciary. While setting the judiciary free, Justice Khanna was careful to keep it under a tight leash. No longer could judges bloviate from the bench on unconnected matters, and indulge in some extra judicial excursions into policy making.

‘The final icing on the cake, my boy, are the proposals to structure the cabinet style of government. We should limit the number of ministers, to fifteen at the Central Government and ten in State Governments, to check the unprecedented enlargement of ministerial berths in the recent times. It stands to reason since we will be limiting the role of government to basic functions. Moreover, our belief that politicians only make policies and the civil service implements them should keep them to a small and manageable number. Finally the civil service should be liberated from being a closed club of people who passed a competitive examination thirty odd years back, to something open, lively and inviting outside talent at every stage of the game. Let us put these rules in our final proposals’ Justice Khanna concluded. 

As they were sitting in the waiting room at the PKCT station flipping through the final version of their draft proposals, the justice allowed himself to be satisfied with their output. ‘Now what we have is a clean, readable and practical document which provides specific guidelines on how the nation ought to be governed. No point airing great aspirations if we don’t spell out how to achieve them’ he said. 

As they were boarding the train back to Delhi, Justice Khanna thanked Ashok Rajguru for his help, ‘I couldn’t have done it on my own, my boy. Thank you for standing by’ he said. He continued, ‘Now may be the right time to take you into full confidence, Ashok. Next week a group of about ten of us are going to meet in a guest house in Alibaug, off the coast of Bombay. In addition to Gen Brar and CK Deshmukh there are going to be other members of this loosely formed group. The group has people from Police, economic policy making, education and public health who have had distinguished careers in their own spheres. We are deeply frustrated at what is going on over the years in our country, and are determined to put an end to this nonsense that passes for governance. Like me others would also be coming up with proposals change in their respective areas when we meet in Alibaug. Together we would be setting up a framework for future governance in our country’

Ashok was silent for some time, and then he opened up, ‘All this documentation and proposals for new governance mechanisms are fine as they go, but how do you propose to implement them? As it stands now, with our proposal for a new constitution you would be the first to be arrested, if you don’t mind my saying so’. ‘Yes, I agree, Ashok, but we do have a workable plan and a timing for its implementation. I can tell you that there are others who are likely to support them strongly if the end goal is one of achieving a stable India. But the point now is, are you willing to join this group and go all the way? So far your help has been valuable, and I am grateful. However if you join us in the Alibaug meeting you are firmly stepping into the sedition territory, and I don’t want to drag you into it if you do not feel up to it.’

Not wanting to give an impulsive response to such a serious proposal, Ashok promised to think about it carefully. They went their separate ways after the train reached Delhi railway station.

Chapter 7

Final consensus on action plans

As Ashok Rajguru was entering the lounge of the Supreme Court Bar Association the following Monday, he was button-holed by Mr Paranjpe a top corporate lawyer from Bombay. Mr Paranjpe was the go-to lawyer for the Dependence Industries Group, one of the prime beneficiaries of the chaotic government mechanisms for over 70 years. They kept their ears close to the ground for all kinds of information that would end up affecting their business interests, and certainly what Justice Khanna and company were thinking of would hurt them badly, if it came to fruition. ‘We hear something serious, Ashok, that you are keeping company with the wrong kind of people. Be careful, man, about who you are playing Bridge with these days. Those two-no-trumpwalas can land you in serious trouble, man. Loss of freedom certainly and who knows even loss of life’ was the ominous warning from Mr Paranjpe. Ashok was taken aback for a moment and blood drained from his face upon hearing this warning, as direct a hit as it could get. Proof if he needed any that the governance of the country, in spite of all the apparently democratic paraphernalia, was in the hands of a few corporate beneficiaries. He said something light to fend off Mr Paranjpe, ‘What to do, if my girlfriend wants me to be nice to her uncle, I have to oblige, right? Such courtesies may be rare in the fast moving world of Bombay, but in Delhi we are more courteous’. An unconvincing effort perhaps, but that would have to do.

For the next one week, Ashok was a tortured soul. Should he go along further with Justice Khanna or just cut him loose, content to observe the proceedings from at a distance? He couldn’t talk to anybody, even his friend Rashmi, about his dilemma to seek some sort of mental clarity because of the seriously treasonous nature of the matter involved. He knew instinctively that he agreed with the logic of the country’s dire situation, as well as the elegance of the proposed solutions, which he himself took part in forming. However the Khanna doctrine, elegant or not, had only a snowball’s chance in hell of success. In the end he decided to go with what he thought as a worthwhile thing to do, and align himself with Justice Khanna’s future activities on bringing about change. 

In the meeting Ashok Rajguru found himself to be the youngest and least distinguished among the eleven participants in the Alibaug guest house. General Brar and a former police chief of Bombay rolled out their thoughts on the arrangements for defence and police services across the nation. ‘We have wasted three generations of people’s lives in Kashmir, it is time to put an end to the whole thing there. Let us seek a UN mandated solution there, whichever way it may fall. Let us at the same time formalise our security arrangements firmly in line with the QUAD nations, with a firm commitment to them. We must stop our dilly dallying and stringing them along forthwith.’ Next to speak was Dr Kapadia a former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, who came up with a detailed agenda for liberalised economic, financial and industrial policies to get the nation going on a more aggressive role for the private sector. ‘It is not a free for all, let me caution all of you. We have built enough regulatory guard rails to keep the whole process within limits’ he promised.

Finally it was Justice Khanna’s turn to roll out his proposals for the constitution and judiciary, which were an immediate hit with the assembled team. He went further than what they discussed in Dalhousie to include ‘We need to cut out the supernumerary functions like President and State Governors which barely functioned as per original plan. Lighten the visible part of the government, remove purely ornamental roles and limit the whole thing to bare essentials. Talking of limits, it is time to move away from the prime minister and chief minister as the only faces of the governments. It may be more appropriate to have three man teams at the Centre and at the State as the governing face of the country. Three people with equal authority, and position, rather than one man as the all powerful PM or CM would work wonders for how the government would function. With proportional representation, smaller legislatures and unified and shared command structure, India would be the forerunner in delivering a progressive democratic society'. Justice Khanna was gracious enough to share credit for these ideas with Ashok saying, ‘Our young friend here contributed massively to these proposals, both in their formulation as well as in drafting them’.

While they had unanimity of views on what the new democratic policies and structure of India should be, the group had difficulty in planning how they should get there. ‘What we are aiming for is nothing short of a democratic revolution, gentlemen. We are not going to get there without some bloodshed’ said the general. He went further, ‘Some of our international friends have promised action on the field, to clear the way for our proposals to be placed firmly. What they are waiting for is the right moment when general confusion reigns and some kind of redemption can be offered by our team; at that time the public would be in a mood to accept our proposals as the best available option’

The Alibaug group broke up with a promise to keep an extremely low profile till further action with no external contacts whatever. ‘Keep your powder dry, gentlemen, and when we press the button we will activate the entire network into decisive combat action’ General Brar was mixing metaphors.

Chapter 8

Official moves against the group

Practically one week after their grand meeting in Alibaug, Ashok Rajguru was working at home on a case he was to appear the following day. It was a little after midnight, perhaps around 1 am. The buzzer in his apartment sounded, and Ashok found three uniformed officers waiting at the door. The senior officer in the team introduced himself politely, ‘Sir, I am Detective Superintendent Pande from the Counter Insurgency group of Research Analysis Wing; you are wanted for questioning by our director, and right now. Please accompany us’. When they reached the offices of RAW at two am, Ashok found himself face to face with MK Kumar, the formidable director of the domestic security and investigation wing. Kumar had a reputation of being a ruthless man, with a genial appearance and disarming questioning techniques. His modus operandi was to trap his suspects into admitting serious crimes by clever questioning combined with vaguely menacing promise of serious consequences in the air if they didn’t play ball.

MK Kumar didn’t offer Ashok a seat. He stared at him silently for two minutes without saying a word. ‘Just when I thought top corporate lawyers like you know the score, you had to go align yourself with a treasonous bunch of people. Don’t think we were not monitoring for the past three months the movements of yourself, Justice Khanna and the rest of his crowd, charmingly calling themselves, the Alibaug Group. If you don’t come clean now with me, Ashok, you are going to belong to the Tihar Group, and right quick,’ he opened his line of questioning. Now, Ashok was no slouch when it came to staring down difficult and intimidating opponents, but this Kumar was in an entirely different league. Moreover, Ashok Rajguru was weighed down, however slightly, by a touch of guilty conscience that he might have participated in downright illegal activities. He decided to brazen it out by telling the truth about his actions in the recent past, not all the way, but only to the extent that his actions could have a plausibly innocent explanation.

Ashok started speaking, ‘Sir, you must know that Justice Khanna is an uncle of Rashmi Malhotra, a close personal friend of mine. When I first met him at a seminar in IIC, he requested my help on some aspects of the Constitution. He and some friends of his, all of them retired from service, are doing a theoretical exercise and playing around with various provisions of the law. What could be wrong with a handful of sixty-five somethings wanting to relive their glory days?’ He went further to say, ‘This is all you are going to get from me, and if you want more you have to come up with proper paper work which authorises you to question me’. Kumar smiled rather sardonically at this response. ‘I am sorry, Ashok. I thought we could come to a reasonable arrangement about what your new-found friends are up to, and exactly who is helping them do things. I regret to do these things to you, but then you leave me with no choice in the matter’. At this Ashok stared at Kumar unblinkingly for a minute or so saying nothing. 

Seeing Ashok’s continued defiance, MK Kumar decided to deploy more aggressive techniques. With a nod from him, two of his colleagues took Ashok to a windowless room, sat him down on a stool, and started to give him the third degree. His interlocutors were solid professionals, who knew how to hit, and where to hit, without causing cuts and bleeds, but resulting in immoderate amount of pain. Ashok passed out a few times, and every time he went dark, they revived him with water and recommenced their procedures all over again. By 8 am next morning, Ashok was lying semi conscious in his own vomit and urine, still maintaining his stand that he was only providing drafting help to Justice Khanna and company, and no more than that.

MK Kumar the director had underestimated the deviousness and foresight of Ashok Rajguru. He had earlier cautioned his friend at the Supreme Court Bar Association to look out for him every morning at 7 am, and if Ashok did not answer his mobile phone on any occasion, the friend should go straight to the court and raise a formal complaint about Ashok’s disappearance. The friend should also seek help from his informal contacts in the Supreme Court. By 9 30 am the Home Secretary to the Government of India got a call from one of the Justices on the SC bench, about Ashok’s whereabouts cautioning him that such extra judicial actions on a top lawyer of the Supreme Court Bar would cause repercussions for the government.

By 11 am Ashok Rajguru was seated in front of MK Kumar. The director was apoplectic that his interrogation was being stymied by Ashok’s friends in the Supreme Court. ‘Don’t think you are being let off, my friend. You should know that planning to overthrow a legally elected government is sedition, whether you gave only theoretical inputs or not. Please tell your friends who attended the Alibaug meeting that we know all about them, and one false move from anyone, would only lead to tragedy for every one of them.’ Ashok went home battered and bruised, but his story more or less intact vis a vis the investigating agency. He called Justice Khanna to narrate what happened to him during the previous twelve hours. The justice was nonchalant. ‘Ashok, I am sorry that you had to be subjected to some serious bodily injury, but you had handled it rather well. We cannot expect RAW not to know what we are up to, particularly after our grand meeting in Alibaug. But I can assure you that none of us, not even the general and the police chief, are involved anything that can be remotely called direct action. We are keeping our noses clean, and you can rest assured.’

Chapter 9

Collapse of the old order

The opportunity the Alibaug group was waiting for came soon enough, in the aftermath of the General Elections conducted amidst Covid-34 induced death and despair all around. The pandemic was making its steady and determined inroads into the lives of the common man, decimating a large number of population both young and old, male and female, rich and poor across the country. The nation’s public health system was completely unprepared for the overall dimensions and the virulence of the health catastrophe it faced. Lack of medical oxygen, shortage of critical medicines, hospital beds occupied by two patients at a time, medical personnel themselves dying of the virus: these were some of the visible signs of the seriousness of the health crisis everywhere you looked. Several hundred thousand people perished in the disease, with images of make shift crematoriums and bodies floating away in Ganga were a sorry spectacle on newspapers and TV screens. People or those who were fortunate to barely dodge the virus and survive were depressed and angry. The common man was asking himself what the government was doing all this time, a reasonable question.

For the second time in roughly fifteen years the government proved helpless in tackling serious problems of public health. For a start, vaccines agains the virus were not even ordered on the manufacturers, even though they were available and in production for months by then. The administrative machinery was silently watching the shortage of oxygen, medicines and hospital facilities waiting for their political bosses to make decisions on availability and distribution. Politicians were playing the blame game, which they were always good at, tossing the responsibility between States and the Centre. In the meanwhile the daily toll everywhere was going up in thousands.

The general election should have been postponed under such a serious pandemic crisis. However the political geniuses ruling the country at that time decided to go ahead, a decision it must be said supported by all political parties. Political rallies were held length and breadth of the country, with several thousands in attendance. For the political crowd it was business as usual, since they lived and died for elections, but the common man bore the brunt of the ever widening impact of the virus engendered by such election tamasha.

The election results when they came proved to be a damp squib. Out of 525 seats in the parliament, no party won more than 130 seats, with national party tallies ranging from 60 to 130. The regional parties became more prominent winning practically all the seats in their States but nowhere big enough to form a stable government. It was obvious to everyone that a diverse coalition of political groups would be the only option for staking a claim to forming a cabinet; however, with so many divisions of religion, policy beliefs and regional approaches there was not a single viable group which could hold together even for one week. With a seriously hung parliament, the separatist parties were beginning to make noises about going their own ways, saying ‘We are better off on our own, without joining hands with other groups with whom we have nothing in common’. International observers were puzzled and could not speculate one way or another. ‘India is very precariously poised right now, in political terms. One little spark, and it has the potential to go to pieces’ was the worried editorial in the New York Times.

Amidst all this turmoil, Ashok Rajguru got a call on their ultra-secure line one evening from Justice Khanna. In an excited voice, unusual for him, the justice said ‘Things are going along predictable lines, Ashok. Our overseas friends are beginning to act in various locations in India. Pay close attention’. In ten days following the election results there were many assassinations, mysterious deaths under strange circumstances and gang style killings of people who mattered so far in the system. First to go was the leader of a national party with 130 wins in the Parliamentary elections: he was shot in close range by his political rival within the party with a shot gun. The leader of the party with 100 wins was killed when the car he was travelling in was involved in a head-on collision with a truck coming from the wrong side in a dual carriageway. Leaders of two minor parties who could swing the balance one way or another succumbed to Covid-34, though one could not be sure that it was the dreadful disease which was responsible. The scions of past political dynasties seem to be particularly targeted with many of them dying under conspicuously suspicious circumstances.

While a vacuum in politics leadership was developing due to these deaths, there seemed to be targeted action against some of the industrialists and businessmen who were part of the crony network; they were the ones pulling the strings behind the governments of whichever hue. A top businessmen, the richest in India and in the top five wealthiest globally, died at home due to a food poisoning episode. Another industrialist, who was a rags to riches story in a matter of fifteen years mainly due to government patronage was gunned down by sniper fire from a long distance, while he was inspecting one of his port projects in the West Coast. With the removal of these two powerful industrialists, the industry lobby which actively cultivated and enjoyed the support of government policies began to crumble overnight.

Political and economic uncertainty added to the public health panic already caused by Covid-34. All eyes were on the President of India who had the constitutional powers to decide the next steps in the event of not finding a clear winner or a winning coalition for forming a government. The president at that time was an old-line politician who grew up in the corrupt and grubby world of third rate politicians, and he was unlikely do anything adventurous in making moves to reform the system which benefited him thus far. A curious thing happened to him when he was climbing the stage to reach a podium for addressing a meeting. The wooden steps buckled and suddenly collapsed while he was still on the fourth step, throwing the President sideways to the hard floor. His head hit the floor with a sickening thud, sending him into a coma. Thus it came about in a matter of weeks after the inconclusive elections, the country found itself under the temporary leadership of the Vice President of India, who was suddenly elevated to be the President of the country.

The newly promoted Vice President was an interesting man, even an anachronism in the dirty political world of India. For one thing, he was a thinking man, methodical to the point of being pedantic in his approach to making decisions. Unexpectedly confronted with the problem of dealing with a fast destabilising nation, he convened a meeting of the holders of three key offices: the cabinet secretary as the head of civil service, the joint head of Army, Navy and the Air Force and the Chief Justice of India. He polled their views on what moves he should make to reassure the country and to go ahead with the regular job of governing. Their unanimous opinion was one of appointing a professional team for interim governance and a universally acceptable person as its head. All three of them came up with a single name to head such a government. It was the name of Justice Raghuvir Khanna, a former justice of the Supreme Court of India, International Court of Justice and a former head of the International Arbitration Society.

Chapter 10

An unusually sure-footed interim government 

‘I cannot do this job by myself, sir’ Justice Khanna was telling the acting President who invited him to be the head of an interim government. ‘I will need to bring in two others, to be in positions equal to mine. You might know of them, General Brar and CK Deshmukh, both accomplished public servants. While we three will be the common face of leadership, we will need seven or eight other members as part of our cabinet and all of them will be equally distinguished professionals in their own fields. We will collectively take on this role, only on one condition’ he stopped for moment. ‘And, that is?’ The president asked. ‘There will be nothing interim about us, if you want us to contain the confusion and chaos prevailing in this country. We will have to be sure-footed administrators with our own concepts and ideas of what works and what does not. The only assurance we can offer is that we will be entirely democratic, transparent and public spirited in all that we will do’.

It was how Ashok Rajguru found himself appointed as the Chief of Staff for the Interim Cabinet of ten Ministers, with Justice Khanna, Gen Brar and CK Deshmukh as three Joint Prime Ministers as the common face of leadership. The first order of business was to have a press conference to quell the doubts of the Indian public, and reassure the weary and doubtful international audience. ‘Our goal is to transition the country to a proper democratic path, and we will not be tentative or unsure about steps we will take; therefore we will be interim in name only’ General Brar said. ‘Are you and your friends planted by the CIA or MI5’ asked a journalist directly. ‘Your ascension to power looks and feels like a coup to me’ another commented. ‘Let me remind you gentlemen we have been invited to be in this position, and it is not by our choice. And take a careful look at all of us in this team. Except for the youthful and handsome Ashok Rajguru here all of us are over 65 and in our post retirement phase of life’. In the first week of their tenure in the government, there was cautious acceptance of these arrangements both within the country as well as abroad. For one thing, leaders in business, industry and civic administration heaved a big sigh of relief that things were slowly beginning to come back to some sort of order. The international press was more forthcoming, ‘At least it is not a Saddam or a Gaddafi who had come to power in India, after what appears like an externally enabled coup of sorts. The common leadership idea, unique in many respects, and extensive resumes of the interim team members are strangely reassuring given the circumstances obtained in India’ Gary Gibbons the political editor of Channel 4 News intoned.

The Alibaug group, which had now transformed itself as members of the interim government lost no time in moving in and shaking things up and down the government machinery. Their earlier preparations were very helpful now, since each member of the team had a road map for how they had to go about making changes in policy, rules and procedure. The Nation was beginning to see dramatic changes and subsequently experience their effects in areas like police procedures, civic administration, industrial policies, rules governing economic activities and taxation policies. These rules could be achieved without parliamentary approval as civil procedures, and hence found a place in the first phase of changes implemented. The next phase which involved structural changes to political institutions, their processes including the size, role and composition of the government, and proposed independence of judicial systems all needed a constitutional change. That was exactly when Justice Khanna and Ashok Rajguru needed to go into an aggressive selling mode to display the good features of their new constitutional proposals. Before they could do that they had to create conditions for people to learn the negative effects of the earlier constitutional arrangements and Ashok had a cunning plan to do just that.

One morning after their first month in office, Ashok Rajguru called Mr MK Kumar, the director in charge of domestic security and investigation wing of RAW. Yes, the self same MK Kumar, who arranged for Ashok to be beaten up during interrogation. Kumar came into Ashok’s office fully expecting to be fired from his job, but a surprise was waiting for him. Ashok offered MK Kumar a seat as if nothing between them had happened in the past, and began to speak, ‘Mr Kumar, I happen to know from personal experience that you are a true professional who takes his job seriously. After all, you cottoned on to what the Alibaug group was up to, long before anybody else woke up. I respect that. Now you can do something really useful for the country’. As MK Kumar was still recovering from the shock of these words, Ashok Rajguru continued, ‘I want you to assemble a team of crack investigating teams from any and every part of the government. You will investigate and prosecute every major politician and corrupt businessmen, irrespective of their positions, party affiliations and popular image. In fact bigger, richer or more powerful the fish the better.’ MK Kumar replied, ‘No need for new investigations, Mr Rajguru. We have overflowing files on every one of these cases you refer to, only our hands were tied all these days’. ‘In which case you can move faster than I thought. But remember, I am sorry to have to say this in view of our past meeting, no rough stuff’ Ashok was laughing when he said it. ‘All I want is for the public to know the real image of their political and business leaders. Aim therefore for maximum exposure of these misdeeds’.

Inevitably MK Kumar had an embarrassment of riches when it came to selecting corruption cases for indictment. Former finance ministers who sanctioned several thousand crores of loans to their cronies, telecom ministers who operated rent-free private data lines at home, politicians involved in countless land scams in every major city, friendly industrialists who got aerospace and defence contracts, many garden variety foreign exchange and hawala operators the list was endless and expanding by the minute. The ill gotten wealth of many political dynasties were exposed chapter and verse. When the indictments started flying, the newspapers and television channels had a field day spelling out in gory details stories of top people involved and their modus operandi. Over a couple of months of such onslaught on the former political class, the common man had a clear view, if he needed any, of how the public had been systematically cheated by their past rulers. Justice Khanna and Ashok who were watching the goings on from the sidelines felt that the public’s perception was sufficiently softened to be able to view the new constitutional changes in favourable light.

Three months after the interim government came into being Justice Khanna took the wraps off the new constitution proposals that he and Ashok were working on for months. ‘What we need are new constitutional arrangements indeed, in line with the needs of the twenty-first century and beyond. We believe smaller legislatures are more powerful and democratic than the earlier unwieldy format, the role of governments should be closely marked off for better focus on important areas for the citizenry, complete independence of the judiciary from political meddling and an economic model to unleash the entrepreneurial energies of our people. Most important we need knowledgeable and honourable people to represent the public and those untainted by criminal past’ With such preamble, he introduced the salient features of the new constitution, namely 200 MPs in the Parliament and 100 MLAs in State Legislatures, abolition of upper houses and governors in States, limited roles of government, stringent qualifications of legislators and proportional representation away from the FPP system. Justice Khanna wound up his introduction with this promise ‘We will schedule a very public and democratic referendum on these proposals in 45 days’ time, with an up or down vote for every adult with proper credentials. Every citizen will get a five page summary of the new constitutional proposals, and the complete hundred page document if they wanted it. You will surely know what you are voting for.’ 

As one can imagine these proposals fell on the collective consciousness of the public with a big thud. Newspapers in every language were full of articles with their editorial writers taking the new constitutional proposals apart. Usually noisy TV Channels had to devote great deal of air time to seminar like discussions on the benefits or otherwise of Justice Khanna’s proposals. Pollsters of public opinion were going around town to town finding out what people thought of the whole matter. The international press was silently applauding the revolutionary features of the new constitution, saying ‘Far from being a counter revolution, the interim government in India is more sure footed than many, and is clearly bending towards democracy in confident ways. When you see far reaching proposals like proportional representation, limited and focussed government roles, smaller legislatures and independent judiciary they evoke powerfully positive feelings. We strongly urge the people of India to endorse the whole thing which is a refreshing change’ was the verdict of NYTimes.

Closer to the date of the referendum there was anticipation from both sides. The earlier political class was sure that such revolutionary ideas would be shot down by the public, and vigorously campaigned along these lines. ‘This new constitution is a capitalist, Western idea of our Indian democracy, and won’t work here. It must be thrown out’ was their unified slogan. However, even while they were making confident noises they were somewhat disheartened by the public response at the ground level. The spectre of their past political and economic corruption was very much everywhere they looked. The past misdeeds of old line politician was so thoroughly exposed, many of them were booed wherever they went to campaign against the new constitution. Evidently ‘The common public is no fool, she is your wife’ was the prevailing sentiment.

Ashok Rajguru was rather uncomfortable with this referendum idea at first, and he took up his reservations with Justice Khanna. ‘This is a dodgy ruse you are trying to pull, Justice Khanna. Our Constitution as it stands today does not provide for gimmicks like public referendum on important matters. Parliament is supreme in these matters of constitutional changes, and I am sure I don’t have to remind you’. The justice laughed it off saying, ‘Lesson number one, my friend, when you are trying to overthrow the constitution of any country is to start by mentally junking the old version. The earlier provisions do not matter any longer. That is the whole point of this exercise, don’t you understand?’

Public opinion polls were however predicting a hung verdict, citing various divisions in society and prevailing economic chaos. 

Chapter 11

Rebirth of a newly independent nation.

The pollsters were wrong, and not for the first time. There was overwhelming participation in the referendum, with over 85% of eligible citizens voting. The new constitution proposals were endorsed with a massive majority of 80% of voters, across all regions and economic strata. In fact the most telling aspect of the yes vote was from the minorities communities: over 90% of religious and regional minorities voted in favour of changes, making it clear that India needed to swing back to being a secular democratic society, away from the religious majoritarianism afflicting the politics of the country in recent times. This was however not an unexpected result for those keeping their ears close to the ground, since there were rumblings of popular discontent for many years leading to a massive preference for change.

It was by then six months since the interim government took over; Justice Khanna and his team had another six months to complete their mission in full. The day after the new constitution was approved by the referendum, they dissolved the parliament, all state legislatures and as well as the offices of the President and state governors. A date for the general and state elections to be done in the new format was announced, six months hence. The interim government had to move fast and clean up the entire administrative machinery across the country, every bit as they had outlined in their draft proposals in Alibaug. It was the first election to be conducted along the lines of proper verification of candidates’ fitness to be elected, with no corporate donations and away from the pernicious influences of political dynasties.

Justice Khanna, Gen Brar and CK Deshmukh made it clear that they would leave their roles at the conclusion of the general elections; by then they would have implemented a fully independent judiciary, a national security set up involving the police and the defence forces, a strong civic administrative set up right down the line and internationally oriented economic policies not constrained by the whims of the political class. The interim group took two bold actions which firmly put India in the democratic Western alliance, for decades to come. One of the larger islands in Andaman and Nicobar, was given over to establishing a large defence base by QUAD, with all a modern airbase and naval defence units, as a defence against Chinese intentions in the region. The next step was even more dramatic. The interim government approached the UN to initiate steps to resolve the Kashmir issue with Pakistan. ‘In ninety years three generations of youth on both sides of the border wasted their lives for a cause which could have been resolved through negotiations’ was Gen Brar’s summation. ‘We don’t have to spend one extra minute playing soldiers with the lives of our children’ 

When the elections happened it was moment of dramatic change in India. ‘For the first time in decades India is witnessing the rise of clean cut politicians, drawn from people with middle class aspirations and idealism. People in power now have the mental bandwidth to tackle the complex problems of a diverse economy with a clear minded rationality’ the FT observed. ‘Proportional Representation, much smaller government and independent judiciary can work wonders for India. After many decades of being a nation with a big promise never realised, India can look forward its future with confidence.’

On the eve of their departure from the government, Justice Khanna was in a reflective mood. He was sharing some of his fears about the future with Ashok Rajguru, ‘I know, Ashok, we can feel good about a difficult job well done; we have created a near perfect system for good governance, which if it takes hold, can propel the country to unprecedented heights. However, we have our own past history to give us pause. India as a whole had never had a history of good governance in the past two thousand years or so; it was always a mash-mash of princes, zamindars and maharajas ruling this land with knee jerk reactions. They were followed by career politicians after independence who made nepotism and corruption as the face of government. We have to now see how long the guard rails we built so carefully will hold against the natural tendencies of the Indian public’. Ashok Rajguru was trying to cheer him up, ‘Look at it this way, Sir. We took a fast failing country and put it back on a stable path, with adequate provisions to protect it from misadventures. Here is a liberal, secular and progressive democracy, if they can keep it’ he concluded paraphrasing Benjamin Franklin.

A V Ram Mohan July 12, 2021.