The holistic success of a country's good governance depends on the due appreciation of the dynamic dichotomy and unitive sensitivity of the dual entities, i.e., civil society and political state. The viable evolution of the modus operandi between these two is a must for a social order and progressive polity. If the state operates as a sole voice and a totalitarian authority dressed in a democratic grab, the Cabinet will become a cabal, the Prime Minister a fuehrer with a fascist trends and Parliament a rubber stamp forging the will of the people.
The current Indian scenario suggests state and society moving recklessly towards head-on conflict. The need for functional constitutionalism, providing a paradigm of state society rapport, is never more felt. When alienated segments of the society are desperately hurt by majoritarian oppression or state repression, terrorist manifestations and mass discontent may erupt, aggravated by state terrorism under the guise of law and order.
The Preamble to our constitution begins with great words "We the people of India" and culminates in the creative expression "resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic". The people are the civil society and the Republic is the political state, the Preamble being the luminous functional expression of the modus operandi between these two concepts which must be in operational amity if chaos is not to mar human rights and cultural life. State is a political authority with legal mandates while the civil society is the people within the country, larger than and different from the state, though the former is created by the latter through an imperfect electoral process in a democratic republic. The media and NGOs are great mediators. The rule of law is created by the state; the rule of life is uneven flow of civil behaviour and makes up social order or disorder. The Indian state is currently a paragraph-anarchy operating through bureaucracy with its trinity of executive, parliamentary and judicial branches, while civil society can be and is at times uncivil and may behave as functional anarchy. No true Secular, Socialist, Democratic Republics operational unless civil society, as an orderly organism, gives broad backing to the state. Society is the ultimate voice and State has no higher final power save internecine war.
We, in India, as a people, made a tryst with destiny to set up a democratic republic with concern for the welfare of every member. So it, is paramount that the Republic and the states which form the Union are sensitive to the values of harmony, fraternity, and stability of the nation as a collective entity. If society is self divided, if there is clash between sections of the society, the state suffers in its representative might and right, and democracy diminishes or perishes. So, it is the utmost importance to preserve the homogeneity of the larger community lest the administration should fail in its fundamental obligations of good governance. Disruption of social coherence leads to political disunity and dismemberment when the break-up within the social fabric exceeds limits of the basic structure which brought the diverse strata or sectors constitutionally together. Society versus state, if it occurs, is a grave constitutional crisis. One should not permit the hijacking of society by global corporates who by tempting the glitterati, sell the soul of society to exploitative or communal forces. Here, political parties and social organs come into constructive play or destructive negativity.
The idea of civil society and its paramountcy has exploded onto the political scene sufficiently powerfully as to command the attention and activism of politicians and even of voluntary groups with goals at variance with the professions of the state and the rule of law. The covert revolt of micro-private tyrannies succeeds when, as in Third World countries particularly, the state fails to deliver justice in its social and cultural dimension. When the state ceases to matter, as a welfare power, corruption and purchase of state authority for entry into and buying up of markets becomes an open sesame for global economic forces. They build their own state within the state using money power and grand propaganda. Civil society is cracking up on communal, religious and regional lines. Sans civil society, the Union and the States become simulacrums. Insatiable appetites of the genteel nouveau riche corrupt lifestyles. Resistance groups, anti-pollution cells, paragraph violent organisations and private tyrannies multiply. On top of this social incoherence is transnational terrorism growing macro as the nation becomes micro and weaker through internal maladies. This unfortunate opportunity is fully exploited by the world’s superpower, the US.
If Indian democracy is to redeem its tryst with destiny, a creative protocol and code of ethics must become the vogue in public life. Consensus must be the rule of life, contentment of the lowliest the testament and the participative process the habit of governance. Democracy is incompatible with arbitrary fiat and dialogue is the means by which ends must be reached. The modus operandi of state and society must be an active sense of togetherness without which the best decision may be rejected. Within the state itself, a similar process is necessary lest clashes from within break out into open conflict. The rule of law and of life in a democratic society must evolve a viable harmony functionally involving all affected parties.
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