In recent days, three photographs have received wide publicity. They tell an interesting story about the nature of Indian democracy. We normally moan about the failures of our politics by quoting statistics, commenting on executive silences, lamenting judicial inaction, or analysing harmful policy impacts. Rarely do we refer to a photograph to make a political point. Yet, these three photographs are very telling in what they reveal about our democracy. Over the years we have resisted being described as a ‘flawed democracy’, or a ‘developing democracy, or even as just an electoral democracy (in preference to its alternative an electoral autocracy) and have indicated that the appellation we are happy with is the world’s largest democracy. But this appellation does not tell us much about our evolution as a democratic nation.
In Maharashtra
The three photographs do. Limited as they are, they give us abundant material for critical discussion. The first photograph is of Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari stuffing the mouth of Eknath Shinde, the newly sworn-in Chief Minister of Maharashtra, with a mithai. We have seen party presidents, in celebration, stuff the mouths of Chief Minister-designates with ladoos. This is to be expected, even normal, in our new political Parampara. But when a Governor happily did so, many of us raised our eyebrows not sure about its acceptability. Are Governors not expected to be equidistant between winning and losing candidates? Does the impartiality of office require no public display of excessive joy by the Governor unless it is to establish the legitimacy of the constitutional process? Is a handshake enough for this display or perhaps a namaste, but stuffing the victor’s mouth with a ladoo? Is that right? Over the years one has not seen many photographs of Governors stuffing the mouth of new office bearers with ladoos. None really. This was a rare photograph.
