26. Domestic Political Strategy for the Seventies
As CITIZENS OF our young republic, everyone of us is very much involved in the sustenance of the broader values that govern our political system. Not to be so involved is to retreat from responsibility. Only a small section of people can at any time take part in active politics, but in order that there may be a lively interplay of political forces, there has to be a wider audience of well-informed and discriminating citizens who are committed to the upholding of the basic principles and institutions of the political system. Where such citizenry is absent or is indifferent to the crucial issues of the body politic, democracy is in danger of being supplanted by authoritarian values. Among the many tasks of a politician in a democracy perhaps none is so important as to keep alive and to strengthen this alert, discriminating and well-informed discussion of issues of public policy.
When we think of the kind of broad policies we should follow in the seventies, we have immediately before us a number of questions. The most important of these questions is : strategy for what, and for whom? There are many related questions. What are the factors that govern such a strategy? What is the social and economic environment in which this strategy will have to operate? What kind of conflicts will the strategy seek to resolve? And what will be the appropriate tactics?
The same thing can be put in another way to focus attention on these problems. Why has it become necessary at all to think of a strategy for the seventies? Is it merely because the sixties are ending and another decade, with its quota of problems, will be upon us soon? In other words, is it a mere chronological exercise? Or is it because we think, or at least have a vague feeling, that the seventies should be, while keeping a fundamental continuity with the post-independence developments, a period of decisive change? Is it basically a question of emphasis on certain selected areas of effort, or are the seventies going to witness fundamentally different kind of changes?
