We never failed to talk about the greatness of this democracy, conveniently forgetting all the mishaps it has done to our Nation so far.
Oops.. what have I just said... Talking anti-democracy? Opposing people's rule?
What the hell is this democracy?
Simply to put, I can decide my own leader like me if the majority of others thinks the same then that person can become the ruler. Now, what is a flip side?
The flip side lies in these questions,
What makes me choose this guy?
What this guy should do to make me feel that he is a formidable leader for me?
Will I choose the same guy again for his second term? What should he do to sustain my opinion on him for his second term?
If there is a guy whom I have ignored in one election, what he should do to get my support for him in the next election?
Below are some games played almost often to gather the support of a common man...
1. Invoke discriminatory sentiment! Be it racial! Be it Religious! Be it Casteist! Can you invoke the sentiments of a certain group of people, based on any discriminatory term, it may be their caste or religion or race, then you are a formidable candidate to become a leader.
2. Allegate! Be a critic! Just blame! Be a spoiler! Having proof for the allegation is immaterial! There is a saying, "Its hard to make than to break". So choose the easy way, Break! No matter what! Have you seen someone just comes out in public and claims that someone in power is corrupt, but never goes to court and fight against him legally, then that guy falls this category.
3. Play socialist! The idea of Karl Marx is so intense that at one stage, almost half of the countries in the world claimed themselves to be a socialist country, most of which were autocratic communism. Then, where is the place for socialism in Democracy?
For Example, if someone is building a dam, there will be two section of the people those who gets affected due to the project and those who gets the benefit of the project. You go and stand with the people who looses the land for the dam (those who gets affected) and say that you will not allow the dam being built, which will affect the livelihood of the people, conveniently forgetting about the major section of the people who are going to get benefitted out of that dam.
Here, a genuine socialist can stand in both the places. To and fro of the dam. But an Indian politician who is not in power, if he is opportunistic, will always stand against the plan.
Why? When the dam is built, the people who are getting affected will be pretty obvious. Whereas, when built, the people who get benefits and the quantum of benefit is not so obvious.
4. Speak Out load! A speaker, no matter whether you do it or not, will always have the hallucinatory advantage of your speech.
Now, accessing the above four points given, we can relate almost all of our politicians in any of these four categories. If not for these qualities, will the leader be able to make an imprint on people mind? Do we still think democracy can really make this country great?
I would still say YES! It can. If we people think and assess people based on their performance and not on their politics.
Simply to put "Play the game, not the player!!". If the issue at a larger scale is good for the country, support it and if not and it harms the country on the whole,
oppose it. Those who put the Nation first, support them. And those who put their politics first, ignore them.
We have seen wonderful politicians, but unfortunately, those genuine and wonderful people are more too genuine, which had made a very high benchmark for the politician.
He need not be as good as those holy guys, but let he be active enough to make things happen with a stern objective of raising this nation.
Can you relate any current day politician with this quality? Tell me in the comments section!
1 comment:
Good effort to write something about democracy. Let me put my views and comments here. To me democracy is a larger term with wider scope and meaning. The context you wrote here is more about electoral democracy. There is no alternative to democracy and its always a boon. And you have put good points about working of Indian electoral democracy. I agree that we have a long way to go and we are still at its infants stage and we have growth pain. 60-70 years for a country is so small if you look at democratic history of the world(eg: U.S democratic system took centuries to stabilize).
Now coming to your listed points about politicians: Politicians are coming from our own society. I remember this quote- "In a democracy people get the leader/govt they deserve". As a society we have to mature a lot to get some good leaders. I know its a feedback loop. For eg: caste/religion is deep rooted in Indian minds and politicians just making use of it. You have mentioned about dam construction example. There is an alternative to this model. That is called inclusive development/growth. I will quote another short example. In France people in a particular region will lobby for construction of nuclear reactor in their area(we know what happened in koodamkulam). Reason being they will get more benefited from this than anyone else.This idea we have never understood and development in India always means sidelining poorest section of society and its always crony capitalism(just google for how much is adani gained after modi govt:).
I don't believe any single leader can solve problems of India. What we need is a systems which would strengthen democracy, a system which would make most corrupt person in govt: is helpless and can't do any corruption. A system which bring transparency in governance. I see positive signs interms of RTI, e-governance, etc.
Also number of constitutional reforms are pending before the govt: and court.
1) police reforms(2006 SC direction is still pending before govt)
2. Judicial reforms
3) Strong lokpal
4) Strengthen panchanyath raj. and lot more
And what common people can do is to act as a pressure group to take govt to task.
- Kamal
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