DEMOCRACY-II

  India is the largest democracy in the world. Democracy is toppled by largest number of population in here. Representative democracy is practiced in India. That is the rule of representatives of the people. How the Indian democracy is closer to real democracy? We will see one by one.

1.    Right to life and personal liberty

Article 21 of the Constitution provides for the right to life and personal liberty. This is the widest interpreted article in India. It includes every fundamental right. Unless by the procedure established by law, Article 21 cannot be taken away,ie.. a citizen shall not be denied the right in normal circumstances. Even the taking away of the right to life and personal liberty is widely protested by many NGOs worldwide.  Almost 90 countries of the world have abolished Capital Puishment from their penal laws.

Indian right to life and personal liberty is not complete in this way.     

2.    Right to expression

It is the funniest part in India. Article 19 of the constitution guarantees the right to expression. But people, this is the most restricted right in India. The restrictions are Sedition, Contempt and Defamation etc. The terms Sedition, Contempt and defamation are not properly defined anywhere in the constitution. You know the ultimate consequences.

Even if the government allows the freedom of expression, it is not easy to exercise it because of the structural problem in India. We can’t express our opinions on religions and castes. Because it is sensitive. But sensitive to whom? To some religious fundamentals, fanatics and hardcore believers. Expecting the rumbles from that wing, the speakers have to shut their mouths. God! Such an intolerance! The religious people have to put their religions to test-it should be open to debate upon. Really religion is an Opium of masses.

Do you really think, my degree of writing is this? No! not really!  

3.    Right to adult suffrage

Indian adult suffrage is excellent-even better than other democracies. With the present EVM system, counting votes is made easier-despite e-waste due to the elections.

4.    Recall system

Recall system is the system that empowers the people to call their representatives back for his poor performance. This is a perfect democratic tool which ensures performance of the representatives. Recall system is not practiced in many countries. It is practiced in USA in all states barring a few. In India, you cannot even dream this system for the next 100 years. If it is brought; the majority caste of the constituency will be the superpower. This tool will loose its genuinity if introduced in India as of now.

Indian population is not civilized yet. They have castes, religions and various other divisions. They cannot get out of this mess for another thousand years. Development can make them civilized. But who is reinforcing religions and castes nowadays? It is only the civilized- educated- political nethas.

5.    Referendums, Plebiscites etc-on government decisions.

This is also a distant dream in India. If these tool were introduced in Kashmir we could have maintained peaceful relations with our northwestern neighbor.

6.    Limited terms in magistracies/ public offices.

Indian constitution have not limited the terms of any of the public Offices.

For a smooth functioning of democracy, it is desired that the citizens are literates. Rather educated. They should know what is happening in the government. They should opin to the government decisions-give ideas-capsize the government when the need arises. They should come to streets against the evil leadership. There should be no lines or less lines across them with lesser population.  

If the desired qualifications are not present in a country, still democracy can work. See how India works. But it is not true democracy. Rather it is the ‘Elitist Democracy’ as Pareto says. We elect only the elites again and again. We have no other choice. This or that. Corrupt or more corrupt. They can also have a deal between them for musical chairing of Power.

This is the global phenomenon. Labour and conservative in UK, Republican and democratic in USA, BJP and congress in India…… everywhere.

THIS IS NOT DEMOCRACY. THIS IS NOT TRUE DEMOCRACY.

We have the international Watchdog for democracy-the great USA. Somebody should advise the American leadership not to interfere in a country’s political philosophy.

Because you know-Political philosophy is an evolving subject-internationally.

We will discuss a lot about Indian democracy in the forthcoming essays.