7/29/2019 Is India Fit for Democracy

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Is India fit for democracy

Having walked all way through the bridge, I saw an old man sitting at the end and babbling withhimself. I confronted him and asked, Baba why are you sitting here? He looked at me with hisclumsy eyes and perplexed expression and said, I am wondering what will I say when the NationalPopulation Statisticians will ask me my caste, I never thought myself to be something other than anIndian.

I was awestricken by his answer and realized how ill equipped our democracy was. Our country hasbeen developing rapidly economically but it still lags behind in the Social developments. When Chinastarted its economic reforms, India was a larger democracy. But now we are far behind the Chinese inalmost every aspect of development. Despite china being the most populated country in the world, ithas soared to the second fastest growing economy in the world behind Japan just on the model ofexport oriented growth. It has yet to tap its huge potential in the domestic market which is estimated toincrease its GDP by a quarter percent of the present growth.

In the paradigm of recent times, we generally come across different facets of our country with everypassing hour. From having the first mover advantage to being a laggard, we have redefined ourdemocracy in a more subtle way.

Now the thing to ponder is what is that they have done right and we have not? Despite being a

communist ruled country till date, their growth and advancement has been phenomenal. Mostimportantly I would say the lack of conviction on the part of the politicians have led to the downfall ofIndia. The division on the basis of Cast, Creed and Sex has inherently made this country a hollowdump of false hopes and promises. The most devastating and the prominent cause of this downfall ofdemocracy has been corruption which is so widely spread across the sectors in India. From theMinisters to the Peons, everybody has in some way or the other shown the signs of corruption whichhas stalled the progress of this nation. Now even the people of the country have lost faith in its leaderswhich can be accounted by low turnover of votes during the Elections. Nobody wants to get intoPolitics thinking it to be a manhole in which one who falls gets corrupted. The tonnes of Food Grainsthat are being left to rot in the stores depict the condition of democracy in India

A Communist or Military dominance would have augured well for the country seeing the present Stateof Affairs. The richer are becoming more rich and the Poorer and getting more poor. Is this the justiceof a democracy? My view says its certainly not. Its a strangulation of the core basis of democracy

which is equality of rights and freedom. The government should have certain consideration towards thelower section of the society to make this country a successful democracy. Just running the variousincentive schemes wont change the situation unless they are monitored and guided well. Theinfrastructure planning and execution should be on par with the proposal of the Planning Commissionfor a rapid growth. A change in the attitude and a more concrete way of taking responsibility andhandling issues can take this country to a higher level of democracy otherwise it will soon turn into acurse.

Tusheet Saraf