DEMOCRACY- A FAILED MODEL, ELECTION RESULTS
The recent Assembly election results are a big surprise to all of us. The Congress has won 3 out of 5 states and that too decisively.
Right from the very start, when i started writing my blog, i was of the firm opinion that democracy is not suitable for India, where there are many religions, multi-caste system and languages. People in all parts of India think and act differently, limited to their regions and on the basis of vote bank politics, created by the politicians for their vested interests. We don't think like an Indian as we are Punjabis, Marathis, Gujaraties etc. first. The politicians have successfully rooted in our mindset about which religion or caste we belong to. They have successfully divided the country on " Divide and Rule " policy learnt accurately from the British Raj and have perfected the art.
We adopted democracy immediately after independence and copied British system of working, e.g. bureacracy, judiciary and the executive, ditto on the same lines as theirs. But there the similarity ends. Britishers are an educated lot and know the real meaning of vibrant democracy, but in India our politicians use democracy as a tool to govern people on the lines of religion, caste and region. After more than 60 years of independence, majority of our people are still poor and uneducated. They tend to vote en- masse as directed by the local sarpanch or for the reasons mentioned above.
Every state has to provide security to its people from whom taxes are collected in various forms. Corruption, red-tapism, development come later. It's only when you survive, you talk of corruption and other issues. A dead man has no meaning for the above. After Mumbai terror attack, i was quite convinced that people will reject Congress and throw it away to bring change, ( not that i am a BJP sympathiser. They are equal partners in vote bank politics ). In this context rural-urban divide comes in the open. Whereas urban areas are quite prone to terror attacks, rural areas are quite safer as far as terror strikes are concerned. What holds good for the rural areas, may not necessarily be good for urban areas and visa-versa.
The uneducated people are the real voters who swing the tide towards a particular party. They still remain isolated and ill informed what happens in the urban areas. I am sure, they dont even know about terror strikes, specially Mumbai terror attack, which was a watershed. Most of them have no access to newspapers, as they are uneducated and if there is a TV also, it is only the govt. controlled Doordarshan, to whom they have access to. Even if they are well informed about terror, then it becomes more confusing, as it leads to 2 Indias which are disconnected.
The Congress will emerge emboldended and would be happy that their founding fathers have gifted them with democracy, which is irrrelevant today, in the true sense. I am sure the intelligence and the police force, which was on the verge of being overhauled by the Congress govt. will remain on paper and nothing concrete will emerge to change the system. Congress is aware that people's memory is short ( we forgot Mumbai terror attack in 10 days ) and nothing can stop them from getting votes from their loyal vote banks. People of our country will be again taken for a ride and Congress will take them for granted and many more terror attacks will keep on happening and thousands of them will keep on getting maimed.
If the right signal would have been sent to the Congress by our voters by rejecting them in elections, our politicians surely would have learnt their lessons.
It is time to introspect, what system can replace democracy, which has become a dirty word in India, suited for all sections of the society, suited for Indian conditions which should be inclusive. But who will bell the cat as democracy as it stands today, suits both Congress, BJP and other parties.
Right from the very start, when i started writing my blog, i was of the firm opinion that democracy is not suitable for India, where there are many religions, multi-caste system and languages. People in all parts of India think and act differently, limited to their regions and on the basis of vote bank politics, created by the politicians for their vested interests. We don't think like an Indian as we are Punjabis, Marathis, Gujaraties etc. first. The politicians have successfully rooted in our mindset about which religion or caste we belong to. They have successfully divided the country on " Divide and Rule " policy learnt accurately from the British Raj and have perfected the art.
We adopted democracy immediately after independence and copied British system of working, e.g. bureacracy, judiciary and the executive, ditto on the same lines as theirs. But there the similarity ends. Britishers are an educated lot and know the real meaning of vibrant democracy, but in India our politicians use democracy as a tool to govern people on the lines of religion, caste and region. After more than 60 years of independence, majority of our people are still poor and uneducated. They tend to vote en- masse as directed by the local sarpanch or for the reasons mentioned above.
Every state has to provide security to its people from whom taxes are collected in various forms. Corruption, red-tapism, development come later. It's only when you survive, you talk of corruption and other issues. A dead man has no meaning for the above. After Mumbai terror attack, i was quite convinced that people will reject Congress and throw it away to bring change, ( not that i am a BJP sympathiser. They are equal partners in vote bank politics ). In this context rural-urban divide comes in the open. Whereas urban areas are quite prone to terror attacks, rural areas are quite safer as far as terror strikes are concerned. What holds good for the rural areas, may not necessarily be good for urban areas and visa-versa.
The uneducated people are the real voters who swing the tide towards a particular party. They still remain isolated and ill informed what happens in the urban areas. I am sure, they dont even know about terror strikes, specially Mumbai terror attack, which was a watershed. Most of them have no access to newspapers, as they are uneducated and if there is a TV also, it is only the govt. controlled Doordarshan, to whom they have access to. Even if they are well informed about terror, then it becomes more confusing, as it leads to 2 Indias which are disconnected.
The Congress will emerge emboldended and would be happy that their founding fathers have gifted them with democracy, which is irrrelevant today, in the true sense. I am sure the intelligence and the police force, which was on the verge of being overhauled by the Congress govt. will remain on paper and nothing concrete will emerge to change the system. Congress is aware that people's memory is short ( we forgot Mumbai terror attack in 10 days ) and nothing can stop them from getting votes from their loyal vote banks. People of our country will be again taken for a ride and Congress will take them for granted and many more terror attacks will keep on happening and thousands of them will keep on getting maimed.
If the right signal would have been sent to the Congress by our voters by rejecting them in elections, our politicians surely would have learnt their lessons.
It is time to introspect, what system can replace democracy, which has become a dirty word in India, suited for all sections of the society, suited for Indian conditions which should be inclusive. But who will bell the cat as democracy as it stands today, suits both Congress, BJP and other parties.
posted by vaneet kundra at
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
4 Comments:
I too was shocked to see the early trends and the final results of the Polls. The largest Democracy, or so as it is called, in the world seems to be heading for a failure, slowly, but surely. Before it leads to total chaos and a civil war, something needs to be done! Yes, but who will bell the cat? Since the Govt. of the day (and past ones too)have pledged to eradicate illitaracy, should we not start campaigning vigorously for disallowing people not educated up to X Std. at least, from not only contesting elections, but also from casting their vote as they don't understand what Democracy, Legislation and governance is all about. We have faultered since Independence by getting representatives (to legislate and Govern) to be elected by the un-educated class, just because of defining every adult's right to vote in the constitution. Does it have any meaning. If it had, we wouldn't have seen democratic norms being degraded as they are today.
Dear Cdr Khilari,
It is very difficult for us, individuals to launch some kind of drive , campaign to correct things in India. I have attended the FRNV summit for consequetively 2 days. I heard the eminent speakers and happen to interact with some of them too. Kindly go thru the details of discussions and deliberations held at the summit. I have sent you the mail already. It seems, FRNV, with eminent people on advisory panel like Ratan Tata, E. Sridharan, Chief Justice of India, CVC and many other eminent people as speakers like Kiran Bedi, means business. I was quite surprised to see an open rejection of the bureacracy and the politicians. They have pledged to get the system back on tracks, admitting too, that it is a long process, but the 1st step, in the shape of open discussion in the summit has taken place. I see hope in FRNV as we dont have any other platform in sight. I request you to become a member of FRNV by going to its site. I will recommend your name. Swami Bhoominananda is the driving force.
It was shocking to see the results of the polls. What has happened to the people of our nation??they have become slaves or what to these so calld "country savers"after the attacks one thought everyone will vote sensibly but....
Dear Lavi,
If we would have been sensible, the situation we are in, never would have happened. Now, since we have woken up, better late than never, We should wake up people around us too, specially our maids, servants, drivers, domestic help, whomever, so that they can start spreading the word around what is good and bad for them. These are real voters.
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