Future of Democracy in India

Future of Democracy in India

“Democracy must in essence … mean the art and science of mobilizing the entire physical, economic and spiritual resources of all the various sections of the people in the service of the common good of all.”-Mahatma Gandhi

The worthiest minds ever been born to this earth have described democracy as the best and optimum form of government even invented. In the simplest terms, democracy is described as the government of the people, by the people and for the people. The only form of government which establishes people’s participation in all its dimensions. The only form of government which gives the voters the right to ask questions and raise their voice against anything that appears unjust to their perspective. In democratic institutions, the members have complete say in making decisions, choosing their leaders and fighting for their rights. In fact, if we look on to the histories then we find no other form of government but democracy which has ever taken into consideration the principle of parity for all and this principle is in itself the flagship of democracy. It would not be a spurious thing to mention that democracy is currently the most revered and favoured form of government around the world. Today no matter how much progressive a nation is, but if it is not a democratic nation, it is sure to observe detrimental unrest which may even lead to its complete annihilation. A good example of this can be People’s Republic of China. Despite of being world’s second largest economy, only after the United States of America, the nation still deals with humongous disappointment of citizens over the government’s officious attitude and lack of basic fundamental rights etc. being given to them. The “Umbrella Revolution” is Hong Kong also defines the case very well. A huge mob came on road to protest against infringement in their basic fundamental rights (especially the right to choose their representative). The recent revolutions in nations like Egypt and Libya also signify a ground hunger around the world for democracy because with the dawn of literacy, technical and industrial revolutions, people are no longer interested in being dumb listeners but are showing a proclivity to be agile debaters and this is all what defines democracy.

DEMOCRACY IN INDIA

Despite of being a Greek concept, the first traces of democracy is found in India. In Rigveda, one of the most pious documents of Hinduism and probably the oldest piece of literature ever found, states the existence of republican bodies like Sabhas and Samities and even give description of concepts like Panchayat in the state of Magadha. Democracy was indeed embedded into India even before the invention of word “India”.

In India democracy plays an indispensable role. In fact, democracy is that revered concept which has equipped all the denizens of the nation with unbiased laws and statutes, fundamental rights like right to education, right to food etc. Today from a small panchayat election to Lok Sabha elections, every eligible voter has the right to cast his ballot in favour of whosoever he wants and this practice has inculcated a great sense of optimism and positivity in the hearts of the citizens of the nation and has given the denizens a sense of importance and propriety over their own nation.

India is today world’s largest democracy but the journey of the nation to achieve this milestone has never been easy. As I mentioned earlier, the principles of democracy existed in India even thousands of years back, but during the medieval period, when monarchies dominated the nation, people of the nation lost the sense of democracy and this ultimately led to the entry of britishers into the nation. Watching a lack of interest among the people in the decision making processes and weak rulers of the established dynasties, Britishers subdued the nation easily and for 200 more years we bore the brunt of British rule.

After 200 years of fight for freedom, when finally the British rule came to a halt and India was freed from its shackles, the dawn of independence brought with itself the much needed respite of “Democracy” to the Indian citizens and since then we never looked back.

Contemporarily democracy is nothing less than a boon for the denizens of the nation. Democracy in a nation like India, with a population of 1.252 billion, more than 780 languages; proves to be a binding thread for all the people around the nation. Today people of all castes and religions have the right to vote for their representative and even contest the election themselves, leading to participation of people in the political processes from different facets of life. The democracy in India has enabled us to have a Sikh Prime Minister, Muslim President and this is in itself a matter of pride for the whole nation.

Democracy has also led to assimilation of backward people into the main stream. Backward as well as impoverished people today get all those rights that the richest person in the nation holds. This is clear from the fact that our current Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi, who himself hails from a poor family and worked as a tea vendor during his childhood years, stands today as one of the most loved prime minister of the nation ever.

On the other hand democracy has also filliped the process of empowerment of women in the nation. Today even women of the nation are getting tantamount chances and opportunities to be involved in the decision making process of the nation. The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment in 1992-93 paved the way for the grassroot women participation in the local bodies. In fact, it’s a thing of great pride that one of our best and toughest prime ministers has been a woman, none other than Smt. Indira Gandhi.

 

FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY

 

In India future of democracy continues to be like the two faces of the same coin. Despite of so much achievements and successes in the past, still today we have not evolved as a completely successful and developed economy. Still, a lot of factors continue to act as impediments in our way to achieve success in this field.

 

Though people of the nation have seen a huge participation in democratic processes and penchant for democracy itself, still there are many factors which restrain us from becoming a paradigm of democracy.

 

On one hand we see a pretty bright future of democracy. With a literate, technologically savvy generation, which is ready to ask questions and hold their representatives accountable, the prospects of becoming a great democracy are high. But still a large proportion of the populations continue to be unlettered and this facet of Indian populations is completely apathetic and also unaware of the rights and benefits that democracy entitles them. India still continues to fare low in the net literacy rate. A large portion of the nation’s populations is still illiterate and doesn’t know the real value of democracy, and unfortunately the problems like corruption, nepotism, inequitable distribution of resources has exacerbated the problem my making this portion of populations unhappy and vexed at the current system of government in the nation.

This illiterate portion of the populations needs to be mended. Such people need to be told about their rights, their privileges which are guaranteed to them by democracy and these people should also be made about the virtues of democracy which gives them equal opportunities as others and also give them the right to rise their voice against an injustice done to them.

 

Besides this some candidates misuse their power. Huge sums of money are disbursed out by rich candidate to win elections. Large sums of money are shelled out in order to buy people’s vote and to win elections. Poor people are enticed to vote for one particular candidate by giving them money and this leads to huge cheating in the overall electioneering.

Through such processes rich candidates win elections unfairly thereby killing the spirit of democracy in the nation. Such processes need to be restrained with stiff actions.

Communalism too is a big problem in the elections. People are much like to vote for a person of their own caste rather than a person who can actually carry out progressive work in the area. Due to this factor, many parties have developed their vote banks and these parties take many unjust steps just to make their vote bank happy. Such practices lead to huge polarisation of vote to candidates who don’t deserve to win the elections. Some parties even wrongfully scare people of other parties on the issues of secularism and caste and this too yield huge problems in our way to achieve complete success in the field of democracy.

 

But still the torch of hope continues to remain alight. Huge participation of people in the recent elections of Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir notwithstanding threats from Maoists and terrorists lucidly exhibit that a large part of our populations has embraced democracy for good. Most of the people in the nation today are enjoy the perks of democracy but we need to still go a long way in order to take the benefits of democracy to each and every citizen of the nation. Though we have been able to prepare a paradigm hardware model of democracy, but our software still remains infected with a number of viruses which if not removed can allocate formidable problems, but still all in all Indian democracy has been, till now a successful experiment and has all the powers needed to emerge as one of the best democratic experiments in the world. What it needs is just some repair work.

 

JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT

JAI MA BHARTI