This 77th year of India’s independence, the present day politicians on the political arena are either second generation or third generation politicians, who have neither shed blood nor sweated for the Independence of the country, but have enjoyed the fruits of its Independence and the Nation’s ethos calls for a review of the Indian democracy,
Democratic governance is expected to follow principles of greater participation, equality, security and human development. People have to have a say in decisions of the decision-makers to ensure that, people are free from discrimination and the values of freedom, respect for human rights and the principle of holding periodic and genuine elections by universal suffrage are real and practiced genuinely.
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The process of democratisation begins with the selection of People’s Representative, who have the responsibility, primarily to take care of the welfare of the people. The fact that these representatives are elected for a fixed term (5 years) meant that their primary responsibility is to deal with people’s present and immediate problem and find solutions to such problems. The failure of the elected representatives to find remedies for the present and immediate problems of the people are not just a ‘governance failure’ but undermines, their legal and ethical rights to continue as the People’s Representative.
Democracy gets slaughtered when wrong people get elected. Democratic leadership should emerge from the people of that constituency, that’s is why they are called “People’s representatives “and not Party representatives”.
The whole processes of elections are concocted and tuned to favour the rich, the powerful and the criminally oriented, due to the presence and dominance of political parties. Look how they select candidates or give party tickets to candidates, the proclaimed criteria are “winnability”.
What constitutes this “winnability” criteria:
Not, that the candidate has served the people of that constituency or did some good work which has benefited the people of the constituency, but the considerations are, that the candidate has pots of money to spend for the election, so that the touts could distribute money or goods or favour to voters, or that, the candidate has strong criminal records, so that he could terrorise or threaten voters to vote for him or that, he belongs to a particular caste/community and majority of the voters in that constituency are from the same community or caste and touts could propagate this caste information or create communal divide often by creating a false phobia that their caste or community are under threat and needs to be saved/protected.
India has seen many a times, these kinds of political considerations. The political parties and political pundits do use such criterions to predict outcome of elections. By this processes, the system is geared to elect the wrong candidates, who do not deserve to be representatives of the people. A process that nips democracy at the budding itself.
Then comes the voting process, there is a constitutional authority, the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commission of India. India has been using EVMs for more than a decade, despite, there being many questions about the authenticity and tamper proofness of EVMs.
At the press conference before the 18th Lok Sabha elections, the voters were expecting the Election Commission to declare an assurance that every vote will be properly accounted for and counted, but such an assurance did not happen.
People’s apprehensions were further compounded, when, in Writ Petition (C) No. 434 of 2023 & Ors, the Supreme Court also did not insist on such an assurance from the Election Commission.
With technological advancement, use of CCTV, wireless communication etc, we are living in the days, when GPS, can track movements of aeroplanes, trains, buses and even individuals, why ballot paper use could not be monitored?
The recent news about discrepancy in number of votes polled and votes counted in 538 constituencies in Lok Sabha polls if true is a threat to democracy.
The next process is of course, the formation of the ministry, who decides this? Despite all the hue and cry, these decisions are often taken by a coterie of the party boss, absolutely no democracy, the elected members have no say in this but has to agree, otherwise they stand, the risk of being thrown out of the party, they call it party disciple, but in reality, it’s nothing but authoritarianism.
A fact no one inside or outside the party will admit, but it’s an undeniable truth. Leave alone the selection of ministers, consider the selection processes. Competence and capabilities are least of the considerations, it’s almost akin to selection of candidates for a constituency. Because of this, in areas like, education, health and even environment and human development, India has very little to boast about. The end result, India remains, poorer and poorer, resources are misused, misappropriated, the environment is damaged beyond redemption.
India, happens to be a Nation blessed with diverse talents and super intelligence and expertise in almost every field of knowledge. The failure of the existing democratic system to attract them to place their expertise to Nation’s use, is a destruction of democracy, as honest and sincere people shy away from this game full of treachery, deceit, crowned with hypocrisy.
It would be untruth to say that all politicians are of this nature, there are but few who are sincere, intelligent and cares for the welfare of the Nation and wellbeing of its people, but they are far and few, their voice and concerns are just a whimper in the chaos and noise created by the crafty and the cunning, whose endeavour is to enrich themselves by whatever means possible and that too quickly. Earlier Sri Lanka and now Bangladesh has shown how authoritarianism and self-interest destroys democracy.
John Adams rightly remarked that “Government is instituted for the common good: for the protection, safety prosperity and happiness of the people: and not for profit, honour, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men.”
(The writer is a Professor of Law & an education consultant)
