Democracy or Hypocrisy ???

I remember the days when my school principal used to take lectures on Indian history and Politics – how we fought for the freedom, how we established a democratic form of government and how our constitution declares India to be a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic. To be frank, i never understood what these technical terms used to mean. I remember by-hearting the seven fundamental rights without having understood their significance. Like any other child , I was more bothered about my grades and those “very goods” and “stars” on my mark sheets.

Let me remind u people of the popular 2 marks questions often asked in our Unit Tests .. which are now going to serve as guidelines in understanding this post ..

Q) What is Democracy ?

Ans) Democracy is a government “of the people, by the people and for the people”.

Q) State our Fundamental rights ?

Ans) There are seven Fundamental Rights and they are as follows ..

1. The right to equality
2. The right to freedom of speech and expression
3. The right to freedom from exploitation
4. The right to freedom of religion
5. Cultural and educational rights
6. The right to constitutional remedies
7. The right to education

In those innocent and naive days of my life everything about India seemed very beautiful and perfect. Whenever i used to recite those seven fundamental rights .. I used to feel very secure as a citizen of India since our constitution ensures us justice in all ways.

But today as i grew into an individual of rational ideas and with the increasing exposure to the reality which contradicts the way i pictured it has made me very critical of certain basics of our government.

We claim ours is the biggest democracy in the world. I seriously question the authenticity of this statement. I have very high regards for the system of democracy as it is the best possible form of government ever conceived by human beings. But, unfortunately i feel our government is anything but democracy, in a true sense.

I have been going through this book called “Discovery of India” written by Jawaharlal Nehru, to understand the purpose of our leaders in choosing democracy over other forms of government. I found the sole purpose was to ensure “FREEDOM” to every citizen of India. The result of the pursuit of this freedom was our constitution. This is clearly evident in our Fundamental rights.

But lets talk of reality now .. the political gamble begins like this …

Elections are announced. All the wealthy, powerful and higher caste candidates bid their amount in order to get a ticket. The highest bidder is given the ticket. The next highest bidder leaves the party, joins another party and if everything turns out well, he gets a ticket there , else he would start denouncing the party in the media as a part of fame game. As the remaining bidders having nothing much to do, sulk sitting at a corner.

Political parties release the list of candidates participating in the elections claiming every sect of people is given equal opportunity ( this is a clear breach of first fundamental right of equality ). Also, ” Wealthy, powerful and higher caste” .. are clearly “Plutocracy, autocracy and oligarchy” forms of government respectively but definitely NOT democracy.

Then, each candidate starts campaigning for the election. He completely exploits the “The Right to Freedom of speech and expression” by throwing long and resentful tirades at the opposition party. He may also exploit the religious and regional differences among the people and convert them into his vote banks. That’s a clear violation of “The Right to freedom from exploitation”. Then all the parties are accused of corruption which is today a kind of norm practiced in every field in our country, so decided not talk of it here.

Biggest flaw in this system is .. people are forced to elect one among the given list of candidates. If democracy claims that its a government of the people and by the people .. then i demand people’s participation in zeroing in the candidates itself. This can be done by conducting public discussions and pre-election polls through the media.

Anyways, in the end, a single party or 2-3 parties pair up to gain the majority, win the elections and the government is set up. Then the ministries are given to the favorites of the head of the party. That’s nepotism not democracy again. Then the government strategically forgets all the promises it made “for the people” and the so called leaders start fleecing the public money for the next five years to recuperate their losses occurred in the elections.

The bottom line is .. the present system cannot be called democracy, It is a shameful hybrid of plutocracy, autocracy, oligarchy, nepotism, kleptocracy and blah blah blah. Then why do we claim that ours is a biggest democracy .. isn’t it hypocrisy ???

The present system might have served its purpose 2-3 decades ago but the times have changed from then – levels of corruption have increased enormously. Since change is inevitable, i believe its high time some stringent changes have to be made to the current system in order to substantiate the integrity of our constitution which was put forth by the motivation of true democracy and the freedom it ensures.

Only suggestion i would like to make is .. Be honest and stick to the definition of democracy .. Increase people's participation in the elections and in forming the government. Lets buck up and help India in becoming the worlds best democracy.

P. S :

I might have hurt few ppl’s emotions by calling our good old democracy a hypocrisy, also i have been very critical .. but i didn’t intend to insult the system of democracy .. i am just hurt with the present system.