Thomas Jefferson, the third US president, once said” A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine”. Absolute freedom is a myth, a grand delusion, a perversion of reality and an ideal state of being. In reality, it’s all about choosing a few out a larger group of people to rule over us. And when talking in India’s context, everyone in the group gets a chance, alternately. Infect, sometimes, the ruler might not be chosen by the people at all. So in a democracy, a ruler might be appointed or anointed. One argument usually given in the favor of democracy is that people are given the freedom of choice. So we get to appoint the people who would later anoint the leader.
Democracy is as much as about freedom of thought and expression as about freedom of choosing the government. Freedom of thought is safe as we are yet to find a way to control the human mind. But the freedom of expression was always containable and hence is blatantly curbed by the megalomaniac leaders on dubious grounds. Public portals like social networking sites and blogs are the prime targets. While content hosting websites like Google and social networking sites like Facebook and twitter are almost routinely asked to remove or block certain sites, pages or images on grounds of defamation of ministers and the government, the less popular Indian news websites are always ignored where the comments made by the anonymous public on our executives are even more direct and abominable. Hence it is clear that, for our leaders, it’s more about proving their might than salvaging their reputation.
Democracy is about justice to all. But justice is a term relative in nature. What is just for one is unjust for someone else. And the balance scale of justice is always a bit heavier on the side of the plutocrats and bureaucrats. So justice is delivered but only to a particular faction. The ingenuous crowd of commoners is rather perceived as a large population, growth of which is needed to be controlled or capped and justice to whom can be denied as per convenience of those delivering it.
Democracy is about equality. This perhaps is the biggest paradox of the Indian governance system which believes in bringing equality in the society by giving unequal chances to different sections to grow, compete and succeed.
Democracy is not just the presence of right to exercise the franchise but also the opportunity to make a choice of a leader who is worth it. A democracy can’t take pride in having a transparent electoral process if the candidates for the elections are being put up in an opaque manner and the people are forced a make a choice out of the same old, curmudgeon politicians who represent none but are nevertheless at the helm of the affairs due to lack of options.
Democracy has to be dynamic in nature where new ways of ensuring better representation of the people must evolve continuously and the political leaders must aim to improve on the existing system. However, what we have is a tottering system which is held together not by the virtue of its inherent strengths but the unwillingness of the citizens to bring about a change. The system is so stable that it has become almost moribund.
It is clear that we are living in a pseudo democratic nation where the prime object of those in power is to remain in power and those who are not in power strive to snatch this power by hook or by crook. Welfare of state is the most talked about subject and the most ignored as well. If the names of the sitting MPs and ministers are the by – words for scorn and opprobrium for all wrong reason and the law enforcement agencies are being managed by those who consider themselves above law, it is clear that something has gone seriously wrong with the system which was established for the people and by the people and was supposed to be of the people.
So if the established order is falling apart and the country is reeling with discontent among the disengaged masses,, what is to be done to contain the situation? It took a civil war for the Americans to establish the nation as it today. UK took three civil wars to get the governance it now enjoys. Even the Russians had to take a great economic and political fall to get a more democratic and pro-people system in place. Maybe it’s time that we shed our fears and commit ourselves to a cause without thinking of the repercussions which would inevitably be many. Any revolution would have an economic, social and political cost. But the cost of not doing anything might be even greater, much greater.