As we step into the 70th year of Independence, it is important that we as a nation, reflect upon the path we have chosen. India is a democratic country, means, we the citizens choose our Government and other elected representatives. While India should always remain a democracy, it is vital that political power achieved through democracy is safeguarded from people who abuse it.
During every election, we hear people vouch for democracy, emphasizing why we must vote. Yes! Voting is our right. And the majority of us do exercise this right because we believe that the power in the hands of a common man is his right to vote. But thereafter what? Isn't it true that the democratic power vested in the common man begins and ends with casting a vote?
Well, we may hope that people whom we elected, for local bodies to state assemblies and parliament as representatives at various levels of the Government, would voice our concerns and work on behalf of us. But without any ambiguity, we also know that many of these representatives make their presence felt, only when they come seeking votes. Once an election campaign starts, in days we will find them knocking our doors, polite and smiling, with an entourage of flag holding followers, asking us to vote for them. But soon, post elections they become distant stars in a flying fleet of SUVs, appearing only on television debates upon every nightfall.
India is the largest democracy in the world. Through our votes, we the collective of 1.3 billion people, empower a handful of people to represent us for the next five years in our respective states and at the center. But what makes this handful of people qualified to represent a mammoth population of 1.3 billion people? Are they better than the rest of the billion in terms of knowledge, work, and efficiency? We don't have a system to evaluate their performance other than popular belief, which they easily win through self-propaganda - declaring themselves as the saviors of the common public. We too don't think sometimes. It's democracy. We don't need saviors.
We know that it's popular votes that get them elected. In democracy majority triumphs. Sometimes majority can err too. When we call unqualified doctors without a proper medical degree as quacks, should we not be calling politicians who are not qualified, as quacks too? When we need administrators selected through civil service exams, how is that we settle for politicians, some of whom lack even basic educational qualification? Let's leave education, after all, it is not comprehensive, but to be qualified to represent people, should they not have knowledge derived through experience with some minimum tenure of serving people at the grass root levels?
In a democracy, political life should not become a career choice for individuals to earn power and wealth. But what happens, in reality, is power no longer rests in the hands of the common man, as he votes and passes it on to a select few. Under the guise of democracy, political parties create parallel power structures and wrest control over the entire government mechanism to pursue their personal ambitions unchallenged. In this covert power play, propaganda plays an important role. Some politicians don't fail to call themselves, 'servants of the public'. Well! They needn't be servants. It sounds akin to slavery. They just have to be efficient laborers in executing their assigned duties and be like peers, whom we can reach easily to carry forward our ideas and concerns to the councils, assemblies, and parliament.
Unfortunately, even after 69 years of independent rule, what we have today is only a romanticized idea of democracy and not a fully functional flawless democracy. Ideally, no nation sports a flawless democracy. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't aspire for one. Minimum what we need is an accountable democracy, where there are clear metrics to adjudge and evaluate politicians, and stringent laws that will demotivate individuals seeking 'people power' to fulfill their vested interests, from entering politics. It's not that there are no good politicians in our country, sadly, they are outnumbered by people with criminal antecedents, to whom we are forced to bend and kneel. Our democracy should replace such politicians with honest and efficient people willing to work for the people.
As we enter this new year of independence, we need a new era of democracy. Perhaps, a political reform bill could be our first step.
During every election, we hear people vouch for democracy, emphasizing why we must vote. Yes! Voting is our right. And the majority of us do exercise this right because we believe that the power in the hands of a common man is his right to vote. But thereafter what? Isn't it true that the democratic power vested in the common man begins and ends with casting a vote?
Well, we may hope that people whom we elected, for local bodies to state assemblies and parliament as representatives at various levels of the Government, would voice our concerns and work on behalf of us. But without any ambiguity, we also know that many of these representatives make their presence felt, only when they come seeking votes. Once an election campaign starts, in days we will find them knocking our doors, polite and smiling, with an entourage of flag holding followers, asking us to vote for them. But soon, post elections they become distant stars in a flying fleet of SUVs, appearing only on television debates upon every nightfall.
India is the largest democracy in the world. Through our votes, we the collective of 1.3 billion people, empower a handful of people to represent us for the next five years in our respective states and at the center. But what makes this handful of people qualified to represent a mammoth population of 1.3 billion people? Are they better than the rest of the billion in terms of knowledge, work, and efficiency? We don't have a system to evaluate their performance other than popular belief, which they easily win through self-propaganda - declaring themselves as the saviors of the common public. We too don't think sometimes. It's democracy. We don't need saviors.
We know that it's popular votes that get them elected. In democracy majority triumphs. Sometimes majority can err too. When we call unqualified doctors without a proper medical degree as quacks, should we not be calling politicians who are not qualified, as quacks too? When we need administrators selected through civil service exams, how is that we settle for politicians, some of whom lack even basic educational qualification? Let's leave education, after all, it is not comprehensive, but to be qualified to represent people, should they not have knowledge derived through experience with some minimum tenure of serving people at the grass root levels?
In a democracy, political life should not become a career choice for individuals to earn power and wealth. But what happens, in reality, is power no longer rests in the hands of the common man, as he votes and passes it on to a select few. Under the guise of democracy, political parties create parallel power structures and wrest control over the entire government mechanism to pursue their personal ambitions unchallenged. In this covert power play, propaganda plays an important role. Some politicians don't fail to call themselves, 'servants of the public'. Well! They needn't be servants. It sounds akin to slavery. They just have to be efficient laborers in executing their assigned duties and be like peers, whom we can reach easily to carry forward our ideas and concerns to the councils, assemblies, and parliament.
Unfortunately, even after 69 years of independent rule, what we have today is only a romanticized idea of democracy and not a fully functional flawless democracy. Ideally, no nation sports a flawless democracy. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't aspire for one. Minimum what we need is an accountable democracy, where there are clear metrics to adjudge and evaluate politicians, and stringent laws that will demotivate individuals seeking 'people power' to fulfill their vested interests, from entering politics. It's not that there are no good politicians in our country, sadly, they are outnumbered by people with criminal antecedents, to whom we are forced to bend and kneel. Our democracy should replace such politicians with honest and efficient people willing to work for the people.
As we enter this new year of independence, we need a new era of democracy. Perhaps, a political reform bill could be our first step.