DailyPost 2430
BRAND DEMOCRACY
Democracy as a mechanism to represent people and transition them as indirect rulers for their own welfare and the growth of the nation has been the biggest achievement of creating a functional state. Compared to any other system of rule / government, it the best to date. All other systems look puny in front of this robust system. It has brought people at the centre of our governance and they remain the thread of our political existence end to end. It is for this reason that most of the world has gone for democracy and all seem to continue with it.
The ones who have faltering democracies keep craving to get into the robust mode. To claim the democracy as a brand has won the hearts of and minds of people would not be untrue. Brand Democracy is here to stay. The brand image is robust that even the ones who want to play with it, do it surreptitiously, while paying lip service to it endlessly. In any reasonably successful democracy, the people have shown their worth over and over again. Whatever might be the urge and success of sporadic authoritarian streaks, it is shown the door in the elections.
The battle between authoritarianism and very liberal copybook democracy is ongoing even in most successful of the democracies but nearly always true democracy finds it way, even if it is after a long and vexatious battle. There are democracies which get embroiled in the battle of legitimacy over claims of voting fraud, non-conduct on free and fair elections and outright misuse of power. We have a few around us. They can be termed as being in the peripheral mode of democracy, at times the governments don’t work in the best interest of the people. The democratic ruling class becomes undemocratic and get into the mode of ravishing their own country for personal gains.
As for India, we have had the proud privilege of having conducting free and fair elections, every single time, since the time the country got wedded to democracy. That has been the country’s strength and the democratic might of the people has made the mightiest to bite dust. Unfortunately, that has not translated into* democratic values going deep into the system,* not even in the democratic political parties which are prima donnas of India’s functional democracy. Universal Adult Suffrage has not been translated as de-facto equality, in every field of our existence. The resources at the command of the nation generally have not been to most rational use; evident in education and health parameters of the people. Professional governance is still a world away and so are the all the benefits that come with it. An enlightened and deliverable political elite can turn out to be a new beginning.
BRAND DEMOCRACY INDIA HAS TO ESTABLISH FUTHER BY ITS DELIVERABLES.
Sanjay Sahay