DailyPost 2706
DEMOCRATIC ECOSYSTEM – WHAT GETS DECIDED?
This country will never be short of issues, problems, future trajectories, people at the bottom of the pyramid, service quagmire, legal issues, the world of economics / development and the need for a responsive / accountable nature of governance. In this plethora of issues only those will be decided, which have been brought to the democratic decision-making table. Is there any method to do that? Can the powers that be hauled over the coals for taking up one issue over the other? Who decides what issue is of importance? Is there a waiting list?
From legislative action to a normal government order, is there any system of precedence that needs to followed? Getting things put on the table and expedited is the main function of the wheelers and dealers of Indian democracy. Who bothers what is left out? If we don’t even have a list of what all is to be attended at different levels and made known to the public at large, what worth is the nature of checks and balances in our democracy. Besides that, even the angle, tangent or dimension of issue taken and decided upon can be eye opener to the researchers of decision making in democratic governance. Leave aside this meticulous thought and process being talked about, even the fate of the promises made, can be termed as democratic toolkit of duplicity and hypocrisy.
The ultimate beauty of this whole game of bringing topics to the democratic table and deciding upon them, the way it best suits the democratic elite, is the ultimate democratic case study of our times. States can be divided at fancy, foregoing the very principle on which they were created decades ago, when it known that two states can never be merged again. There are bills which can keep waiting for years and decades together whereas farm bills or any other bill can become a law, in a jiffy. This attitude and practice are party agnostic. The same law can be shown the door in an equally cavalier manner. There was an instance when ordinance was torn. The way law makers treat the law can put democracy upside down.
All this for the sovereignty of our legislature. A governor can be passed bills hanging fire indefinitely for reasons best known to him. How issues change with changing political dispensations is another fascinating chapter of our democracy, while people and their needs remain the same. While issues that are pushed under the carpet are endless, the burning issues of quality education and quality healthcare has plagued the nation as nothing less, democracy completely untouched and unmoved by it. Tinkering with the reservations list and the overall percentage of it, has been one of most touched upon decisions in democratic India. Though lobbying is illegal in India, how it operates is an open secret. Even in cases being brought to the table for judicial decision making, people who matter are able to get their cases listed, issues ranging from arrest to toppling government. The less said about issues put up for executive decision making, which for sure needs a complete overhaul before we even talk of governance.
IF YOU ARE NOT IN THE “LIST OF RECKONING,” YOU ARE OUT OF FUNCTIONAL DEMOCRACY.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.