Daily Post 1454
REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY
Though we don’t use this prefix, that is what it should be and it supposed to be. The history of political / governing formations since times immemorial has been an ongoing and relentless battle to make it more and more representative. Till they finally struck gold mine in the from of democracy and it was declared to be the magical wand to sort out all issues gripping mankind from slavery and bondage of different varieties not to talk of real physical one. That was also being tackled with the onset of democratic struggles few centuries back. From the nascent representations leaving gender, community and groups outside the democratic set up to the supposedly robust one, by way of universal adult franchise has been the history of the horizontal extension of democracy.
Democracy would not be serving to be the tool, that it should be, if the magical formula of true representation is not sorted out. With the onset of functional democracy, the political thinkers nearly disappeared from the scene. It is extremely difficult today to find that ilk. The constitution, political parties, the different pillars and the supposedly superficially existent checks and balances took over. The delivery was done. When everything is handed over to the practitioners, what we get is operations good or bad but not path breaking improvements. More often than not, the practitioners don’t even know the theoretical construct. Even the best of companies lose thought and purpose of the visionary entrepreneurs and end up becoming a crash sales enterprise.
Political thinkers have given way to professors, researchers , schools of governance, think tanks, mood of the nation survery masters, election strategists, sarkari & private public policy experts and the like. The puny becomes a Chanakya. Leaving aside thinking, most of the them have not read even Chankya. Without reading political thinkers and even the constitution, how far can you go? That the practitioners cannot crack the true representation imbroglio is a reality. Are they interested in doing that? The general discussion on all public forums gives us a clear indication that once the vote is cast, in reality the die is cast. Whatever is decided in his name, he has both to lend his name and also suffer its consequences.
The handling of COVID-19 in the US or many decisions taken by democratic governments across the world, leading to protests of different varieties is because of lack of true representation of the affected group or the cause or both. Only political thinkers can crack true representation and then domain Gods can rattle their brains to find a working solution. How do you find what the students want in the ongoing COVID-19 situation? Then work out the solution and take it through the process of test, validation, pilot, execution, corrections and finally robust solution. Whether its the farmers or unorganised labor or any sector for that matter, their representation only by way elected representatives, association officer bearers or trade union leaders has not yielded fruits. Democracy has to go back to the drawing board and political thinkers only can redo the serious tinkering, which is urgently required.
THE EXTINCTION OF THE CLASS OF POLITICAL THINKERS DOES NOT FOREBODE WELL FOR ANY FUNCTIONAL DEMOCRACY.