DailyPost 2873
STOIC DEMOCRATIC SILENCE
Democracy means noise by anyone who wants to be heard. It also means speaking your mind as long as it is within the parameters of law. Relevance is of critical value. Agreeing to differ is inbuilt in a democratic system. Having different points of view is celebrated, there is nothing great in winning or losing, what needs to prevail is the democratic spirit. That all stakeholders in a democracy can work in unison for the same purpose, the expressions and routes taken can be different. Everyone is supposed to come together when democracy is in danger. This needs to be expressed over and over again.
Democratic silence is the most potent negative tool in a democracy and is used with finesse with a variety of ulterior motives. The right to speak also leaves you with the prerogative of not to speak. But why should you do that? If the democratic silence changes into stoic democratic silence, it nearly becomes a surety that something wrong is either happening or is likely to happen. It might also happen stoic democratic silence might mean that democracy is being silenced in a very sophisticated manner. This means that the democratic paraphernalia would all be there but the spirit would be missing, which would lead to a very different impact.
The impact could be seen after a long time, by which time the democratic degradation would have reached a different level. The stoic silence in political parties for a variety of reasons, all undemocratic, have led to the development of high command culture. Pre-calibrated expressions and expressions to suit a dictated purpose cannot take any democracy a long way. Then we have leaders who keep speaking day in and day out, mostly without a reason. When they need to speak, they get into stoic democratic silence. It can be for two reasons; either you don’t have anything to say or it is a part of a strategy.
More often than not it is a part of a strategy. To leave issues and topics unattended which you are mandated to handle and substantiate the same to your constituents can be nothing less than a democratic sabotage. Leading without even talking about burning issues many a times or rather deliberately evading it, clearly indicates of incompetence, lack of transparency or hidden or any combination of these or all. This weakens our very existence and all that we stand for. Then there can be international issues in other democracies, some so if it is with neighbours, don’t we talk about it and make the country know where we stand. The masses’ right to know from the right people is a fundamental right in a democracy. And also to grill them on the coals if need be.
STOIC DEMOCRATIC SILENCE IS A TERMITE THAT CAN EAT AWAY VITALS OF ANY DEMOCRACY.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.