Is India fit for democracy

Having walked all way through the bridge, I saw an old man sitting at the end and babbling with himself. I confronted him and asked," Baba why are you sitting here?" He looked at me with his clumsy eyes and perplexed expression and said," I am wondering what will I say when the National Population Statisticians will ask me my 'caste', I never thought myself to be something other than an Indian".

I was awestricken by his answer and realized how ill equipped our democracy was. Our country has been developing rapidly economically but it still lags behind in the Social developments. When China started its economic reforms, India was a larger democracy. But now we are far behind the Chinese in almost every aspect of development. Despite china being the most populated country in the world, it has soared to the second fastest growing economy in the world behind Japan just on the model of export oriented growth. It has yet to tap its huge potential in the domestic market which is estimated to increase its GDP by a quarter percent of the present growth.

In the paradigm of recent times, we generally come across different facets of our country with every passing hour. From having the first mover advantage to being a laggard, we have redefined our democracy in a more subtle way.

Now the thing to ponder is what is that they have done right and we have not? Despite being a communist ruled country till date, their growth and advancement has been phenomenal. Most importantly I would say the lack of conviction on the part of the politicians have led to the downfall of India. The division on the basis of Cast, Creed and Sex has inherently made this country a hollow dump of false hopes and promises. The most devastating and the prominent cause of this downfall of democracy has been corruption which is so widely spread across the sectors in India. From the Ministers to the Peons, everybody has in some way or the other shown the signs of corruption which has stalled the progress of this nation. Now even the people of the country have lost faith in its leaders which can be accounted by low turnover of votes during the Elections. Nobody wants to get into Politics thinking it to be a manhole in which one who falls gets corrupted. The tonnes of Food Grains that are being left to rot in the stores depict the condition of democracy in India

A Communist or Military dominance would have augured well for the country seeing the present State of Affairs. The richer are becoming more rich and the Poorer and getting more poor. Is this the justice of a democracy? My view says it's certainly not. It's a strangulation of the core basis of democracy which is equality of rights and freedom. The government should have certain consideration towards the lower section of the society to make this country a successful democracy. Just running the various incentive schemes won't change the situation unless they are monitored and guided well. The infrastructure planning and execution should be on par with the proposal of the Planning Commission for a rapid growth. A change in the attitude and a more concrete way of taking responsibility and handling issues can take this country to a higher level of democracy otherwise it will soon turn into a curse.

Tusheet Saraf