Democracy as being in vogue now is under strain everywhere. It has become divisive, inefficient, indifferent to people’s needs, unable to manage crisis situations and it encourages mobocracy.
Recently Biden, the US President, to get his rescue plan based on spending on infrastructure and social services, that was stuck in Congress due to slug-festing between the Republicans and Democrats, had to urge them saying - “We have to prove that Democracy Works”.
This clearly shows that even the world’s most powerful democratic country is doubting the efficacy of Democracy.
Why Do We Elect a Govt ?
South Korea and Taiwan had started with a dictatorship to attain economic prosperity before granting people the right to elect their government. Whereas, India on attaining Freedom straight moved on to become the world’s largest democracy with barely 10 % literates and 85% population living in poverty. Chinese communists took control of China two years later i.e 1949 and by now, it has become the second richest nation, with 387 billionaires and barely after 30 years of economic reforms, China managed to move some 850 million people above the $1.90-a-day poverty line, according to the World Bank, and the remaining 98.99 million did so by the end of 2020, where as , millions of Indians continue to live in abject poverty even after 30 years of economic reforms. Lets take the case of America, the world’s wealthiest nation and second-largest democracy, some 34 million people still live below the poverty line.
Besides the above, whether its handling of covid in Democratic countries, or protests in US against the cruel murder of George Floyd by Police or Anti CAA protests or Farmer’s agitation or Jat agitation or Koregaon violence, the outcome was same ; property worth crores was destroyed, ordinary law abiding citizens were subjected to harassment and whole lot of institutions watched helplessly, all in the guise of democratic rights to Protest. The fact is ; there was NO LAW AND NO ORDER.
These realities raise a valid question - What is important ;
Democracy or reducing the sufferings of people
Better management/ governance or ameliorating the living condition of the people.
Provide Better Governance or only democratic rights to the people.
However, off late the Govts world over are behaving as if they are there only to save the democratic rights of the people rather than providing better governance.
All Restrictions and Regulations are Not Bad.
We need to regulate social media and access of children to objectionable material on internet but democratic govts are finding it difficult to even protect the mental health of their children whereas China has just made it difficult for its children to access internet and watch obscene material, as it wants to channelize their energy into better things.
The behavior of individuals and groups within a society or an organization depend to a large extent on the rules, procedures, and system that are in vogue. For instance, in late 60s and 70s Aaya Ram Gaya Ram was a phrase that became popular in Indian politics. This deceitful behaviour of elected members has been to some extent checked after the anti-defection law came into existence in 1985, through a constitutional amendment. The electoral frauds like booth capturing and casting of false votes have also been drastically reduced by the use of electronic voting machines, a strong and independent EC and the presence of the numerous television news channels. This implies that the rules, systems and procedures do have an impact on the behavior of the people and groups.
If the societies gradually marginalized the priestly class from the political system, got rid of Sultans, Kings and Queens, its now time to have a relook at the democracy as it is being practiced now.
It needs to be made more accountable, less argumentative, more uniting than being divisive, more people oriented rather than election oriented.
In that case what should we be doing ?
Answering this would not be difficult if we look around for examples.
The example of Singapore is the first that comes to our mind, which has adopted a “guided democracy” or a “regulated” dictatorship.
The growth achieved by China, S . Korea and Singapore prove that regulation is not bad but it helps in harnessing the energy of millions of people in the right direction and synergising their efforts, instead of wasting the resources and efforts of the entire society.
Obviously, all regulations need not be effective or achieve their purposes, Some may be too restrictive, But that does not mean that all regulations are harmful.
Hence, inorder to produce optimal results for citizens, India needs to learn from Singapore example.
Conclusion
The recent statement of the SC judges while examining the request of farmers to hold a rally at Jantar Mantar gave the law abiding citizen of this country some hope. The Hon’ble Judges said ;
They will also examine whether the Right to protest is absolute.
Hope that the two judges come out with some revolutionary Judgment that may pave a way towards placing Indian democracy on the right path.
If a Head of a State has to state that ; We have to prove that Democracy works, then its a serious situation. The Politicans can not do much except arguing and fighting amongst themselves. They surely can not make DEMOCRACY work. Hence a lot depends on the Hon'ble SC to ensure that Democracy works and the life of a law abiding citizen becomes better.