Democracy in India - Too much or too little?

Democracy in India - Too much or too little?

Democracy is highly misunderstood, but it is not so. The essence of democracy lies in its people.

Context

When the govt while making policies do not take people into consideration, the spirit of democracy takes a hit, it is a disagreement initially and if not corrected soon, turns into a protest. That is the logic, people do not like protesting every day, they just express their disagreement in the form of protests, and disagreement is valid in a democracy, right!

If I talk about the present, protests are happening, and lately one of the most powerful and influential leaders, Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog said that we are too democratic, and excessive democracy does not allow the Govt to pass powerful reforms.

Complete contrast

Before we dive in, I would like to ask you, what is democracy in the first place?

Well, democracy is a system where there are values, a willingness to consult and engage with people, a decent approach towards dissent (disagreement), and last but not the least, full-fledged transparency. Now, how much of it do you witness in today’s day and age, whatever your answer is, I respect it.

Let’s take up the very first trait of democracy, the willingness to consult with people, if you notice all the policies passed by the current government, in the majority of the laws passed there was little to no consultation with the people for whom that law was being formed in the first place. Take up the most recent, farmers’ protest, you may have your views but the fact is that the Govt passed the laws without any consultation with the farmers which has now led to protests.

No democracy hits everyone!

Take up demonetization, GST, or the nationwide lockdown, I agree every law was genuine, trying to solve a real and pressing problem such as Black money. In case of GST, too many taxes, etc. But a law passed without any consultation is of no good irrespective of its intention because not talk to people about the policies, they would never understand it and therefore would never be able to avail its benefits.

Well, I think that India is too little democracy, not the other way round. If it is too much, there will not be any protests whether about the farm bills or CAA.

When democracy takes a hit, everything takes a hit.

Global rankings

Recently, many global rankings have been out on the parameters ranging from Economy, Politics, and Society. If India happens to improve its ranking on some of these indexes, it is celebrated, take Ease of Doing Business (EODB) by the World Bank, was one such report that Govt always used to show how it has managed to encourage more people to build businesses smoothly and hassle-free. So, that is the nature of these global findings!

But as the EODB report was shut down by the World Bank, we had little to celebrate, and if look at the recent ones, India has performed badly on almost all of them. I would like to walk you through some.

First and foremost, I would like to begin with the Govt data itself, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) which conveys the data on malnutrition, India has reversed all the progress made in the past 2 decades. The findings show the real situation on the ground, and the situation is ugly.

Talking about fundamental rights, India has seen the largest number of Internet shutdowns in the world, and its rankings have declined for the 3rd consecutive year. Talking about economic freedom, India has come down dramatically from 79 to 105, well before the pandemic, India was in an economic slowdown i.e., the economy was growing at a slower pace.

Democracy and Economy

There is a very strong correlation between democracy and the economy. Take any developed nation across the globe, one factor which contributes to their growth majorly is the democratic setup of the country. When people have the right to question the Govt, have the right to dissent, Govt forms policies for the betterment of people. Democracy has proven its mettle as an asset for the economy, not a liability.

As we are witnessing a deterioration in every aspect, be it, economic, social, or developmental. It indicates the erosion of democracy not too much of it!

Wrapping up

Despite being a democracy, our economy has slowed down, we have lagged in social indicators. I have one answer for this, freedoms of people come down, be it human freedom, economic or personal freedom and whenever people’s freedoms come down, democracy takes a hit. I reiterate, when democracy takes a hit, everything takes a hit!

You can and you would witness that happening.

WASEEM Manzoor

Content Writer, Former Sales Person, Master's in Sociology

3y

Democracy is best as put down in its definition which makes people the supreme power but when some thugs turn criminals turn into politicians they just reverse the criteria and make politicians the supreme power which can surpass any authority by any means, and lately we can see the most so called democracies becoming more worse than monarchies or autocratic ones... Now the second part what will happen, when one person or group tries to rule the country according to his desires he invokes the wrath of people and his creator and that can come in form..

Sanyam K.

Helping you Lead with LinkedIn to Enhance Your Visibility and Influence| I craft words, build websites and tell stories | Website Designer | Copywriter | LinkedIn Strategist

3y

Everything takes a hit 🎯 Well written. Good job bro 👏

Pushpahas Singh

HR Head (Manufacturing), all 7 plants of Hero MotoCorp Ltd. (Retired)

3y

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” ― Winston S. Churchill

Shagun Sharma

Student at Amity University Noida | MBA(HR) | Content Writer

3y

The article is so well written and insightful. I always learn something new from your articles Manvinder Arora 🙌💯

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