TIME TO STRENGTHEN AND RESPECT DEMOCRACY

Is India really a democracy? The simple and crystal clear answer is yes and as per Constitution of India it is Sovereign, Socialist, Secular and Democratic Republic of India. The burning issue is whether we are practicing / following the tenets of democracy in letter & spirit? The simple and honest answer considering the political scenario is big NO.

Democracy means “By the people, of the people and for the people”. This means only a political party which wins at least 50% seats should form the government. However if it is also followed with at least 50% votes polled then it will be ultimate democracy.

However, our system on the contrary allows every possible manipulation which promotes horse trading and forming illegal coalitions. Illegal coalitions are like the marriage of convenience to ensure looting and hurting the sentiments of the masses. Suppose A% of people have voted for a candidate belonging to Party X and B% of people have voted for a candidate belonging to Party Y. Imagine a situation where none of the parties get majority to form a government. The outcome of Mumbai BMC election result on 23/02/2017 is the case under consideration. It means none of the parties enjoy the faith & confidence of the people but by disregarding the sentiments of the people, both the parties enter into an illegal & undemocratic coalition to form a government with a focused view to exploiting the National resources and the system, allows this. This is a straight case of exploiting & cheating both categories of the people (Illiterate & uneducated and Literate but uneducated) of Sovereign, Socialist, Secular and Democratic Republic of India.

Following table describes the state of the Indian Parliamentary Democracy. Only top two political parties have been sampled for ease of understanding.

It is in the last election that the ruling party won more than 50% seats and has formed the government but with only 31.0% votes that is without the confidence of at least 50% of the population.

FLAWED election system forces parties to try every possible permutation of forming Government and this defeat the basic definition of true democracy rather abuses democracy.

The Election commission must ban POST POLL COALITIONS. Pre-Poll Coalition must be taken as same philosophy & hence common election symbol and official MERGER. Only one Election Manifesto must be allowed such that people know in advance the philosophy and policies of the particular coalition. This practice will put an end to the exploitation and blackmailing tactics of those who practice community based vote bank politics.

The Election Commission mustn't give license to usurp NATIONAL RESOURCES by allowing post-poll coalition. “COALITION DHARMA” in reality is legalizing corruption that leads to SCAMS. Democracy is made to bleed. It is like butchering it.

In case no political party is able to win at least 50 seats, the Election Commission MUST invite only top two political parties to go to polls again for the sake of respecting Democracy in true sense. This re-voting must be done without allowing any campaigning of any sort. The Election Commission may do it in a week’s time. This way one of the two top parties will be able to get the clear verdict of the people. The same procedure must be followed in any re-poll to avoid possibility of hung parliament / assembly. This will eliminate opportunistic politicians (small players who only know exploitation). This will also put an end to mushrooming of number of parties just before the elections. Valuable resource must be saved.

I would like to bring the following observation to the notice of the Election Commission.

The majority in this country can be easily divided in to three categories. These are:

1. Illiterate & uneducated

2. Literate but uneducated

There is not much difference in these categories. Probably 95% populations fall in this category. It is here our unscrupulous, shrewd and crooked politicians & officials exploit every resource of the Nation (Funds, law & order, accountability, plutocracy, nepotism, ethics, morality) by practically applying the policy of “Divide & Rule” which was practiced effectively by the British.

3. Literate & educated

The third category is an exception and is committedly hell bent upon sustaining the Nation against all odds. We may not be having more than 5% of the population qualifying for this category. We are really grateful to all those sons of the soil.

Expecting the present day political parties which are solely leeching on the politics of vote bank, caste, religion, language and regionalism to introspect is like too much to ask because they also fall in the first two categories described above. The only difference is that they are unscrupulous, shrewd and crooked politicians & officials.

The re-voting in the Mumbai BMC election will prove to be an acid test for the Election Commission for restoring faith of the people in true democracy. All the political parties there are in an impossible situation of forming a Government without abusing and insulting the verdict of the masses and democracy. All these parties were vociferously spilling venom (more deadly than the Cobra) against each other before the elections. The Election Commission should not allow them to come together or do Horse Trading and abuse the people and democracy NOW? This is sheer opportunism.

We expect the Election Commission not to allow any party to form the government with less than 50% seats in the name of democracy?

In the present scenario only Election Commission can restore ETHICS and ensure to an extent corruption free Politics.