’’A government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.’’ This is how Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg in 1863 described Democracy which is stated as the best description for democracy. But I beg to differ by the present ongoing political scenario in Indian politics and for me it sounds like this ? A government of the netas, by the netas and for the netas?.
We are claiming ourselves as the most stable and now a matured democracy in the world. For this we cite the people participation in elections and successive government formations from the last 50 years of Independent India. We say our multi party system is working fine which gives a real representation to all sections and all regions which truly represents our unity in diversity.True we have remained democratic throughout but I feel now our Democratic system is on the cross roads?.
The ongoing parliament and simultaneous assembly elections in some states is a indication for this. In the beginning, the opinion polls conducted by the various agencies predicted a possible simple majority for the ruling combine which later on changed / fluctuated and now the exit polls predict a hung Parliament. As a result the sensex and nifty crash to a record level leading to apprehensions in investors. Though these polls may not be scientifically credible (different agencies give different indications but mostly predict a hung parliament) they give us a insight into our true nature of democracy.
When India got Independence in 1947 the constitution was formed almost similar to the one in UK. Initially there was a strong party from the independence movement background which dominated for more than 30 years. Though that time 2-3 national parties were there their presence was not so strong. Later on in 1977 due to anti emergency wave along with JP wave a coalition government was formed having 2 national parties as major partners along with smaller groups. But the arrangement lasted for only around 2 years due to incompatibility of various partners.
There were so many PM aspirants and a change movement was marred by this individual aspirations which paved the way for reelection of previous government which became stronger and the so called opposition parties disintegrated and a new parties were formed. The history almost repeated in 1989 but with different people which also lasted for another two years but contributed to a major damage to the growth of India. After that though till 1996 we had a stable government it was at the cost of horse trading and other political games. The Prime Minister of India was charge sheeted for bribery case which involved our Parliament.
Then came so called coalition governments with small parties playing major roles than the bigger one. The strongest party started loosing its ground, the so called alternative national party broke into pieces due to power hunger but another party with a slogan of party with difference got more seats with another kind of movement. Here my objective is not to tell which party is good and which is not good. Though we have leftist parties they are mainly focussed on two states and other places they have neither vision nor focus. but now many states are dominated by the smaller regional outfits which with just 1-2 MPs tried to have their interests taken care. There are incidents of cent percent representation in the ministry for a party having just single digit MPs.
We cannot forget how a leader manhandled the prime minister and his team for her court cases. Also there is one Progressive CM who always blackmailed the government for his support to the government to take the maximum to his state which always creates imbalance in our democratic structure. The smaller parties are dominating the show with their narrow ambitions while the so called national party leaders have to wait for the leaders of regional outfits to decide what decision has to be taken.
In many states ( Eg. Tamil Nadu, Bengal and some north east states) the national parties have very small presence. This has lead to a very delicate governance where the government has to ride on a thin rope satisfying each and every constituent party which has nothing but increased the corruption enormously in every aspect.
The other face of Indian democracy is when we say our democracy has matured as the electorate are more matured in their selection. Is it really true? Except for some urban places (very few) people always vote for the same cast/ group etc., The regional parties are always built and banked on a particular section clearly shown by their selection of candidates. We have a high tech CM asking a section of voters for electing his candidate since he identifies with their caste which just shows how much our democracy has matured. This is because of our caste fragmented politics where we have to go a long way before we can call ourselves a matured democracy.
Though democracy is not just for the business sector the multi party system do little to the most backward society of India. The smaller parties ( Even bigger national parties too) will always try to encash the regional, caste and other dividing feelings and want the people to be poorer and illiterate so that they can harness them for their Power politics.
Then what is the solution??This is very difficult to answer?.May be presidential form of democracy or 3 party parliamentary system may serve better to India. But for a better tomorrow some change is essential in the minds of Indians if not in the system.