democracy cannot function without politics
Democracy is still the best known civilized form of governing a country. Sure it has many flaws depending on each country. Unfortunately over the last 60 years, our democracy has become more flawed rather than improving. India has its own share of aberrations piled up during the last sixty years.
The point I am trying to make is in our anger against the flaws of democracy we should not be tempted to throw away the system itself. Anything that follows will be worse. The need of the hour is to have vigilant civil society groups to protest and bring about corrections at local, state and centre level.
There are countries which do not charge any tax to the citizens. It sounds good, but then there the citizens have no voice in the system and are unable to protest against government atrocities. In India the citizens have a stake in the system because they all pay taxes in one form or the other.
In the beginning we elected corporators, MLAs and MPs who acted as a bridge between the people and the administration. Slowly as corruption seeped in, the corporators, MLAs and MPs have become part of the administration and become insensitive towards the people who they represent. This needs to be corrected by a vigilant public. There have been attempts by individuals to stand for elections, like Meera Sanyal in south Mumbai but could not succeed because of the entrenched strong hold of the political parties.
Actually if the parties select good candidates this problem can be solved. However after 70s, it has become clear that even presidents of political parties have become like dictators and select the party candidates not on merit but personal preferences. This is bad for democracy. We cannot have a parliamentary democracy as a pattern of government and a presidential system in the running of the political party.
If parties cannot become democratic, it may be proper for the people to elect the president or prime minister directly for a fixed tenure
The point I am trying to make is in our anger against the flaws of democracy we should not be tempted to throw away the system itself. Anything that follows will be worse. The need of the hour is to have vigilant civil society groups to protest and bring about corrections at local, state and centre level.
There are countries which do not charge any tax to the citizens. It sounds good, but then there the citizens have no voice in the system and are unable to protest against government atrocities. In India the citizens have a stake in the system because they all pay taxes in one form or the other.
In the beginning we elected corporators, MLAs and MPs who acted as a bridge between the people and the administration. Slowly as corruption seeped in, the corporators, MLAs and MPs have become part of the administration and become insensitive towards the people who they represent. This needs to be corrected by a vigilant public. There have been attempts by individuals to stand for elections, like Meera Sanyal in south Mumbai but could not succeed because of the entrenched strong hold of the political parties.
Actually if the parties select good candidates this problem can be solved. However after 70s, it has become clear that even presidents of political parties have become like dictators and select the party candidates not on merit but personal preferences. This is bad for democracy. We cannot have a parliamentary democracy as a pattern of government and a presidential system in the running of the political party.
If parties cannot become democratic, it may be proper for the people to elect the president or prime minister directly for a fixed tenure