Reappraising Indian Democracy

Democracy has been popularly defined as a rule of the people, for the people and by the people. In the situation that has prevailed in India, our flawed democracy might as well be redefined by replacing the word 'people' with the word 'politicians', i.e. "of the politicians, for the politicians and by the politicians."

The dubious means of election funding, the criminalization of politics, the rampant corruption among bureaucrats and politicians, the absence of any in-built provisions that would compel our legislators to do the necessary homework on legislative matters, the frequent arbitrary changes of ministers, recurring stories of unstable governments both at the state and central levels, the failure of the existing system to bring forth leaders who could command people's confidence, the selection of candidates by all major political parties entirely at the whims of the party high command with virtually no participation of people be it at the local, state or national level, all these have contributed to the loss of people's faith in the present system. It is an admitted fact that our existing system has spawned an obnoxious breed of self-seeking politicians jostling for power for personal gains in utter disregard of the interests and welfare of the people at large.