By: Shreepal Singh
1. Man is by nature creative, provided he is allowed freedom. His creativity has no limits. A multitude of humans can create wonders and achieve glorious things beyond imagination. Population is an asset, provided people are free, intelligent and not obsessed with religious fanaticism. In religious fanaticism, human energy and creativity are diverted to an objective that is destructive.
2. Man is an animal by nature, mostly driven by instincts, unless he is put in restraint by his own discretion, personal psychology, social norms or the fear of law.
3. All individuals are not equal in the matters of their education, intellectual capacity, psychological inclinations, economic circumstances and the amount of wealth one has. Always there are some who are more educated, wealthy and capable than others.
4. We live in groups, which we call society. In society, people live together and depend on each other in almost all matters that are crucial for their individual life.
5. These separate groups are formed in society because of their sharing of common concerns based on their common ethnicity, religion, political ideology or economic circumstances etc. These groups in their common conduct behave with other similar groups, just as individual persons behave with one another. These groups too compete and struggle with each other to protect and safeguard their collective interests. Just like an individual is actuated in his conduct by his basic instincts of survival, dominance etc., so does a group do in its relation to other groups in society. Because of this social behaviour, these groups based on caste, ethnicity, religion, region, economic interests or political ideology have their own peculiar sensitivities, priorities and preferences.
6. In our liberal democratic system, we grant under our Constitution an equal right and freedom to every citizen to carry on trade, profession or business according to one’s likings. But the hard reality is that every citizen is not equal in the matters of one’s education, intelligence, capability, economic circumstances and wealth. Because of these differences among individuals, every citizen is not equal in taking the advantage of equal rights and freedom granted by our Constitution.
7. The facts that these equal rights and freedom are allowed to us by our Constitution and that every citizen is not equal in the matters of education, intelligence, capability, economic circumstances and wealth, a situation arises in our society where a few who are in advantageous position on this aspect of equal rights and freedom become more powerful and wealthy in comparison to those who do not have these advantages in equal measure. This is the starting point – the fountainhead – of the distortion of our liberal democracy.
8. The essence of liberal democracy is that here in this political economic system every citizen has an equal amount of rights and freedom and all these citizens – that is, people – rule themselves, which is beautifully paraphrased as, ‘The rule of the people, for the people, by the people’. Here we come from the people’s equal rights and freedom to the people’s right to rule themselves and the issue of the distortion of democracy.
9. In our liberal democracy, people rule themselves. But they do not – and can not – rule themselves in person; people rule through their representatives. What a beautiful idea that in ruling ourselves we, that is ‘We the people’, can have our ‘representatives’! This idea is an invention of our liberal democracy. So in our democracy, we elect our representatives, who rule on our behalf. Here does onset the distortion of democracy.
10. This distortion comes in three ways. Firstly, in our liberal democracy, representing others – that is, representing people – becomes a business in itself. The spirit of democracy does not allow that it should be the life-long business or profession of some individuals to represent others. But in reality, in our democracy it is a business, it is the whole time business and it is the exclusive business of some persons. They do nothing in their life but to represent the will of others. This is the first distortion of democracy.
11. Then, this democracy is faced with the most important aspect of its life: How to ensure that the will of people is really represented through their representatives. This is made possible by a Constitutional provision guaranteeing the equal right of all to elect or get elected to the governing body by the periodical elections. Here every citizen has an equal opportunity to elect. But to get elected he needs to fulfil one additional precondition: He or she needs to earn a public perception about him or her – he or she needs to grow as a well-known brand. In the society, persons who themselves belong to that class who have got an advantage in terms of their economic circumstances and wealth, more often enjoy a lesser positive public perception than those persons who belong to that class who are so disadvantaged. In democracy, public perception can make or unmake a person in the matter of getting elected to the governing body. Cultivation of public perception with the help of wealth, which is not equally available to all citizens, is the second distortion of our liberal democracy.
12. However, in rare and exceptional circumstances, in our democracy some persons who may belong to (and represent the interests of) the disadvantaged poor may earn a better public perception and get elected. It may happen and do happen, though rarely. If it so happens, then such charismatic leader naturally tries to advance the interests of those to whom he or she belongs. And, if he does so, his positive public perception is rapidly multiplied and, in the same measure, the class of the advantaged lot get alarmed to the coming danger to their interests. Such people are intelligent, capable and wealthy. They use their money power and intelligence to divide the common electorates along the caste, ethnicity, religion or region lines so that the positive public perception of the charismatic leader, which happened to rule the country despite their money power, is nullified. This is the third distortion of liberal democracy.
13. However, a society that adopts this liberal democracy races faster in economic advancement in comparison to the society that does not adopt such liberal system. It is for this reason that the liberal democracies are more developed in the matter of science and technology, defence capabilities, wealth generation and achieving higher living standards for common citizens. All these achievements are of the crucial importance to humans living in groups.
14. The facts that all individuals are not equal in their capabilities, that human is basically an animal driven by his instincts, and that those who happen to be more capable become wealthy and powerful, inevitably create a situation in society where the less capable masses become victim of the exploitation at the hands of those who are more capable.
15. In liberal democracy, this freedom of everyone to act and right to reap the fruits of that act is reflected in its political institution of electoral democracy. However, in liberal democracy an unfair advantage of their wealth is always taken by those who happen to be more capable. They utilize their power of wealth to distort the institution of electoral democracy. They utilize their money power to help those politicians, who in fact protect their own economic interests rather than those of the less capable ones, who constitute the majority. This capable wealthy class of persons create conditions wherein the popular political leader in fact representing the interests of the less capable masses is projected in poor public image, so that he is not elected. They distort the democracy and do not allow the will of the majority reflected in the electoral results.
16. Though generally in the liberal democracy the will of the majority – who are less capable – is not truly reflected in the matter of democratic self governance, still this system is congenial to the fast paced economic development and progress of society.
17. To cure this deficiency, it is advisable to allow the more capable the freedom to act and the right to reap its fruits, but to put at the same time some restraint on them and stop them from unduly utilizing their wealth to distort the democracy.
18. The wisdom tells us that the fast economic progress must be made through our liberal democratic system. Wisdom also tells us that our democracy must not be distorted by the unfair use of money by anyone.
19. Given the human propensity to react to situation that causes pain and suffering, it is very easy for the less capable unfortunate poor to complain, cry, agitate and make revolution without offering an alternative pragmatic solution. But such agitations and revolutions do not provide any solution to the problem. Our world has seen many revolutions that attempted to solve this problem and failed. It is the liberal democracy only that is the best available way for us to achieve the needed fast economic progress of India. But this liberal democracy needs devising in a way that is better and works for India.
20. We suggest the following measures, which – if adopted in our country – would mitigate our problems to some extent:
21. Educate more those who are the uneducated, poor, less privileged and less capable – but who are in the majority in India – by carrying out a sustained vigorous awareness mass campaign directed at them. In this work, utilize the immense capacity of internet to the hilt to educate these ignorant masses.
22. The greatest tragedy that has been historically inflicted on India is that the governance of this country is done English language, which is an alien language to 90% Indians. It is estimated that about 10% of Indians know and speak English. It is not the question of imposing a single language on a multilingual India. It is a question about the fact that 90% Indians are made ignorant – rather fooled – by those who rule over them, simply because they are governed in a language that 90% of them do not understand. To obviate this barrier, it is advisable to utilize the “translation technology” in every field of governance. It needs to be done under the force of law. This technology is capable of translating “instantly and in real time” all that material which is spoken or written by the governing institutions in English language into all local languages of India.
23. Frame a simple “Geo-political Awareness Test” relevant to Indian conditions and make it mandatory for everyone to qualify in this simple test to become eligible to cast vote in any election. This simple quiz must be framed to test in the Indian context the general awareness of our times, history, Geo-political position of India and national integrity.
24. Put a certain limit – say two – on the number of children one can have to be eligible to cast vote in any election beyond which number he or she would be barred from casting vote.
25. Make it mandatory for all citizens to work in defence forces for a certain period of time – say two years or so – to be eligible to cast vote in any election.
26. The motto of these prescriptions should be: “Let our democracy be the true rule of people. Let our people be informed, wise and intelligent. Let all Indians care for their well-being.”