ARE WE SERIOUS ABOUT OUR CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY
India has witnessed an unprecedented political change since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Development Alliance (NDA) government came to power. The sheer continuity of the government has surprised many as the impressive electoral journey of the BJP which has, by now, expanded its footprint and formed governments in every region of the
country, Karnataka being the most recent one where BJP emerged as single largest party though it couldn't form her government. BJP's argument during the various state election campaigns has been that they could achieve their expansion due to a much better synchronisation between the Centre and the states where NDA is in power . That is why the BJP sees Prime Minister Modi as the undisputed, universal leader. Now the moot questions are :
1. Has the government transformed the country's development contours?
2. Has this political change actually helped end poverty, social exclusion and discrimination in India?
A dispassionate attempt to evaluate the working of the government will unfold the reality as the NDA government is in its near completion of her term in office. Let us make an objective assessment of development and have a comprehensive look at the benefits people gained in practical day-to-day life.
For instance 'Ujjwala Yojana' has been introduced to reduce the distress of millions of rural women of poor households using polluting chullas to save them from health hazard by providing them with free LPG connections under the scheme. In reality a large number of beneficiaries have reverted to smoking chullas as they did not have the money to buy the second cylinder!
It is not improper to deduce that careless planning causes well-meaning development schemes going bad. The history of independent India is replete with such instances wherein the governments have not been cautious to anticipate loopholes and pitfalls before launching a scheme.
Like as before even this government has also failed to deliver as per constitutional rights of the people and on various electoral promises for all-round development, employment generation, improved health and education, strong economy, enabling environment and equal opportunities for marginalised communities, social justice and social harmony, protection of human rights, land rights and environment et al -- already discussed in detail from time to time in my blog. There is a big gap between the need and aspirations of vulnerable populations and constitutional mandates. The breed of government-influenced media today and the practice of letting loose the trolled bhagats are doing their rounds through high-decibel propaganda to win popular support and to divert people through their 'Intrusive Mind Management'.
The upheaval in CBI and appointment of Rakesh Asthana as Special Director along with Alok Verma the Director of CBI shows how the government in power is desperate to ensure replacement with a person for possible tampering of files in the event of NDA losing power, if at all, in 2019.
Ironically Verma was appointed with the same intension but uncompromising Verma would pose a threat to the power was unexpected.
So, is the meaning of democracy getting diluted? Our Constitution is very importantly attached to Democracy. But as an enlightened Democrat how much value we give to our constitution to assess the performance of the government? For an Indian voter promises made by party leaders/candidate seems to be the Constitution and manifesto of the party in power seems to be constitution of the country. Giving jobs to total upliftment of the marginalized lot are already there in the Constitution. Have we ever questioned this government like any government in the past as to why it has been so liberal with non-deliverance. Is transfer of power the purpose of democracy? If we go back to 1947, the British transferred the power to "We, The People of India". Are we continuing the tradition, rather ignoring Constitution and accepting the party manifesto for remedying our unfulfilled aspiration? Yes we are still continuing with the tradition to have freedom - freedom from poverty, malnutrition, homelessness, non-access to education, unemployment, inflation, corruption, caste and religion based discrimination and so many promises listed in the party manifesto need to be constitutionally resolved and provided. So, are "we" the voters heading for 2019 election to gain freedom as if we are still leading a life of a slave?
Even citizens' rights to privacy, dignified living and free speech have become enchroachable. Quite a few instances of data leak of Aadhaar and database being compromised have come to light, but it has not set the alarm bells ringing.
In a democracy, no one can take away the right of a political leadership to convert itself into an election-winning machine. After all, the textbook objective of a political party is to come to power through the majority route and it has every right to adopt all legitimate 'means' to do that. In this race, though, the sight of the constitutional 'ends' cannot be lost, more so in a country which holds the largest possible diversity globally and a growing inequality.
Now see from where the inequality is bulging. The answer will come if we probe as to how the country is functioning and how we should look at our country. We need to have clarity in our attitudinal outlook for probity. We do have government data. So we need not have to make extra effort to dig information to know our country. But we do not do that inspite of claiming that we are a nation of educated lot.
It is a known fact that governments have been liberal with corporates to give concessions and exemptions. I will not go very far in the past to compare the present. In Manmohan Singh government such exemptions were to the tune of around Rs 5 lakh crore on average in the form of direct and indirect taxes as per the data placed in Parliament in 2013. The corporate funding to political parties between 2015-17 has been Rs 636.58 lakh crore. The exemption the corporates gained during these 3 years has been Rs 6084.48 lakh crore. The parliament was resounding with thunderous clapping and thumping of the desk during the announcement speech of PM Modi in Central Hall.
So this is the situation of our country wherein we are into political democracy as we do not have effective, workable inclusive economic model to bring together the people with the country through inclusive constitutional democracy.
As the government ends the current term in office and all political parties prepare for the next general election, the people's concerns and aspirations must be focused at by the political parties to ensure constitutional rights of the people than party manifestos at the heart of governance in particular for the excluded and vulnerable sections.
country, Karnataka being the most recent one where BJP emerged as single largest party though it couldn't form her government. BJP's argument during the various state election campaigns has been that they could achieve their expansion due to a much better synchronisation between the Centre and the states where NDA is in power . That is why the BJP sees Prime Minister Modi as the undisputed, universal leader. Now the moot questions are :
1. Has the government transformed the country's development contours?
2. Has this political change actually helped end poverty, social exclusion and discrimination in India?
A dispassionate attempt to evaluate the working of the government will unfold the reality as the NDA government is in its near completion of her term in office. Let us make an objective assessment of development and have a comprehensive look at the benefits people gained in practical day-to-day life.
For instance 'Ujjwala Yojana' has been introduced to reduce the distress of millions of rural women of poor households using polluting chullas to save them from health hazard by providing them with free LPG connections under the scheme. In reality a large number of beneficiaries have reverted to smoking chullas as they did not have the money to buy the second cylinder!
It is not improper to deduce that careless planning causes well-meaning development schemes going bad. The history of independent India is replete with such instances wherein the governments have not been cautious to anticipate loopholes and pitfalls before launching a scheme.
Like as before even this government has also failed to deliver as per constitutional rights of the people and on various electoral promises for all-round development, employment generation, improved health and education, strong economy, enabling environment and equal opportunities for marginalised communities, social justice and social harmony, protection of human rights, land rights and environment et al -- already discussed in detail from time to time in my blog. There is a big gap between the need and aspirations of vulnerable populations and constitutional mandates. The breed of government-influenced media today and the practice of letting loose the trolled bhagats are doing their rounds through high-decibel propaganda to win popular support and to divert people through their 'Intrusive Mind Management'.
The upheaval in CBI and appointment of Rakesh Asthana as Special Director along with Alok Verma the Director of CBI shows how the government in power is desperate to ensure replacement with a person for possible tampering of files in the event of NDA losing power, if at all, in 2019.
Ironically Verma was appointed with the same intension but uncompromising Verma would pose a threat to the power was unexpected.
So, is the meaning of democracy getting diluted? Our Constitution is very importantly attached to Democracy. But as an enlightened Democrat how much value we give to our constitution to assess the performance of the government? For an Indian voter promises made by party leaders/candidate seems to be the Constitution and manifesto of the party in power seems to be constitution of the country. Giving jobs to total upliftment of the marginalized lot are already there in the Constitution. Have we ever questioned this government like any government in the past as to why it has been so liberal with non-deliverance. Is transfer of power the purpose of democracy? If we go back to 1947, the British transferred the power to "We, The People of India". Are we continuing the tradition, rather ignoring Constitution and accepting the party manifesto for remedying our unfulfilled aspiration? Yes we are still continuing with the tradition to have freedom - freedom from poverty, malnutrition, homelessness, non-access to education, unemployment, inflation, corruption, caste and religion based discrimination and so many promises listed in the party manifesto need to be constitutionally resolved and provided. So, are "we" the voters heading for 2019 election to gain freedom as if we are still leading a life of a slave?
Even citizens' rights to privacy, dignified living and free speech have become enchroachable. Quite a few instances of data leak of Aadhaar and database being compromised have come to light, but it has not set the alarm bells ringing.
In a democracy, no one can take away the right of a political leadership to convert itself into an election-winning machine. After all, the textbook objective of a political party is to come to power through the majority route and it has every right to adopt all legitimate 'means' to do that. In this race, though, the sight of the constitutional 'ends' cannot be lost, more so in a country which holds the largest possible diversity globally and a growing inequality.
Now see from where the inequality is bulging. The answer will come if we probe as to how the country is functioning and how we should look at our country. We need to have clarity in our attitudinal outlook for probity. We do have government data. So we need not have to make extra effort to dig information to know our country. But we do not do that inspite of claiming that we are a nation of educated lot.
It is a known fact that governments have been liberal with corporates to give concessions and exemptions. I will not go very far in the past to compare the present. In Manmohan Singh government such exemptions were to the tune of around Rs 5 lakh crore on average in the form of direct and indirect taxes as per the data placed in Parliament in 2013. The corporate funding to political parties between 2015-17 has been Rs 636.58 lakh crore. The exemption the corporates gained during these 3 years has been Rs 6084.48 lakh crore. The parliament was resounding with thunderous clapping and thumping of the desk during the announcement speech of PM Modi in Central Hall.
So this is the situation of our country wherein we are into political democracy as we do not have effective, workable inclusive economic model to bring together the people with the country through inclusive constitutional democracy.
As the government ends the current term in office and all political parties prepare for the next general election, the people's concerns and aspirations must be focused at by the political parties to ensure constitutional rights of the people than party manifestos at the heart of governance in particular for the excluded and vulnerable sections.
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