Democracy:Just the number game?
April 20th 2007 09:56
Democracy is good.Its the ideal form of Governance.Or is it so? It might be true for developed countries,where literacy is almost hundred per cent and people are very aware of their rights and responsibilities.In the case of India,it's a different story.Multitudes of its population are not aware of their rights and cast their votes on impulse or promises made by the local party functionaries,who vanish after the election.This is repeated election after election but the script remains unchanged.People are promised good roads ,sanitation,basic health care facilities and employment opportunities.Yet, very little has been done .People now know that these are all election gimmicks and nothing would come their way. Politicians have realised this too and they no longer make any work or development related promises,instead they have started first propogating hate and then exploiting this for political gains.
Muslims constitute a significant proportion of the population and generally,they vote en block as a community. As long as they were with the Congress,the party triumphed- always .To regain their loyality,the government too tried always to fulfil their just or unjust demands.This brazen appeasement angered other religious parties which the congress failed to realise.As a result BJP came nowhere on the scene and beat congress on its own turf by propogating ultra Hindu nationalistic ideals.A slip in the form of demolition of the Ayodhya mosque at the time of Congress ruled government at the centre angered Muslims and they deserted the party.As a consequence,the party lost power at the centre and many other states.
Some street smart politicians ,though illiterate,managed to solve the airthmatical puzzle and went all out to woo the muslim support.They started an ' anti American' rhetoric because muslims generally do not like America.Some leaders like Lalu Yadav would keep Osama Bin Laden's look alike with him always to convey that hidden message.Predictably, they had got their calculations right and thus managed to win several state elections.
As soon as they came into power ,they distributed all the important positions to political functionaries.Civil servants were asked to sign on dotted lines,whenever and wherever they were asked to.This led to anarchy and some of the poor states went into a dark age era.Muscle men and Mafia hijacked the state machinery and hundreds and thousand of people were forced to flee to other states.
The unfortunate thing is that even the present government has started emulating similar strategies.It has realised that it came to power this time miraculously.Even it had not anticipated this being the incumbent.And the nuclear deal with the congress has left Muslims seething with anger.So,to pacify them it has resorted to some unprecedented divisive policies.
Democracy is being manipulated and it has just become a number game for greedy politicians.
Muslims constitute a significant proportion of the population and generally,they vote en block as a community. As long as they were with the Congress,the party triumphed- always .To regain their loyality,the government too tried always to fulfil their just or unjust demands.This brazen appeasement angered other religious parties which the congress failed to realise.As a result BJP came nowhere on the scene and beat congress on its own turf by propogating ultra Hindu nationalistic ideals.A slip in the form of demolition of the Ayodhya mosque at the time of Congress ruled government at the centre angered Muslims and they deserted the party.As a consequence,the party lost power at the centre and many other states.
Some street smart politicians ,though illiterate,managed to solve the airthmatical puzzle and went all out to woo the muslim support.They started an ' anti American' rhetoric because muslims generally do not like America.Some leaders like Lalu Yadav would keep Osama Bin Laden's look alike with him always to convey that hidden message.Predictably, they had got their calculations right and thus managed to win several state elections.
As soon as they came into power ,they distributed all the important positions to political functionaries.Civil servants were asked to sign on dotted lines,whenever and wherever they were asked to.This led to anarchy and some of the poor states went into a dark age era.Muscle men and Mafia hijacked the state machinery and hundreds and thousand of people were forced to flee to other states.
The unfortunate thing is that even the present government has started emulating similar strategies.It has realised that it came to power this time miraculously.Even it had not anticipated this being the incumbent.And the nuclear deal with the congress has left Muslims seething with anger.So,to pacify them it has resorted to some unprecedented divisive policies.
Democracy is being manipulated and it has just become a number game for greedy politicians.
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