Nuking the Indian 'Democracy' !

Ask Ebenezer Scrooge(of "A Christmas Carol" fame for the uninitiated) about the Indian Democracy, and he would say "Bah! Humbug!"

Democracy, or as I call it(at least in India's context), a demo-of-craziness, is defined by the dictionary as a form of government in which sovereign power resides in the hands of the people who exercise their voting powers to elect officers to represent them. Because a majority can win a vote in a democracy, it is has been commonly argued that majority rule can lead to a "tyranny of the majority", which isn't entirely incorrect!

India is democracy, but the meaning of democracy in India is entirely different. It stands for:

D- Demonstration- of power, wealth and omnipresent inefficiency.
E- Elitist rule- however the basic idea of the Indian democratic constitution is, government of the people for the people and by the people. How far the definition stands true in practice we know better. I don’t know to what extent the people of India are sovereign.
M- Militancy- on the name of secession-ism, separatism, independence and above all democratic rights.
O- Oligarchy- power in the hands of few and transfer of power among the family.
C- Caste-ism- one word that ensures political gains in the so-called secular country like India.
R- Reservation – incompetent people at work.
A- Authority without responsibility.
C- Corruption- part of everyone’s life.
Y- Yearning eyes for equality and justice.

With the government recently losing its majority when the Left parties withdrew support to it for pushing the deal without their consent after promising them that it would not do so, a free-for-all has broken out to muster numbers for and against the confidence vote, mainly by BUYING support. On display is crass political opportunism and rampant corruption.

Over the past 10 days, India's Parliament has been suddenly reduced to a political bazaar or auction-house, I daresay.

The ruling coalition has launched a poorly concealed drive to win over MPs through promises of ministerial positions and support for petty regional agendas, and outright bribery. In perfect retaliation, the opposition, primarily the BJP and the BSP, has been trying to match the ruling coalition, by poaching on the defection-prone SP and winning over undecided parties and independents.

What really hurts the interests of you, me and the entire country at large is that such parties, factions or individuals have no positions on matters such as foreign policy and security issues. But they can be persuaded to vote one way or other for reasons that have nothing to do with the content of the issue at stake.

Besides horse-trading and unethical deals, the present political contention has two particularly murky and unsavoury aspects which could really leave the country reeling in these turbulent times.
First, the government has made the democratic political process play hostage to the whims and fancies of powerful corporate interests. The SP is trying to extract mileage from its support to the UPA by lobbying for changes in important policies and personnel, which would favour the Anil Ambani group, to which it is closely tied. To counter this lobbying, Mukesh Ambani earlier this week met Prime Minister Singh and other top government leaders.
The second unsavoury aspect of the present political tug-of-war is the extraordinary importance that politicians with a criminal background have come to acquire in the crude numbers game. Six MPs, belonging to different parties, and currently in prison as convicts or under trial, may well determine the government’s fate. Several parties are trying to woo them with all kinds of promises in what is widely seen as a despicable show of cynicism. Imagine!

Now I have two issues.
First, I fail to understand why we need "simple" majority to form a Government? Is it just because its the "simplest" way out? Is it because its just impossible to get a bunch of people together who think alike? Why fifty percent? What makes us think that 271(+1) people who in any case have been put together in God knows what way can count for the entire population?
Second, isn't the entire coalition ideology pulling us back?
A Monologue is when one person talks. A Dialogue is when two persons talk. And a "Catalogue" is when all talk and no one listens!
Unfortunately, we have a Catalogue of parties(the kind of which you get at a mobile store when you're out buying a mobile phone !)
A coalition govt of parties with similar ideologies before the polls is good for the nation.
Unfortunately, in India, the coalition alliances mostly happen post polls. Parties that went tooth and nail against each other end up as friends to gain power and fleece the public. Parties that claim themselves Secular are the most communal and play dirty caste politics to gain votes.

In my humble opinion, no matter how the debate over the nuke deal plays out, and whether the deal goes through during the present term of the U.S. Congress or not, the bitter domestic political contention centered on it has exposed the seamy side of India’s much vaunted democracy and has indeed 'nuked the Indian Democracy'. It shows that India has failed to evolve healthy norms of party practices and democratic functioning and, along with decent parliamentary conventions. We have elections, yes, and by and large they are free and fair. But democracy is about more than periodic elections or winning a parliamentary vote with a manufactured majority. The entire electoral procedure has been reduced to a mere game of numbers!

Pray!