India is the envy of the world's democratic naysayers who spelled doom for us when we gained independence from the English and some even joked India is too large a geography to be democratic foreboding early balkanization. But we Indians proved them, the prophets of doom wrong. Here we are standing tall as the largest democratic citadel of the world, the 4th largest economy and an emerging superpower in the 21st century. The miracle of the 21st century is India's sailing through the chaotic democracy to the 4th largest economy in the echelons of world economic order.Yes, every state is having their own pros and cons irrespective of the type of government they have and so do we in a democracy. But the most important beauty of the democracy like ours is the right to every eligible citizens to chose their representative to govern themselves. In the wake of the Arab spring uprising, we feel lucky not to be ruled by the Mubaraks, the Gadafis and the Asads, our blogs in the internet not to be censored, not to be gunned down for protesting against corruption, not to be put down in jail for showing dissent to the government but we are unlucky to have our infamous Rajas and Kalmadia which is taken care of by a strong judiciary system of the country making sure the law of the land is supreme and equal for all. Those internationalists who thought Indian Democracy is a dishevelled one in the wake of 2G and Kalmadi saga should note that those who responsible for that are behind bars. The writ of the state and the law of the land are supreme and are equal for all even though you are a political heavyweight or a business tycoon. The pillars of the democracy have strong fundamental foundations inscripted in our constitution.
A vibrant democracy 's strength multiplied by many a fold with a stronger judiciary system and a vibrant media. The Indian media played a vital role in our quest for a corruption free society exposing the scandals, taking the cause of common man, raising environmental issues , finding the developemntal gaps in the hinterland and making aware the citizen about their rights. Every wrong move of a public servant is questioned and challenged and thrown to the public.We dont censor our press and issue gag order to our journalists unlike some muzzling every form of media having a sate control over it in the fear of a public backlash. Can we muzzle the press in India ?It seems to be alien to us. Moreover why we at all will muzzle the press, we are not doing forceful eviction of people for big projects and not beating up the dissenters and not feared of netizen bloggers.Our media is ultra proactive in keeping the govt at its toe in delivering its responsibilities. The media amplifies the sound of our chaotic democracy to a higher decibel.
Those economists/developement pundits who hold our democracy responsible for not achieving double digit growth, for our slow decision making process, for not speeding up the reform process and for not getting the lands for big ticket projects should keep in mind that we work in a people centric democratic enevironment where everybody have a say unlike authoratarian approach in some of our neighbouring country. Yes we are slow in decision making process and so on.. but we take pride in taking every stakeholder onboard for a unanimous decision with a sustainable approach without coercing them to agree with. It may dilly dally the process, but in the end it will be the people's decision. If at any point of time the govt became autoctaric, not responsive to people's demand, afflicted with corruption, contaminated with nepotism, people with vote them out like the recent assembly elections in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The biggest weapon in the hand of the common man to fight for his rights is a vote with a strong judiciary system and a vibrant fourth estate.
We always remain a open democratic society, where the democratic values are held high, opposition's view are respected, people's voice are heard, law of the land are obeyed, where every religion coexists, where every human rights values are respected, every govt is held accountable to the public and every citizen is guaranteed his constitutional rights. This is India, a nonpareil of a vibrant Democracy to the world.
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