As far as my knowledge goes, democracy is "By the people, for the people and of the people". Now, ours is the second largest population of the world and we are a democratic nation. So in that regards we can claim that, ours is the largest democracy of the world as the other competitor in demography; China, is a Communist country.

 

Till to date, in the enlightened century of twenty-first, there are many countries that are governed by different kind of system. There are Kingdoms-ruled by the Kings and Queens; the whole country belongs to one family and whatever the one person says and does that is final. Everyone of that country is at the mercy of one person.

There are countries ruled by the Communists. In this system, the Country is governed by only one political party. The members of that Communist party elect their leader and then he has the absolute power to rule. He can do or not do anything that he thinks fit. In my opinion, that system is the dictatorship of the party leader and far away from anything to do with "for the people and by the people".

Now, there are countries that are ruled by military Junta. That is another form of Dictatorship. It is the same, in a way, with the Kingdoms and communist ruled countries. Some of the Kingdoms have a system where the democratically elected Government usually are solely responsible and empowered to rule and the Kings and Queens are just symbolic; like the United Kingdom. This type of democracy is usually known as Westminster type of democracy-because this is invented by the parliament in the UK, which is situated in an area in London that is known as Westminster. The democracy that is followed by the Communist countries is known as ‘Democratic Communism” as was invented by our late Comrade Mr. Joyti Basu. An ignorant person like me, has never understood this, as communism and democracy is two totally opposing ideology. It is almost like trying to mix water and oil. If I say that, that theory of Mr.Basu was nothing but Hypocrisy; my communist friends will be up in arms.

 We have adopted a Westminster type of democracy. But again we have no King or Queen. The one hundred and odd big and small kings that we had, we have already done away with them. So we have now the President, who is elected not by the people but by the elected legislators; and then he usually be elected by the party who has the majority legislator in his favour. This is so much complicated a system that I have never understood; but again, I need to have some grey matter in brain which I think is in short supply. Now, I fully cannot blame my shortage of grey matter, as when I drive in front of the Government quarter of the Supreme administrator of the Andaman and Nicober administration; my little brain with small amount of grey matter simply stop functioning. Because, I cannot understand how the name of the Government quarter can be “Raj Niwas”, means residence of a Raja. Is it that we are still under the administration of a Raja or the British Raj or a democratically elected government? My little brain cannot understand how a servant of a democratic Government can be a Raja? Is that a democracy or hypocrisy?

Anyway, we are still the largest democracy of the world and we are proud for that. But when I think it is “by the people and for the people”, I start to get confused. Some of the truly democratic country of the world that I have lived and worked, I have seen a different scenario. Most of the inhabitants of those countries are highly educated and fully understand the meaning of democracy and the right of the people who lives in a democratic country. So, when they cast their ballot paper they are fully conscious about for whom they are voting for. They fully know that in a democratic system you can chose a person whom you think most suitable to be your representative in the law making house. Laws made in the legislative houses Govern the whole masses of the country. Now, in the largest democracy of the world how many people are actually educated? We are told that, even after 64 years of independence almost 50% of our population cannot read or write. Now, a person who is totally ignorant like me, how will understand who will genuinely work for me? Another problem is that, in the developed democratic countries; means, in the countries where most people has more grey matter than me; I mean, the people with proper education, usually make sure that they exercise their right of votes. But, in my country it is opposite. They educated ones, mostly feel that, going to the booths for casting votes is a waste of time. For most of them that day is a holiday; which means to go for a picnic with family in a flashy car. For them, politics is a dirty thing and the politicians are corrupted. I fully cannot blame them, as India is very high in the list of the countries where most of the corruption takes place and this corruption trickles down to the ordinary level through the corrupted politicians. Now, my brain with little grey matter cannot understand, if the educated and wise people shy away from the arena of the politics then who should fill up the blanks? It must be by the people, who are notorious criminals, who has no sense of responsibility to the electorates, who only want to make money through political power, who will like to orchestrate old scams like Bofors, fodder scamp and as recent as 2G scamps and many many scams that has given plenty retired Justices jobs after retirement. The small number of educated and wise people of our motherland does not want to be a politician and also do not wish to vote. So, this Herculean task to maintain our largest democracy on the planet earth has fallen on the hands of the (mostly) illiterate and semi-literate politicians and the (mostly) same type of voters. None of these two groups understand what is the meaning of democracy (by the people and for the people). Now, the law of nature is, nothing can remain void. So, if the educated and wise do not like to take care of our motherland and the democracy then Hypocrisy must fill the blanks and the whole society suffers from the ill effect of the hypocrites and not by the democrats. Once we are engulfed by the hypocritical rules we must prepare to dispense with Democratic rules and norms. We must prepare our mind to be ruled by one family and its descendants, the power hungry- money oriented politicians, unscrupulous government servants and the hooligans. That is where our destiny lies.