India at Sixty- III

India, a land of more than one billion people has successfully survived as democracy for more than six decades (the imposition of emergency during mid-70s by Mrs. Gandhi being an aberration). Especially when considered against the complex problems such as communal divide in select pockets, sharpening caste conflicts, wide social and economic disparities, growing regional chauvinism, and language barriers and so on, it is really a matter of pride that India has evolved as a functioning parliamentary democracy.

True, the democracy we have had may not be vibrant or dynamic and perhaps more shallow and dynastic in character and yet the country has not fallen into the trap of military dictatorship. The worrisome feature of our democracy is that it is not only bristling with dynastic and feudalistic tendencies with all crookedness and wickedness built into the system but it is also increasingly rooted on the personalities rather than issues and ideologies. Politics has become almost a family business yielding a lucrative rate of return, cutting across various political parties in the country. The law of family inheritance seems to hold in politics more.

If only there had been a facility or rather a critical ability for the majority of the population to win an education – a quality primary school or secondary education at an affordable cost or grossly subsidized by the state, a fighting chance subsequently to land a job thereafter by sheer merit given transparency in job selection, the existence and operation of a benevolent nexus between the beau racy and judiciary leading to a just legal system – an orderly procedure of the rule of law that does not bend backward to shield the erring politicians, bigwigs and criminals, India would have traveled miles ahead in its economic journey with tremendous social empowerment but alas, we were not destined to be.