DEMOCRACY IN INDIA TO BE REDEFINED

Converting a massive population into voting instruments by a handful of people representing different political parties with common interest is made to be called as 'Democracy' in India now. For a good number of people it is an easy way to amass wealth with the so called consent of people. Every action by these 'People's representatives ' deemed to have consent of the whole people. Yet the people do not react. Because they have not taught what is democracy and how to react upon. May be the least preference given in some of the Indian states is for education. Even after about a century of self governance the literacy rate of our country is about 78% with Kerala 96% and Bihar 47% (2011) on both ends. However, in reality, the average literacy of our country must be below 50% because the definition  given for literacy is, anyone above 7 years who can read and write (one's name) is literate. The literacy criteria should be changed upwards every year to the standards of class I, class II, class III etc to the graduation level, if we really want to make a literate society. With our existing level of literacy, most of our people do not know what is democracy. When Abraham Lincoln defined democracy as the government of the people, by the people and for the people, in Indian politics it s 'redefined' as the government of the politician, by the politician and for the politician.

Average salary and allowance of Members of Parliament in India is over Rs 3.5 lakhs per month. The per capita income of the country is Rs 10,583/-. This shows that these elected representatives draw more than 33 times that of the common man. And it is a democratic earning!  When a youth to get a salary of of one lakh rupees he has to study for two decades to gather the required knowledge and sit in front of many interview boards to get him tested, our democrats need not to undergo any prescribed studies, need not allow him to be tested and can occupy the seats with the so called ratification by the people and fix the salary and allowances at will. Many of them travel across the world to rule India. And we call it democracy.

It may be difficult to change the current system until the people are properly educated. That is another hard block to cross. Because many of our people do not know the significance of education.

While the wealth of a country is nothing but the natural resources available and the people accessible to exploit those, despite being on top of the world in both of these, we Indians prefer to hang on at the bottom of the economic ladder accusing one another for the state of affairs. While the median age of our population is 28.4, the same of some selected countries are: USA 38.5, UK 40.5, China 38.4, Japan 48.6 and Germany 47.8. This shows how young we are compared to top nations. Unfortunately, we are unable to use the high potential of these massive youth power. It is supposed to be the ruling governments aim to take the people to higher levels by co-ordinating the people with the available resources. When successive governments are failed in this, the powerful youth, instead of tightening the belt, they themselves should try to find these untapped resources and exploit the best way and share with the government. All said and done, as a whole, it is a comedy of errors!

K V George