Re: Is India a model Democracy?

[Padmanabha Rao <kvprao@igidr.ac.in>]

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On Mon, 1 Jan 2001 vamsi@siliconcorp.com wrote:
 Padmanabha Rao wrote:
 > Banning is a form of regulation [we ban nuke testing to regulate
 > proliferation].
 In a totalitarian system a ban is a form of regulation - agreed.  However, in
 a democratic system a "unilateral" ban by any Government agency (say, by
 Sushma Swaraj) is tantamount to Marshal Law and once cannot be so casual
about
 its interpretation!!  There is a big difference here and I ask again "is
India
 a model Democracy"?

For one, a Sushma Swaraj isn't unilateral. There's the cabinet and further
there is the government and further more there are the whole people who
voted them to power given the manifesto.

There's nothing casual about it. Banning is one of the means to regulate.
If we have a case for regulation, then banning doesn't even become a
question. Depending on the practicality or feasibility of the regulatory
measures advised a government chooses among the many instruments. Mostly
they are economic, but in the extremely difficult cases if becomes a ban.
Like banning rifle-practice in the nearby public park. The government is
not against my rifle-practice, not at all, but merely trying to regulate
it to safeguard the other users of the public park. Unfortunately, they
don't yet have the capability to stop a speeding bullet should it
accidently go aimed at a passer-by, and so they have told me that till
such time they do, they will put a ban on rifle-practice in the public
park. I kind of understand their concerns; I value life, and how would I
feel if I were a passer-by and had a technology-challenged government
around.

Is India a model democrasy ? Depends on how one defines democrasy. I think
democrasy is a process where individuals decide what the group does and
once that is done, the group decides how the individuals act. Indians have
regularly given mandates to a party in the elections. And the party has
gone about implementing them and governing through the duration of their
mandates. So democrasy is indeed alive and kicking in India. Is it a model
? I wish I could tell. I can't. I wish my neighbour could tell. She can't.
Guess it's not model after all. Maybe one couldn't care less about
"democrasy". It is common knowledge that only some of the individuals go
and sit and decide and give those mandates. And that only a part of the
mandated-group goes about governing after that. So what ? Perhaps it is
also common knowledge that what folks care about is not "democrasy" but
freedom.

Democrasy is just one of the means to achieve that. Actually democracy is
just a point in the spectrum of *processes* that can be adopted for
political governance. The object of all governance being to ensure the
maximum freedom to each individual. So do we have all freedom in India ? I
think we do to a large extent. Some of course we don't, like freedom from
bureaucratic pain or freedom from literate/illiterate compatriots or
freedom from rubbish Press or freedom from inefficient sub-markets or
freedom from.... Some of these freedoms are perhaps unachievable, some
ridiculous perhaps, some others genuinely realisable but not had for
unknown reasons. The last types are the ones we need to identify, rally
about in the next elections and see if the mandate can be given (An FM's
CurrentNews can't help here, but its documentary reports will). It is
possible and IMPORTANTLY I have the first freedom to pursue that
unhindered if I want to. If I don't that's my decision. There's a crucial
qualification here though: unhindered may not be accurate to say. But
that's not YET an insurmountable problem. And not at all something that an
FM could help under its CurrentNews bulletins.

Election related reporting is CurrentNews of course, and it would be
immensely useful for the electorate to have a watchful Press when the
process is on. I guess the ban can be normally expected to be lifted when
it comes to reporting on the day of polling. I am getting specific because
the matter is such. Further, as I have said before, the ban may not be
justified in a small town or a cluster of villages (I dont know for sure,
but the capacity required of the government is very small). In a city of
course it gets difficult to not put the ban, however it would be rightly
and self-interestedly lifted on polling days.

Thanks.

Padmanabha Rao



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