Dictator Democracy

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Dictator-democracy/articleshow/5120815.cms
An article Re-print of Jug Suraiya's Dictator Democracy on the ToI. While the treatment of the subject is sarcastic and humorous, it asks a very sensitive question: Whether government decrees and force feed democrcay like the one in Maharashtra is in true spirit of democracy.

Can democracy be a democracy and a dictatorship, both at the same time? Yes, it can, if it's Indian democracy. The Maharashtra government decreed that when the state went to assembly polls, Mumbai would forcibly be shut down shops, restaurants, schools, offices, factories, all closed so that people, with nothing else to be distracted by or to do, would be forced to vote.

The reason for this drastic measure to force-feed democracy or at least elections to Mumbaikars is that the otherwise 'can do' city is notoriously 'can't do' or 'won't do' when it comes to voting. This was evident in the last Lok Sabha polls in which the voter turnout was just over 40 per cent. The fact that the polls coincided with a long weekend which lured many Mumbaikars to out-of-town holidays was deemed to be largely responsible for the poor showing. However, sarkari concern was voiced over the seeming political apathy of a city which had just suffered a murderous terrorist attack and should have been all gung-ho about manning the barricades of democracy as represented by the ballot box, instead of swanning off on holiday.

To preclude the possibility of the assembly elections also proving a non-event in terms of turnout, the authorities reportedly issued orders that anyone failing to comply with the shutdown diktat was liable to face arrest under Section 135-B of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. To ensure compliance with this closed-door policy, special squads patrolled the city to make sure that no one was subverting democracy by trying to sneak into a school, or an office, or a factory, or a shop, or a restaurant. Go to vote. Or you might find yourself in jail: that was the message, willy-nilly, that officialdom sent out not just to Mumbaikars but to all of us who are citizens of this democracy.

Mumbai's case is symptomatic of a fundamental problem of our democracy. Democracy is supposed to be about empowering people, the common citizens, and helping them to get on with their daily lives as best they can (by going to schools, offices, factories, etc). But our sarkar seems convinced that democracy is only about empowering itself, at the expense of the people and their day-to-day needs.

India's political class and the successive governments that it forms, and which often comprise the strangest of bedfellows sees democracy only in terms of elections. It doesn't really matter which party comes into power, for in the end as a number of blatantly opportunistic alliances and coalitions have shown they are all fundamentally the same: cynical exploiters of the people.

Or at least that's the message that all our political parties have over the years been communicating, consciously or otherwise, to an increasingly sceptical electorate. The way our political parties, all our political parties of all shades and stripes, appear to see it is that the function of our democracy is only to hold periodic elections in which voters will, forcibly if necessary, vote one or other, or several, of these parties into power. Having fulfilled that basic duty (of having voted a politician into power) the voter can go jump. The voter's and the politician's democratic responsibility is over. Elections are the end all and be all of our democracy. And never mind what happens in between, never mind the persistent hardships and despair that citizens continue to face in their daily lives.

This is the real meaning of the Mumbai bandh on polling day: in our democracy the voter has no right of education, employment, earning a livelihood, whatever other than the right to vote. Indeed, as the Mumbai authorities would have it, the voter's right to vote is not just a right but an enforceable obligation. In other words, you've got to vote, whether you like it or not, whether you feel it's going to better your daily life in any way or not.

Jai ho to the democratic dictatorship of India that is Bharat.

What an Idea, Sirjee!

The silver lining of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks has been the citizens movement that has taken over. Never has been the political class under so much scrutiny and pressure from the citizenry. Elsewhere, in a strife torn state, Jammu and Kashmir, inspite of all the "boycott the polls" directives from the vested interests, people turn up at over 60% in the polling booths. If anything, this to me is the spirit of democracy in flesh and blood. This is Democracy and the belief in it redeemed. Our politicians are still not the best in standard but you can see political parties edging towards a "developmental agenda" slowly but very surely. The Delhi polls in which the incumbents took the development agenda beat the cahllengers who were honking the anti incumbency. It is a very strong message out there.
In times such as these, a very apt ad campaign is what caught my eyes. "Idea" might not be the best and biggest in telecom circles, but their ad campaign is special. It is special in terms of describing what connectivity and telecommunication can bring to the ordinary folks. Starting from a touchy subject of casteism and riots to empowering education and now empowering democracy. Hats off to the campaign for being able to say things so lucidly. And more importantly create a vision and a dream, which doesnot look to be very far fetched.
In a country which has been so instrumental in taking IT to the world, can we look at Online elections/voting? Can we look at scorecards for every constituency tracking progress versus what had been promised? Can we look at Internet/ telecommunications as a means to build consensus on issues regarding an area, state or the country as a whole?
There are multitude possibilities which can start with democratizing information and accessibility, all empowered by an online medium (IT/ Telecom). When will the time for this come?
But so far, this is to Idea: What an idea, sirjee!