The Question of Democracy

At this crucial time, the weaknesses of India's liberal democracy need to be urgently addressed and corrected

- Parakala Prabhakar

IT is a challenging time for democracy in our country. We are observing the 75th anniversary of our Republic, but we have failed to seriously take stock of our journey as a democracy. It is noteworthy that India is one of the very few countries which kept its polity democratic amidst serious challenges. Many nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America fell prey to military juntas, authoritarians, communist despots and religious obscurantists. Most post-colonial societies could not nurture democracy. Compared to them, our country’s record is exemplary.

However, in the recent past, our political discourse has increasingly turned undemocratic; our commitment to core democratic values such as diversity and tolerance is weakening; centre-state relations are frayed, causing deep fissures in our federal structure; legislatures have turned dysfunctional; our national statistical architecture stands compromised, impeding efforts to make the government accountable; media freedom is severely constricted; expression of dissent is smothered; and state institutions which ought to act as guardrails are being manipulated and undermined. The independence of our judiciary is questionable now. Evidence that the state enforcement and investigative agencies are deployed to serve the ruling dispensation’s partisan interests is mounting. All these trends are reflected in the rankings published year after year by several reputed global watchdog organisations.

OUR POLITICAL DISCOURSE HAS INCREASINGLY TURNED UNDEMOCRATIC; OUR COMMITMENT TO VALUES SUCH AS TOLERANCE IS WEAKENING.