Fault Lines in Largest Democracy

To understand Indian Democracy, one needs to assess the Indian Democratic Capacity. At the very basic level of assessment; there are three visible actors in the system -

1. Citizens (Aam Aadmi), 
2. Representatives of the citizens (Netas) and 
3. Conscience Keepers (Activists, Press and Civil Society).

The extent of democratisation of India can be measured as the extent of involvement and commitment of these actors in the deliberations that lead to national decisions.

The question to ask therefore is, whether these actors have the (a) Rights (b) Ability and (c) Opportunity, to participate in deliberations about the content of the national decision. It does not need any rigorous research to observe that

1. Citizens (aam aadmi) lack the ability and opportunity, they indulge in misplaced adventurism (recent ‘Patidaar’ ‘Padmavati’ and ‘Dalit’ agitations) and their entrepreneurship has gone wild rather than becoming more civilised 
2. Representatives of the citizens (Netas) – have rights, ability and opportunity but lack the political will to rise above mean self interest, and 
3. Conscience Keepers (Activists, Press and Civil Society) – have the ability and opportunity but are driven by personal or borrowed agendas that are sponsored in cash and/or kind.

India has all the institutions of democracy but these institutions are turning into a formal shell. The vibrancy and energy of a democracy and the drive to see India achieve global recognition and success has unfortunately slipped away from the democratic arena and has instead moved into the hands of a small circle of a politico-economic elite. Unabated surfacing of scams and scandals involving public resources is proof enough. The public opinion and political opinion is being shaped by such elite and not through any public discourse. The politico-economic elite have been relentless in undermining the legislative and executive institutions beginning with the imposition of ‘Emergency’ in 1975. The last remaining bastion of an institution in the form of Judiciary, the Supreme Court of India has been attacked through an impeachment motion against the Chief Justice of India. Basically therefore, the biggest democracy in the world, the Indian democracy has a weak democratisation.

The palpable corollary is – Why is the State of Affairs so?

People that had gotten together around a common goal of getting India free from the British rule were left with no common goal to pursue after India became independent in 1947. With the threat and menace of external or foreign enemy gone, people were left to fend for themselves for their survival and growth. Self-interest dominated their psyche and their actions started getting selfish. The pyramid of priority of interests got inverted. The top-priority now was self-interest, followed by interest of caste, community, religion, class (labour, farmer). National-interest, which was at the peak before independence, tumbled down to the bottom. This is not to say that people have become less national or have turned anti-national.

But nationalism is an amorphous concept for my fellow citizens. Indians can exhibit it as a flag waving and loud sloganeering at international sporting arenas. Any time there is a perception of any threat or war like situation; Indians begin to exhibit national solidarity. In everyday life, without winking an eye, they defy civic rules and law and grab public goods and facilities (illicit parking on roads, wrong-side driving, littering, honking, queue-jumping, and so on are an everyday phenomenon) selfishly. In so doing, they have no concern for my fellow citizens and they have no remorse or guilt feeling of encroaching upon the rights of others. They do so with impunity, and nearly as a matter of entitlement. When they are caught breaking the law by the authorities, they try everything from name-dropping to begging for forgiveness and from denial to bribing their way through. Personal comfort and benefits are pursued relentlessly using all legitimate and illegitimate methods. Growth and good of the nation as a goal is no binding glue and people find no common ground for them as a group to get united.

The positions of the political parties have become very much alike. This means that there is not much to choose from for me as a voter. The effect is that political campaigns are looking more like advertising to make the differences look bigger. The private lives of the politicians have become an important issue in elections and we shy away from discussing "sensitive" issues. The elections are becoming anti-democratic because their outcomes are now in the hands of a small number of floating voters who are targeted with a narrow agenda. I usually end up with a feeling that my ‘priceless’ vote is actually quite worthless.

There are large shared interests between politics and business. Through lobbying and PR firms, multinational corporations are able to bring about legislation more effectively than the citizens. Business houses and the Indian government are in close relation because state need business. As modern businesses have almost no difficulty in moving to other countries, labour laws have become employee-unfriendly and tax bites have moved from companies to individuals. It has become more common for politicians and businessmen to switch and swap jobs.

With globalisation over the last 25 years, it is almost impossible for India to work out its own economic policy. While the other developed countries participate in large trade agreements and supranational unions (e.g., the European Union) to frame their policy, this level of politics is very hard to control with democratic instruments. Globalisation additionally endows transnational corporations with more political leverage given their ability to avoid regulation and they directly affect India’s economy.

India is getting caught into the neoliberal idea of new public management of privatising public services. PPP model for funding public assets and public services is the new mantra. Privatised institutions are difficult to control by democratic means and have no allegiance to human communities, unlike government. The basic public goods – public spaces, public-conveniences, public-sanitation, public-transport, public-healthcare, public-education, all are moving into the hands of private firms which have the flexibility to bend to the market. These “phantom firms” have incentive to make individual profit rather than better the welfare of the public.

Is there no solution to such problems? Well, there is.

Right values, particularly to the very young citizens, should be imparted. Values are imparted by the parents/family, neighbourhoods, schools and the places of worship. Over the years, all these sources of values have themselves withered away.

The ‘chalta hai’ (anything goes) approach has to be nipped. The ‘jugaad’ (a hack or a solution that bends the rules and is work-around to a law) in the name of survival must be differentiated from the ‘jugaad’ (an innovative fix or a simple and creative work-around to a problem). The former must be shunned and the latter rewarded.

The costs in breaking the rules are too small and the gains from such actions are quite high. This must be corrected. Discipline and law-abiding behaviour must fetch rewards and the opposite behaviour must be made very expensive.

The deterioration of standards in public life has occurred over a long period of time and the solutions will take time to deliver. Representatives of the citizens and the conscience keepers have to commit themselves to such social transformation and lead the change.

People have come to expect spaces to present their concerns and ideas. Citizens’ lack of confidence and distance from institutions and their distrust in the ability of those that should meet their needs cannot be ignored. To restore trust we need to recreate governance from the ground up, and put citizens (back) at the heart of institutions.

Until then, I will keep wondering about the irony of being the citizen of a ‘thriving democracy’ wherein the already so weak and fragile ‘democratisation is fading.’

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