Challenges Faced By Indian Democracy

Note: In a democracy political parties participate in elections and get political power.

Note: The major challenge faced by all democratic nations in the world is religious conflicts and the resultant terrorism.

True.

Reason: Alertness is required to sustain a meaningful democracy against corruption and political malpractices.

False

Reason: Importance of the problems of farmers and tribals has significant reduced in the left extremist movement. Instead, violent measures are used to opposed government policies and attack the police forces.

True

Reason: The working capacity of government at political and administrative level is reduced due to corruption, yielding distrust and dissatisfaction among people.

Naxalism had its beginning as a movement to remove injustice aggressive landlessness of farmers and tribal people. It has undergone a huge transformation since then. The importance of farmers’ issues have reduced and the movement has taken an antistate stance. Naxalism in contemporary times poses as a major an internal security threat to India with its propensity to violence as a means to achieving political ends.

Corruption is a major setback to democratic processes in India. It challenges the efficient working of the administration and dislodges public faith in the system due to delay in bureaucratic paperwork, poor public accountability record and growing financial burden. Corruption in the electoral process like bogus voting, bribing the voters, abducting the voters etc. reduces public confidence in the democratic process.

Factors are required for the successes of democracy in India are:

1. Inclusion of minority

All religious, linguistics, ethnic and caste group should get the equal opportunity to participate in the policy making

2. Decriminalisation of Politics

To prevent criminalization of politics, the judiciary has adopted measures like prohibition of criminals from participating in political process

3. Social Campaigns

Conscious efforts are required at both social and individual levels for the success of government program. In this regard, various NGOs have greatly contributed to education, health care, women empowerment, environmental cleanliness etc.

4. Increase participation of people

Increased public participation can drive publish policies. To encourage women for participation in social life, 50% seats are kept reserved in local self-governing institutions.

The effects of criminalization of politics are:

1. Lack of voters’ confidence: Voters lose confidence in democratic electoral processes and decide not caste votes in elections.

2. Glorification of criminal in society: crime and criminals get validation in the society with money and muscle power, threatening the law and order situation.

3. Violence during election: Candidates with criminal background opt for violent measures like booth capturing, voters’ coercion, abduction etc. to win elections.

4. Abuse of political power: Criminals with political connections abuse the power of office for their personal advantage. It leads to increase in corruption and decrease in stature of the public office of a political leader.

The efforts undertaken to bring transparency in political process are:

1. Swift access to Parliament proceedings: The parliamentary proceedings are broadcasted on live television for people to observe. Moreover, public records of the debate are accessible through archives on request.

2. Introduction of RTI: The Right to Information Act (2005) is a huge step towards increasing public accountability in the legislative and administrative ends of the Government.

3. Decriminalisation of politics: To prevent criminals from corrupting political life of the socirty, the judiciary has adopted measures like strict punishment and prohibition of criminals from participating in political process.

Corruption is an issue that adversely affects India's economy of central, state and local government agencies. Not only has it held the economy back from reaching new heights, but rampant corruption has stunted the country's development.

Several measures can be adopted to tackle the problem of corruption in our country. They include –

1) Ending impunity - Effective law enforcement is essential to ensure the corrupt are punished and break the cycle of impunity, or freedom from punishment or loss. India has several anti-corruption laws. But the ineffective application of these laws has made them redundant. This needs to change to end corruption.

2) Reformation of public administration and finance management - Reforms focussing on improving financial management and strengthening the role of auditing agencies have in many countries achieved greater impact than public sector reforms on curbing corruption. One such reform is the disclosure of budget information, which prevents waste and misappropriation of resources.

3) Access to information would promote transparency - Countries successful at curbing corruption have a long tradition of government openness, freedom of the press, transparency and access to information. Access to information increases the responsiveness of government bodies, while simultaneously having a positive effect on the levels of public participation in a country.

4) Empowerment of citizens - Strengthening citizens demand for anti-corruption and empowering them to hold government accountable is a sustainable approach that helps to build mutual trust between citizens and government. For example, community monitoring initiatives have in some cases contributed to the detection of corruption, reduced leakages of funds, and improved the quantity and quality of public services.

5) Making international loopholes rudimentary - Without access to the international financial system, corrupt public officials throughout the world would not be able to launder and hide the proceeds of looted state assets. Major financial centres urgently need to put in place ways to stop their banks and cooperating offshore financial centres from absorbing illicit flows of money.

Points to be mentioned in a group discussion regarding the problem of terrorism in India:

1) Causes which include religious, economic, ethnic and social points

2) Impacts including that on human lives, infrastructure.

3) Economic effects

4) Social and political instability

5) Examples of terrorist acts in India.

Democracy is a form of government in which citizens of a certain nation select their own representatives for making decisions that affect society as a whole. It is characterized by legal equality, political freedom and the rule of law. It has four key elements –

• Free and fair elections enable the existence of a liberal and independent political system.

• Active participation of citizens in political and civil lives.

• Protection of human rights.

• Judicial equality for all citizens.

A non-democratic system refers to a monarchical or imperial regime. Dictatorship also falls under this system. It robs the population under its control of basic citizenship rights as the population are mere subjects under such rule and not citizens. Apart, from the basic difference in ideals between democratic and non-democratic systems, there are several institutions which play a key role. These institutions are necessary to uphold the ideals of democracy and make the democratic nation functions as a whole. The institutions that aid in the creation of a successful democracy includes, the Parliament and the legislatures, The Supreme Court and the high courts of a country and the political parties. The Parliament and the legislatures are for the elected representatives who have been elected by the general populace of their own free will. They ensure that the common people have a voice in the development of the country through various legislatures and acts. The Judiciary, represented by the Supreme Court and high courts of a country ensure that justice is equal for all citizens in a country. They uphold the rule of law and is one of the basic institutions that transform a non-democratic system into a democratic system. Political parties represent the common people at the central and state level. The represent diverse ideological principles and allows people a choice while voting. They can support or contradict a ruling party’s motions thereby providing a real competition making democracy successful.

Beyond the three mentioned political institutions, there are numerous social institutions that can transform a non-democratic system to a democratic one. Institutions like a free press, public education etc are social institutions that allow a smooth working of any democracy.

A political party is an organized group of people who exercise their legal right to identify with a set of similar political aims and opinions, and one that seeks to influence public policy by getting its candidates elected to public office. The electoral system prevalent in a country, its political culture, the legal regulations play a key role in determining the internal functions of an individual political party. In India, the parties are majorly a by-product of the social system already in place, Indian National Congress, the oldest political party in India was established with the view of giving the common educated Indian masses a voice at the centre under British Rule. After independence, several different political parties came up mostly because of the regional diversity present in India. The population considered Congress to be unable to represent the entirety of the country on an equal basis and different parties were formed backed by different sections of the population each with their own agenda within the democratic framework of the country’s constitution. India is a characterized with a multi-party system. A large number of parties compete with each other on relatively equal terms and without outright majority, it often leads to coalition government. The major political parties in India include the Indian National Congress, The Bharatiya Janata Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party and the Communist Party of India. There are also numerous regional parties which aid the major parties in the political arena.

As per the Indian Constitution, all these parties have democratic systems in place to ensure equality. They are required to register their constitutions with the Election Commission. All major parties have to hold internal elections to select their leaders in order to ensure democracy from the grass-root level. For e.g., in the Indian National Congress, each state has a Pradesh Congress Committee. No office bearer at the block or district level can hold the position for more than two consecutive terms, but this stricture does not apply to the state or national level. Anyone can run for the post of Congress president if 10 members of the PCC nominate them. The Congress President is selected by the delegates of the PCC. The person who stood for election automatically becomes the next president in the absence of any opposing candidates. Other parties also have a similar structure in existence. Thus, it can be concluded that political parties in India have constitutional existence of holding internal elections.

But in reality, this is far from truth. Off the five major parties in India, only the Communist Party of India is known to hold regular elections to change leadership within the party. The rest of the parties depend on manipulation and popularity to select their leaders within the party. Even as the political parties try to uphold the tennets of democracy in the public sphere, they flout it within their party structure creating a farce at the base level.

Democracy is a form of government in which citizens of a certain nation select their own representatives for making decisions that affect society as a whole. It is characterized by legal equality, political freedom and rule of law. Political parties which form one of the key institutions of a democratic system represent the common people at the central and state level. The represent diverse ideological principles and allows people a choice while voting. They can support or contradict a ruling party’s motions thereby providing a real competition making democracy successful. Democratic countries can a variety of party systems within its political arena. They can be two-party systems, multi-party system, one-party systems and one dominant party systems.

One-party system refers to the political condition where only one party exists and it concentrates the government authority within it. The Peoples’ Republic of China has a one-party system. The power is centralized in the Chinese Communist Party which acts on the interests of the people. By this definition, China is a democratic nation. But China also has eight other legally recognised political parties which are not allowed to challenge the Communist Party. The lack of an election procedure and the absence of the right of people to vote for others is what makes one question China’s democratic status. The inherent problem with Chinese democracy is that it is different from the general definition of democracy followed by the rest of the world. Its government has the necessary judiciary, parliament, legislatures etc but it is subordinate to the Communist Party. Even if the Chinese Government is not directly elected, elections are allowed at lower levels of the party. This augmented also by the fact that China is an economic powerhouse proves that it is well governed. The curious case of Chinese democracy has proven that liberal democracy can triumph over its ideological alternatives.

Family monopoly is politics refer to the issue where top positions in different political parties in India are taken by family members of a well-known leader. It harks back to the monarchical system of ascension was the son succeeded the father on the throne in kingdoms. Several political parties in India have been present since before Independence. Even with proper constitutions outlining their rules and regulations, there is a propensity to favour family members of the existing president of said parties. This is a major problem in Indian democracy as it goes against the most basic principal of the ideology which is ‘liberty, equality and fraternity.’ With family monopoly, the equality of party members comes under scrutiny. If one member is favoured more because of nepotism, the other members who don’t have that advantage lose out on equal treatment. Political party members also lose out on their liberty to choose a more eligible member because of dynastic succession. Thus, political parties in India need to move out from hold of the family monopoly to remain true to the ideals of democracy.