Democracy allows the right to dissent. We have the opposition parties along with the ruling party in Parliament and state assemblies. Outside the legislative bodies, the civil society have the right to point out the government’s failure, criticise it and hold protests and demonstrations against it.
Independence is vital to human existence. Independence of the mind and thought process contributes in a big way to the enrichment and nourishment of society and a country.
Since our founding fathers forced the British to quit India, we have completed 77 years of our Independence. India continues to remain a vibrant democratic country at a time when its neighbours recoil in political instability.
India is called a subcontinent as it encompasses diverse people, cultures, languages and social groups. After Independence, the founding fathers opted for a decentralised federal power structure with the Union government and state governments having their respective domains. The diversity and decentralised power structure have held the country together.
Democracy allows the people the right to dissent. That is why we have the opposition parties along with the ruling party in Parliament and state assemblies. Outside the legislative bodies, the common people and civil society have the right to point out the government’s failure, criticise it and hold protests and demonstrations against it.
The government’s failure can be highlighted in the media and a citizen or a group of citizens can move the court against the government’s policies or decisions. These constitutional rights have provided the required fuel to keep the machine of democracy going smoothly.
In recent years, however, a trend has emerged across the globe where the ruling parties have started viewing their critics as enemies instead of co-sailors. This is a disturbing trend, which has potential to undermine and even completely destroy democracy, eventually independence.
As the trend has demonstrated, the rulers, who primarily get elected by the people in a democratic setup, have come down heavily on political opponents or critics calling them ‘traitors’. For such rulers, criticising the government means going against the country, and protests and demonstrations against the government are viewed as acts of ‘treason’.
India is not insulated from this trend. In the last few years, we have been witnessing radical polarisation based on political beliefs, religious practices, language, caste and regions.
This is fraught with danger. As we have seen, the turmoil in our neighbourhood – Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh – has been triggered by the leadership’s quest for absolute power.
Pakistan has slid into anarchy since long as the political leadership allowed the Army to take control of everything. In Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the situation worsened because the democratically elected political leadership tried to achieve absolute power by usurping the opposition space. Eventually, the ruling leaders had to flee their respective countries after massive people’s protests.
India must avoid such a situation. Indian political leaders must realise that there is nothing called absolute power in a democracy, and those ruling the country must listen to rumblings at the ground. They must be gracious enough to allow dissent and must not perceive those supporting them as patriots and their opponents as traitors. Loving my country should not be equated with supporting my government. As American writer and humourist Mark Twain said: “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.”
Democracy has its weaknesses but it is the best option we have in the present time. Democracy and independence go hand in hand, without the former the latter has no meaning.
