India is a democratic republic. Democracy, the type of government followed in India, is defined as the government of the people, for the people and by the people. But with the way things are being run in India since independence, it has got all the wise and educated people of India thinking. Is democracy the best form of government?
As the US president Obama makes his trip to India, lots of talk is going on in the media about how these two nations can learn from each other about democracy. But is India really a successful democracy? When after sixty years of independence, we find 90% of the people below poverty line, can we say that democracy is the best form of government? I saw on tv an open session, with students questioning the US president about many issues including governance, ethics, religion and humanity. And I felt an urge to be there and ask a simple question. Though I don’t understand why I should be asking him this question, I would ask, “Which, out of democracy, communism, socialism, monarchy, dictatorship to name a few, is the best type of govenrnment?”
We are better of without dictatorship, since that means our hand are tied, legs are bound with invisible chains, effecively dissolving our freedom. Communism is very detrimental to progress. Monarchy is something we fought against for 150 years. And democracy is a combination of all these types of government, a government by many, though many’s a crowd. It does have a feel good feeling in it though.
So what choices are we left? Should we stick with lesser of all evils? Or go back to the old anarchy, since no form of organised government seems to work?
A fellow blogger Magali, has written a very thought provoking article about this. Read it here.
Yes this is very true. Democracy was a term coined (& then implemented) by the Ancient Greek. It is far from ideal but seems to be the best option that we have. I too have toyed with the idea of anarchy! But one can just imagine how that will turn out! Also, thanks for linking to my post.