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Challenges
to Democracy:
7th Lecture in the series on 02-11-2007
By Prof. Sara
Joseph
Writer, Novelist,
Gender & Human Rights Activist and Feminist Thinker
 |
"There
is no democracy without equity. It is the constitutional mandate
of every democratically elected ruler to ensure that every
citizen, man or woman, elite or illiterate, rich or poor enjoy
full benefits of the economic development, political freedom,
and social welfare the country has achieved in last 60 years of
independence."
-
Prof. Sara Joseph |
Democracy
means the supremacy of people, but who are they – the people?
In democracy,
power is vested with the people to decide for themselves who should
rule over them. Hence it is pivotal who really are the people
exercising the power that will ultimately decide upon the destiny of
the common man and the nation.
The Left in
democracy was looked upon as the saviours of the weak, vulnerable
and the marginalized. It means the Left has definite role in
democracy, and it is nonetheless but defending the poor and the
powerless. People look at the Left with great expectation that their
hopes, anxieties, strives etc will be properly addressed by the
protagonists of the left ideology. Surprisingly, the ideological
Left does not seem to have strictly followed a policy to ameliorate
the gap between the rich and the poor, nor have opted a strategy to
epitomize equity and fairness, nor have consistently struggled for
an egalitarian society.
India, in
modern times, has made considerable advancements in the path of
development. However, it has to be noted that any or every attempt
for development in India was at the exclusion of the weak,
vulnerable, the unorganized, and culturally and economically
backward. It is blatant truth even in those States ruled by the
Left.
The pseudo
development in India is at the cost of the most desperate and
distressed communities who have been victims of political hypocrisy,
religious absolutism, male chauvinism and ethnic bias.
Our education
creates not a generation that is patriotic, but abysmally selfish,
self-centred and corrupt by all means and those who have no faith in
democracy or democratic institutions.
There is no
democracy without equity. It is the constitutional mandate of every
democratically elected ruler to ensure that every citizen, man or
woman, elite or illiterate, rich or poor enjoy full benefits of the
economic development, political freedom, and social welfare the
country has achieved in last 60 years of independence.
Indian
democracy has declined to give protection and justification to any
criminal or violator of human rights and civil liberties.
Unfortunately we do not have strong democratic leaders committed to
the cause of human predicament. On the other hand democracy in India
is manned and master-minded by hard core criminals who do not
hesitate in betraying the people, the natural resources and future
of the nation.
Justice must
flow like water, says the Bible. Water flows to the lower plains.
Hence justice should flow like water to the lower ranks of the
society – the poor, the sick, the elderly, the afflicted, the
marginalized, neglected and suppressed by the strong and the
powerful.
An awakened
people who always are on vigil over their rights and freedoms are
the only answer to rectify the situation. Our homes are undemocratic
when the female part of the family are threatened by their male
counterparts. Man – woman power equation has never been fair in
history. We call ideal home where there are women who mutely suffer
and never react to atrocities, physical, sexual or emotional. |
