When I returned back to my home town, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, after spending five and a half years in the US, it wasn’t tough to figure out that India, was (and is) running on “paper democracy”. Freedom of speech (did I say, freedom of speech?) is largely restrained. That’s right, even in the most powerful democracies, the ruling administrations invent or amend Constitutional rights to curb “freedom of speech”. In a highly populated Country like India, not many are aware of their fundamental rights as Citizens.
Now, this makes hell of a difference and is the root cause of living in a so-called democratic Country ruled by Autocratic Political Parties. 600 to 700 million people live in villages and non-urban areas. That is twice the population of United States (mind you). Political Parties, one after the other, lure the downtrodden with offers of free vesh-tees (formal bottoms wear in South India), Sarees (traditional wear of women in India) and food in exchange for casting their votes. I mean, this is literally an outrageous act of bribe according to the much-aware nations. One of the Dravidian parties, Dravida Munetra Kazhagam (DMK), has extended the free offer to Televisions. Now that is tax payers’ money! [Help needed to prove that it is the Party money]
The evil idea is to beam the ruling party’s TV channel and carry their propaganda across terrains. A TV or a cloth is _not_ going to help a Villager. It is “awareness” that is going to help him. That reminds me of the saying:
“Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day..
Teach him how to fish, he will eat for a lifetime”
That is what is required if a Country has to get on track of healthier development. A Country where its people are aware of their fundamental rights and are bound by the Constitution (alright, i am not for institutionalization of Public) will serve as a stepping block towards advancement in evolution of beings. It also brings sanity amidst chaos.
Now, do you understand why some countries are still paper-democratic? some still struggling to see successive democratically elected Governments? Military rule? etc.
April 4th, 2008 at 5:18 pm MDT
Partner !!! why these hard feelings against our lovely democratic country . As a friend ,You should have told me all these things, i could have shown you where they ( democracy , freedom of speech , fundamental rights of citizens, Socialism ) are right now. It’s omni present.For this , First , take your bike, go to mattuthavani bus stand , park your two wheeler in the Parking stand ( Pay fee -Rs.2.00). Take a hike to the nearby garbage disposal area , do some dumpster diving , you will surely stumble into those things that you have mentioned.
Partner !!! Last trip when i was there they were burning the so called “Tissue paper democracy”. At that point of time , i realised that Burning Paper democracy is hazardous to the environment. My observation is that they should Bury THEM.