Trust Deficit.
Democracy as being practiced now is under strain everywhere. It has become divisive, inefficient, indifferent, unable to manage crisis situations and it encourages mobocracy. Recently Biden, the US President, to get his rescue plan based on spending on infrastructure and social services, that was stuck in Congress due to slug-festing between the Republicans and Democrats, had to urge them with the statement, “We have to prove that Democracy Works”.
This clearly shows that even the world’s most powerful democratic country is doubting the efficacy of Democracy.
The first Global Parliamentary Report (GPR), which examined the “Changing Nature of Parliamentary Representation” argued that parliaments have come under pressure partly due to various incidences of misconduct and partly due to their failing in their key role of holding government accountable and that they must address the current low level of trust in them. It also said - “It is clear that casting a ballot every few years is no longer enough for an electorate. It wants more democratic engagement between it and the political institution it elects,”
A Forthright article by Charles Edel – “Democracy Is Fighting for Its Life”- published in Foreign Policy magazine highlighted that , “There is a sense of displacement, dislocation, and despair among large numbers of Americans who feel that the democratic system has grown increasingly unresponsive to their needs”.
Globally also, people are increasingly becoming more dissatisfied with the way democracy is working.According to a new survey conducted by Pew Research, across 34 countries, a median of 52% were found to be dissatisfied with democracy and approximately 64% feel that the elected representatives do not care about the people. The survey report shows that the dissatisfaction is apparent even in some of the most established democracies like the UK, the US, France and Japan where 69%, 59%, 58% and 53% respectively expressed dissatisfaction with how democracy is working in their country. Astonishingly, in India, which is grossly mismanaged right from top to bottom, 70 % population was happy with the way Democracy is functioning here. Perhaps, we are happy with the indiscipline and ‘Challta hai’ attitude it encourages all around and hence paying the price for that during the pandemic.
Democracies struggling to deal with crisis
Now, if we look around world wide the way pandemic has been handled, it clearly indicates that the democratic countries have struggled hard to control the virus and suffered the most.
Although China’s system of governance may not be a role model which one needs to copy, but one is surely compelled to compare the way, China a huge country and the most populous country, has been able to control the COVID menace, whereas all democratic countries; Spain, UK, USA, Italy, States as small as the state of Kerala, if not failed, are surely struggling to deal with the COVID menace even after a lapse of One year. China, on the other hand, in barely 6-7 months, brought things under control; its schools are open, markets are open, and economy is back on track.
Did we hear about people protesting in China - opposing wearing of masks, social distancing, the closing of bars, and restaurants, but we have witnessed these protests in USA, Brazil, Australia, etc. People were seen in these democratic countries flouting the social distancing rules during lockdowns. In India, even the doctors and administrative officials were attacked by the people when they went to the infected areas.
In India, we are witnessing people roaming around in total disregard to the government’s laid down protocols, and as a result today we have almost 30 lakh active cases, patients are struggling to get beds in hospitals, the economy is in doldrums, millions have lost their jobs, children are not able to attend schools and colleges, and a million have lost their lives.
Dainik Bhaskar in its report a few days ago brought out that almost 5000 people had died in Indore in last one month ending on 30 April. This implies that almost 0.16% of the population of Indore perished in just one month. If this is extrapolated on pan-India basis with virus now entering rural India, the figures would be colossal and mind boggling and it has purely happened because of lack of foresight, indifference, lack of planning and defunct administrative machinery.
Irrespective of whether China deliberately spread the virus or not, it’s worth learning about the stringent measures that the Chinese state had taken or is taking to control the spread of this virus. Those methods must be discussed openly.
This gross difference in handling a crisis between a democratic country and a communist nation once again brings us back to the often discussed issue. What is more important, People’s welfare and Country’s Progress or Freedom of expression? Have our democracies become corrupt and inefficient?
Something Needs to Be Done
The way things stand today, democracy instead of becoming our strength has become a weakness resulting in inefficiency and indifference. It may help the influential but is bringing misery to the poor, deprived and common man. One can go on giving instances of mis-governance, lack of accountability etc to substantiate this, because the pandemic has just exposed the rot. If one views the last one year of pandemic dispassionately, it appears that;
One, the current democratic societies are under stress and decision making has become a problem. There is apparently, never an end to arguments and protests even after the matter has been discussed, argued, and amended at the highest level, signed by President, passed by both houses, and many times even the court verdict is not acceptable.
Two, the democratic societies are increasingly getting polarized along all possible lines. The different lobbies that the Democratic process encourages, due to the electoral compulsions and in the guise of Rights and Freedom, are now working at cross purposes, encouraging inefficiency, violence and disruption of normal life, and destroying social fabric of our society.
Three, most of the democratic nations by and large have failed to discipline their people and implement the plans and protocols, necessary to check the spread of virus.
Now that we find ourselves amidst the crisis and having already suffered immensely, there is an urgent need to take action towards making system accountable and efficient and effective.
If the societies could gradually sideline the priestly class from their political system, got rid of Sultans, Kings and Queens, it’s now time to have a relook at the democracy the way it is being practiced now with a new perspective and make it more accountable, less argumentative, more uniting than being divisive, more people oriented rather than election oriented, more about responsibilities and duties rather than absolute freedom and mobocracy.
After all, how long can we have cunning, shrewd politicians hoodwink us in the guise of democracy and amass wealth, use best of facilities for their kith and kins. Most of the world’s democracies are still working on clientele system, “You scratch my back and I scratch yours”
These politicians of today are more like Sultans of yesteryears. Even if they lose elections they have over a period of time amassed so much of influence and wealth that they are no less than a King.
Something needs to be done; a nation cannot go on like this in a self destructive mode. Can such a society handle this current crisis? We need to be prepared; we need to learn from China, we need to strike a balance, between arguments and execution AND between protests and acceptance. It’s high time that our Democratic setup is suitably modified, where it takes into account people’s aspirations but at the same time it also brings efficiency in the system. You never know time may be running out and so we need to act fast. We must compel our leaders to bring about appropriate changes in the democratic process, so as to strike an appropriate balance between freedom of expression, People’s welfare and Nation’s Progress.