(Dr. Rakkireddy Adireddy)
If one builds a house with hard work, another one burns it down by drinking clay! I have nothing else to say. But the condition of our country is the same. The national leaders of the time envisioned a democratic India standing on the foundations of equality, and freedom! They gave life to the Darshinika Constitution for building such a progressive nation. In the beginning, the regime went smoothly with aspirations of independence as the guiding lights. With time, many leaders in the country are ready to eat any straw for power and trample on the affairs of governance which are moving ahead with the aim of exploitation in the democratic system. Unethical leaders are spending their time manipulating the people with their intelligence regardless of the parties, thinking of the unrighteous subtlety that if they tell a lie, they will not grow rice but they will lose votes. The political chess they are playing by portraying democratic norms as invalid coins will dilute India’s image internationally.
- Sweden’s Videm organization evaluates the state of democracy in different countries every year. Freedom of expression, rule of law, quality of elections, newspapers, broadcast media, government policies, civil society, government restrictions on NGOs, etc., rank the countries. A few days ago the organization released its Democracy Report 2023. Its constituent Liberal Democracy Index (LDI) ranks India 97th out of 179 countries. In terms of Electoral Democracy (EDI), our rank is 108. In the recent report, India ranked 93rd and 100th respectively in the two indexes. This time, India has fallen even lower. The 2017 Weeden report, comparing the democratic conditions in 174 countries, ranked India 70th and 73rd respectively among LDI EDIsGot the ranks. As the year’s roll by, democracy in the country becomes like a fruit that has been swallowed. Indian civil life is gradually getting confused in the great darkness where the values preached by the constitution are not found.
Contrary to the ambitions of the nobles who worked hard to establish the democratic system, the system that is being operated today will continue to stain the democratic system. Governance affairs are being shaped in such a way that vote is valued in democracy as the sandalwood that power is a virtue. People are being made to vote. In the current system, people are burned vertically in the pyres of caste and religion and are ineligible to enter the legislatures as cancer. When such criminal records in our holy land are being worshipped, what is more, the country is being dishonored internationally. When big men who are tied up with criminal cases are turning the wheel as policymakers, peace and security is still in the way! Can democracy survive? It feels like democracy only if there are participants everywhere from policy-making to administration Chief Justice of India, Justice DY Chandra Chudhu stated that if the press and broadcasting media can function freely, the country will continue to be a democracy as a constitution to protect democracy.
Democracy has no meaning if the broadcasting media, which continues to be the fourth pillar in the construction of the Indian democratic system and plays a vital role, promotes journalism. There is no doubt that democratic governance in the country will not continue if the system of predatory rule is not eradicated. India is ranked 150th out of 180 countries in the Press Freedom Index last year, fittingly with the lack of broadcast media. With cases like royal treason and physical attacks, caste lines are pressed and the democratic trend is prevailing in Setu Himachal.Achieving socio-economic democracy was key to the goals of independence. If you see that it has come so far, you will see eyes like a bed. Domestically, income inequality is widening. Many helpless people who had a smooth life are committing suicide in the middle. Hegemonic ideologies continue to mock the concept of social equality. What is the meaning of calling us a constitutional democracy? What are the police doing as defenders of civil rights? Most of those who are taking public money in the form of salaries are becoming servants of the leaders. At the same time, the universality of democratic systems along with investigative institutions will become a netibir sandalwood. The resources of the nation are getting lost beyond political corruption.
In modern Indian literature, one has to think about how many intellectuals, intellectuals, and literary fans are enlightened as people who develop the values of wisdom, scholarship, and humanity, embodied by Aradhanaya! On what foundations are the current political system built? We need to ask the question of whether it will be different from the current political system. Even though the past political history, values, human relations, and administrative affairs may serve as guidelines for today’s modern society, the evil administration of today’s rulers in such a way as to distort history and destroy history is proof of this. So today’s modern future citizens must be shaped by future history. (The author is a Faculty Member of Kakatiya University, Warangal)
