Discouraging features in Indian democracy

Discouraging features in Indian democracy

brotee mukhopadhyay

The Election Commission is conducting this election and it has fixed five days in April and May when Indian citizens have been asked to cast their votes. It has been done keeping in mind that India is a large country and that security forces are to be mobilized in different states and in different regions to ensure law and order. You may praise the people of India as they have been respecting the democratic practices for more than sixty years. But there are two things to discourage you.

Role of money:

It is an open secret that money has a role in the India election. It has always been in India. The exchequer is emptied for the preparation and execution of the general election. This is reasonable. The involvement touches hundreds of millions in INR. But you will notice many occasions when an aspiring candidate bribes the voters to secure their opinions in his favor. In the slums of Mumbai or Hyderabad he does it openly. This feature is very common in the rural India. A candidate spends huge money and a voter receives very little, at times a paper note of ten/fifty rupees. This year the voters in different constituencies are directly asking the candidates to pay them more. They hold the opinion that these candidates will never act anything in their favor in their five years tenure once they get elected.

Role of muscles

Guns are in use during the election days. None of the registered political parties are free this vice.  There are arsenals scattered widely in different parts of the constituencies. There are people who know when and how to flex their muscles. Some of them are committed to the ideology of the party. Communist Party of India (Marxist), other communist outfits and Bharatiya Janata Party have regimented persons who have been trained for this purpose. Indian National Congress has regular and seasonal connection with the notorious anti-socials of different places. In order to rig an election all these parties are ready to approve any unfair and deadly means. They will jam a booth, impersonate, and disallow the legal voters to reach to the polling centers, loot the ballot boxes, use daggers and firearms and even kill anyone whom they will find as an obstacle. There are party offices in different villages and towns which have provisions to store arms of different nature. Some candidates are themselves goons. They have been in the jails for criminal offences and they will go straight to the jails just after the election. Some political parties have their paid and unpaid mercenaries who surface to indulge in criminal activities when they receive instructions from the higher level. Ask anybody in India and you will find that everyone has a tale to tell.

And the same program next time:

Election Commission is aware of this. The honorable President of India, the honorable Governors of the states and the honorable Chief Justice of India are aware of this. Nothing has been done and no attempt to end this has been noticed till date. At the end of the election process Indian Election Commission will state that the election has been peaceful save a few disturbances. People will know that hundreds have been killed or fatally injured because of the election feuds. The people of India will wait for the same program in the next general election usually after five years.