The World's largest Democracy.
I recently attended an event on Corporate Governance. There was a lively talk by the keynote speaker and in the networking afterwards animated discussions took place. The central theme was how do we get rid of corruption. Frankly, though we were all very well-educated and well-intentioned people, no one had a clue on how to prevent / reduce corruption. That’s the trigger for this post. Not everything, mentioned here comes out of that event though.
Here is a mish-mash of facts, myths, opinions, hopes and theories.. even nonsense. I leave you to decide .. sift the fact from opinion and nonsense.
India is the world’s largest democracy (shortened to WLD) . And so it is. We all know it. The world knows it. Of late even the US Presidents have been singing this tune (Obama and Bush, both said that when they came to sell stuff to us). Other visiting Heads of State too routinely chant it…unless of course they are heading countries which are not themselves democracies.
Now, if only by chanting this WLD mantra (a la the Gayatri mantra) we could help all Indians to get a decent life !! Alas the gods did not want it so easy for us. But many of us anyway chant it. I guess we have so little positive happening at the moment that “India is the world’s largest democracy” is the one of the few things we can feel good about. The other perennial is of course “India is a 5000 year old civilization”.
So what does it mean for the common man ? This being a part of the WLD ? Very little I am afraid: A visit from politicians at election time and for the poorest, some minimal government support/ subsidy.
The point I am making is that while democracy may be better than monarchy, it has not been doing much good in India for quite some time now.. and one needs to ask why. The alternate model of Single party rule, as in China , seems to have yielded better overall results for the common man.
I have no answers for why democracy is not doing well in India. But I have a viewpoint. It is something I read in a book.
What we have is not the WLD , but the world’s largest election-o-cracy. We have election after election which are mostly fair, but that’s it. The less said the better about what happens before elections ( dynastic candidates, candidates with criminal backgrounds, use of black money funding, etc) and after elections (more corruption, and yet more corruption).
Aum WLD , aum WLD, aum WLD… repeat after me … aum WLD !!
An estimate of the cost of corruption in project cost in India.. it was 15% about 20 yrs back. It is now 45% ! Aum WLD, aum WLD !!!
To be continued…
I recently attended an event on Corporate Governance. There was a lively talk by the keynote speaker and in the networking afterwards animated discussions took place. The central theme was how do we get rid of corruption. Frankly, though we were all very well-educated and well-intentioned people, no one had a clue on how to prevent / reduce corruption. That’s the trigger for this post. Not everything, mentioned here comes out of that event though.
Here is a mish-mash of facts, myths, opinions, hopes and theories.. even nonsense. I leave you to decide .. sift the fact from opinion and nonsense.
India is the world’s largest democracy (shortened to WLD) . And so it is. We all know it. The world knows it. Of late even the US Presidents have been singing this tune (Obama and Bush, both said that when they came to sell stuff to us). Other visiting Heads of State too routinely chant it…unless of course they are heading countries which are not themselves democracies.
Now, if only by chanting this WLD mantra (a la the Gayatri mantra) we could help all Indians to get a decent life !! Alas the gods did not want it so easy for us. But many of us anyway chant it. I guess we have so little positive happening at the moment that “India is the world’s largest democracy” is the one of the few things we can feel good about. The other perennial is of course “India is a 5000 year old civilization”.
So what does it mean for the common man ? This being a part of the WLD ? Very little I am afraid: A visit from politicians at election time and for the poorest, some minimal government support/ subsidy.
The point I am making is that while democracy may be better than monarchy, it has not been doing much good in India for quite some time now.. and one needs to ask why. The alternate model of Single party rule, as in China , seems to have yielded better overall results for the common man.
I have no answers for why democracy is not doing well in India. But I have a viewpoint. It is something I read in a book.
What we have is not the WLD , but the world’s largest election-o-cracy. We have election after election which are mostly fair, but that’s it. The less said the better about what happens before elections ( dynastic candidates, candidates with criminal backgrounds, use of black money funding, etc) and after elections (more corruption, and yet more corruption).
Aum WLD , aum WLD, aum WLD… repeat after me … aum WLD !!
An estimate of the cost of corruption in project cost in India.. it was 15% about 20 yrs back. It is now 45% ! Aum WLD, aum WLD !!!
To be continued…
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