Insights on the democratic crisis in India

ये दाग़ दाग़ उजाला, ये शबगज़ीदा सहर

वो इन्तज़ार था जिस का, ये वो सहर तो नहीं

(This stained tainted light, this night bitten dawn,
That we were waiting for, this is not that morning.)

These are opening lines taken from "Subah-e-Aazadi,” written by Faiz, a popular Urdu poet (Pakistan) known for his finest poems after Allama Iqbal. He wrote this piece on the very first morning of independence in 1947. It clearly depicts the dreadful story of exchanging trainloads of corpses wrapped in a sheet of blood. 

Democracy cannot function democratically if oppositions are weak and defunct. This appears to be hidden in the bright picture of the holier-than-thou government of the day in India. The comparisons can be drawn parallelly with the distinction that trainloads of corpses wrapped in a sheet of blood could be replaced with trainloads of unemployed people wrapped in a sheet of holier-than-thou attitude. 

If you look carefully at political rallies during elections in India, the whole population of a district, which comprises the population of countries like Bahrain and Luxembourg, is sitting idle under a heat of 40+ degrees under the sun for hours to hear from their leaders, who are known for making promises without caring about fulfilling them.

The fundamental basics of a democracy functioning properly require 100 percent literacy, but we chose a democratic set up in 1947 with 16% literate people. Now, we have reached 77%, according to 2022 data. Expecting such a population to measure their leaders based on agendas and manifestos would be termed a wild imagination. Added advantage on this, we have been nurturing 69% young population of 8th standard who cannot read simple text. 

You can discover that religion was used as opium to keep the monarchy together and manipulate its subjects at will if you turn the pages of history. Similarly, religious emotion is on par with that level, despite the fact that our constitution declares us to be a secular nation. Principles and deeds are not the same thing, but they still work in the name of nationalism without getting distinguished.

Finance Minister's husband Parakala Prabhakar writes in his book, 'The Crooked Timber of New India: Essays on A Republic in Crisis' that 24% of working populations are jobless and face difficulties in making ends meet. Furthermore, he draws comparisons between the unemployment rates in Syria, Lebanon, and Iran. Additionally, he charges that the government is hiding the unemployment statistics. 

The middle-aged Indian population is facing the music; they have no options available for employment but to start something to earn their living. This is the reason that start-ups have huge data with zero results.

The Delhi High Court ruled that there was sufficient material available against former president of WFI (Wrestling Federation of India) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who was accused of sexual harassment. The BJP government awarded his son Kran Bhushan Singh a ticket to contest the ongoing general election from Kaisar Ganj, a prestigious constituency in the capital. Another example of the same kind of case could be cited here from Karnataka, where the BJP stitched an alliance with Janata Dal (S). The leaked video of Prajwal Revanna was very serious and grave, and it portrayed the federal government as misogynist. The apathy of the government towards women's empowerment is quite visible when women's vote-casting percentage is quite higher than that of men.

 

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