A New Republic For India

      Parliamentary Democracy has been the form of governance in India for the last 61 years, a long time. This has been a long and a rather successful experiment if not an expensive and at times not the most effective. However I feel that the time has come for India to experiment with its Republic. Touch wood, parliamentary democracy has been successful for India with hardly a few incidences such as the one where Indira Gandhi issued the National Emergency, for some people it was dictatorship but for some it was an improvement in the way the system worked. I won't dwell on what it was or what it wasn't or what we couldn't achieve as all this is nothing but what I think and it won't give any solid results. Hence all that we can do is speculate.

       The best example that we can look at and maybe copy is that of France. France has done all sorts of governmental experiments. It has experienced a King, Constitutional Monarchy, Parliamentary Democracy and a Presidential Republic. India needs to remain true to its democratic value which it so often shows off to the rest of the world. Thus the best that India can get would be a Presidential Republic, something similar to USA. But would it be suitable?

      India at present is experiencing what experts may call as the coalition era. It is the time when a democracy has matured and all sections of society are represented at the political level. Thus there is an abundance of political options and alternatives. But this abundance has also taken its toll on the country. And that is the ineffectiveness of the Political System of the country. Parliamentary Democracy involves direct elections. Thus many a different political parties and candidates get elected resulting in no clear majority for a single party which in turn gives rise to the spirit of political 'co-operation'. Everybody wants to be in power. Thus political parties come together to form the government.

      At times this government has a lot more than two political parties involved to get it running which results in parties balancing their positions so as to not offend a member party because if they do so there might be a back clash. The offended party may take away its support resulting in political imbalance and at times resulting in the fall of the government. And we have a new election which results in the same event being repeated again and again.

      A diverse country like India is bound to have a population which is divided on different things. Nothing much can be done about this political imbalance. Only political parties can work harder not caring about their political results but about the economic and regional impact a decision that they take might have. Governments which work for the people never fall but those which work for themselves always fall and we have seen this being repeated again and again. Whenever a government fails to do its job and work efficiently for the people, it losses the next general elections to the opposition.

       Thus it is time that India decided on another form of governance. According to me the a federal government based on the similar lines of USA would be the best. But as I said this is my opinion and others are entitled to theirs. All I want to say is that its time that we get a change from this parliamentary form of democracy.

Indian Political System

There are many advantages and disadvantages of being in a democracy. The advantage is that many a times you get to listen to and follow a leader who is actually concerned with the development of the country and other times we have to listen to leaders who do nothing except divide the country or raise trivial topics which have no place in the life of an individual while at times these very same political parties and people come out with policies and opinions that encroach on the people’s rights.

Recently we had political parties condemning a book and its subsequent removal from the university syllabus. Of course it’s a clear case of encroaching upon the rights of the people. They could have simple censored the things that they didn’t find appropriate but they should not have removed it. People should have the right to read it or not to. The decision should have been left to the people regarding this. All I can say that such tactics are nothing but publicity stunts. Politics should be left out of academics. There is no place for politics in education.

We even have political parties who actually care for the people but of course those are rare cases. Recently a WB (World Bank) report showed that the conditions in Bihar had improved considerably. It’s a good thing that the least developed states are coming up and we are all happy about it. This can be said to a case of good administration and good governance.

We even have parties who follow the infamous British policy of divide and rule and they are successful to some extent. They divide the people by telling them about how people from other states are coming and taking their jobs et al. But by doing all this they are forgetting one important concept and that is that even though the majority of the well-off educated people don’t vote but the youngsters who are coming up and voicing their opinions certainly do not support them. It is the people’s fundamental right to move around anywhere in the country and to get a job in any part of the country.

We even have political parties that contest elections on the basis of caste. This can be said to be similar to the divide and rule policy but here they divide on the basis of caste. North India is a clear example of this where one politician decides to install statues of herself and other people and uses the tax-payers money to fund it. This is a blatant misuse of power and strict actions need to be taken to prevent such acts which do nothing but showcase the divide and rule policy that the minister is using.

There is not much that we can do about because it is we who brought these people to power but it is also us who can show them the door for good if they misuse or do not match the expectations of the people. We all blog about such things but what do we really do. How many of us go to vote? Ask this question to yourself. Well I for one have decided that as soon as I turn 18 and there is an elections I will use this fundamental right which is also a fundamental duty to select an individual on the basis of his own track record and not on the basis of his political party’s.

We can even contest elections but the major thing is that we won’t be able to get that support due to lack of funds. Money certainly plays an important role in electoral politics. That is a major problem in a democracy. Good people rarely get that required support whereas other Tom, Dick and Harry’s have an abundance of it. I feel democracy fails in this respect.

Although the agenda of these political parties is pretty clear and that is dynastic succession. It can be good and can be bad, it depends upon that individual. In some cases it is good as the successor is well aware of his duties to the electorate and many a times he does the right job. But those sometimes when they are worse than their ancestor really make us question the logic behind having such a political system.

We have a political system where an individual can use diverse trump cards (another problem in a democracy) such as that of caste, religion, regionalism and linguism. Such cards threaten the very existence of a democratic society like India where people will get easily get elected using these trump cards. The election commission has to take a strong action and make stricter rules regarding the use of such trump cards by political parties.

All the time we blame the system for the pains and problems that we have to go through and why not that’s the closest thing that can be related to us. Because we are the system, if we can make somebody big we can also cause his fall. The only solution for this political problem is more awareness among the people regarding their fundamental rights and their fundamental duties. Even if people became a little more aware the system would itself correct itself.

But as they say, an idiot can remain in power only if he ensures that nobody else becomes smarter than him. And our very own Indian political system proves this principle a little too well. With the citizens acting like the three monkeys of Gandhi and allowing everything to pass by and not raising any noise about anything that they feel is simple not right.

But as people have always said and will keep on saying there is always a ray of light at the end of the tunnel and in this case also this principle holds true. The ray of light is education. With more and more people becoming educated and aware about their fundamental rights and not only rights but even their fundamental duties. So all I can say is that with more and more youngsters raising their voices, I think the political parties will find it a little hard to fend for themselves if they do not respect the wishes and ambitions of the people. 

The US-Pakistan Relationship: Friend or Foe?

    For a long term relationship to last, trust needs to be there. But in the case of the American-Pakistan partnership trust has not been something that was meant to be there. The Americans changed their interaction with Pakistan when the Iron Curtain fell and they started becoming Pro-India but they later had to change this position of theirs due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks which resulted in the US declaring war on Afghanistan.

    Afghanistan was a poor third world country that was far away from them and which had witnessed numerous political events in the past decades. But now that they had invaded the landlocked country it became important for the US to strike a partnership(short-term) with Pakistan in order to prevent terrorists from entering Pakistan and escaping the 'American Wrath'. But that was never meant to be.

    Though the partnership was struck but Pakistan under the dictatorial regime allowed the Taliban to enter and hide in Pakistan. The Pakistani Government thought that they could now get the best of both worlds. They would terrorize India using the vast number of terrorists who had arrived in Pakistan and also by threatening India by the weapons gifted by Uncle Sam. But in doing so they did not realize that they were on the wrong road and had to change.

    The result: Pakistan was soon being regarded as a 'terrorist state' with more than 80% of the global attacks being traced back to them. The Americans could not do anything. They could not attack Pakistan as it had got its own weapons of mass-destruction which ironically had been acquired by Pakistan as the US turned a blind eye to the Pakistani Nuclear Program.

    Now the Americans are in a tight spot. Years of bad foreign policy have come back to haunt them. The US does not have a clear way out to get out of this mess that they have got themselves in. All they can do is wait. Wait for the time to pass and for the region to become stable. Only then can they decide on their next course of action to deal with the 'Terrorist State'.