Is democracy a big hurdle in India's development?

Is democracy a big hurdle in India's development?

India will grow much faster without a democracy. But is it worth it?

(Crowd scenes in a democracy. Image: SCMP)

Yes, not only India can develop, but also it can develop at a much faster rate without democracy. But is it worth it?

Democracy, mostly in India, is the tyranny of the majority. It makes the decision-making process multi-layered, cumbersome, and dependable upon the whims and fancies of an apathetic political class who practice and remember the institution of democracy only at the time of elections i.e once in every five years.

Most voters are uneducated and are swayed/bribed mostly by freebies and liquor sale on the election rush days. The policy is incoherent. India was dealing with a fractured mandate and from the scourge of coalition government until 2014. But the authoritarian image of Narendra Modi, rising from the hotbeds of prosperous sea-facing state of Gujarat, built his own brand image.

(Source: The Hindu)

In 2019 General Elections, he kept on rising from strength to strength. BJP garnered 37.4% of the votes in the Lok Sabha, the highest vote share by any party since passing of the former behemoth Indira Gandhi in the year 1980.

On that note, there was an interesting study by the Economist tracking the rise of BJP, which is bulwarked by riots preceding the election events.

(Source: The Economist)

If we look at the examples of former communists around the world...Russia reelected Putin to the fourth term to make Russia consolidate its power. China’s CPC gave overarching power to Xi Jinping, amended the rules and initiated the post of Vice PM and chose the Vice President of his choice to keep his favourites close, started a National Supervisory Body (NSB), which will look after the corruption issues in China — Xi gave NSB more powers than the judiciary.

So now you must say that India is doomed till the time the voters are uneducated, the political class is corrupt and the middle class is apathetic of the situations and turmoil in India.

Also, the rising CAA-NRC protests stalled many projects and brought the country to a standstill in the month of January 2020.

The Economist Intelligence Unit, a part of the UK-based Economist Group, has said India slipped 10 places to 51st spot in the 2019 Democracy Index’s global ranking. The reason cited is the erosion of civil liberties in Asia’s third-largest economy. The rankings factor in the electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties and is indicative of how one country is performing as a democracy.

To say the least, democracy inhibits the growth of India’s GDP by good 1–2% of GDP. We would have been wrestling China if quick actions would have followed after China’s change in the 1978 policy, which was followed by the Chinese revolution. License Permit Raj in India solidified the overarching bureaucratic culture of bribery, while honesty and probity died a silent death.

Democracy makes it difficult for strong decision making. It creates red-tapism, passing files, waiting for the activities to happen, it inhibits proactiveness. Also, First Past The Post (FPTP) system adopted in electing the House of Commons (Lok Sabha, in India) is also flawed where the second-highest vote-getter gets absolutely no representation. It is a winner-takes-all model. Hence the democracy in India is not like in European Countries where they implement the system of proportional representation including Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Deep K. Datta-Ray, the author of The Making of Indian diplomacy, says democracy’s reliance on people’s ability to be rational is its fatal weakness. While malfeasance in politics, poverty and inequalities hold back progress in India, China is charging ahead in delivering economic growth, and freedom for its people.

(Image: Economic Survey 2016–17)

Not only this, but many external factors also held the growth of India. Take India’s credit growth rating for example. India only recently grew from BAA2 to BAA3 in bond ratings whereas China continued to cruise ahead despite poor credit to GDP ratio.

You may call it international apathy or stickiness in their ratings, but you need to understand the consistent efforts to sideline India’s growth potential by International forums/leadership who works as China’s mouthpiece. This is very much a part of China’s psychological warfare. ‘Three warfares’ (3Ws) strategy — media, psychological and legal warfare — to weaken its adversaries in regions constituting what it perceives to be its ‘core interests’. (Singh Abhijit. China’s ‘Three Warfares’ and India. Published in IDSA). Hence all these are evidence of the China gaining control in the Indian economy and recent Government of India decision to ban 59 Chinese apps which “are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order,” points towards the above-stated facts.

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But all that being said, democracy can be understood under two senses. One is a narrow sense where it simply means democratic elections and power to elect representatives lies with the people. In other words, we call it a representative democracy. Second is a broad sense where the whole society is based on democratic principles. That is achievable in India if it uproots the social evils like untouchability, caste system and discrimination on the basis of caste, creed and sex. Installs the feeling of fraternity, human dignity that Mahatma Gandhi worked throughout his life for. India has excelled to establish a democracy in a narrow sense and we need to pave our path towards a broader sense.

So, coming back to the question. Despite stalling the growth process, international pressure and prejudice, should India continue to walk on the path of installing democracy in a broader way? My answer is yes. The reasons are below:

1. Free and fair elections: This is one of the beacons which makes India a democracy, even though in a narrow sense. In India, democracy is mostly defined by the will of people to chose its representative every five years. Election Commission of India has been pivotal in conducting elections every 5 years of centre and state assemblies fairly without major controversy. Supreme Court of India, the highest court of the land stands as a strong vanguard if any dispute arises in the electoral procedure in the General Elections.
2. Judicial Review: Judiciary has been a new beacon of hope for the common man. Progressive judgement like Passive Euthanasia, Basic Structure (Keshvananda Bharati Case 1973 — it is properly known as the case of the century), Right to Privacy, Right to Livelihood, Right to Die; Supreme Court is always expanding the ambit of individual rights mostly in the positive direction with very few backlashes of Naz Foundation Case that trimmed the rights of transgender but later, as the Supreme Court of India is also the keeper of records, the draconic judgement was reversed in NALSA vs Union of India case and they recognised the persons who fall outside the male/female gender binary, including persons who identify as “third gender.”
3. Right To Information: The basic objective of this act when it was enacted after a long moment ushered by an NGO in India in 2005 was a timely response to citizen requests for government information. To empower them. Promote transparency. Containing corruption. Although the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), Chief Information Commission (CIC) lack teeth right now are pivotal to the growth and dissemination of information in India.
4. Social media journalism and activism: Many facts and issues are raised on Twitter and Facebook; it can be a silent plea of the Jawan or about a sensitive issue of sexual harassment in the workplace (#metoo movement); the scope and the width of an individual dialogue is constantly expanding. Many whistleblowers force the government machinery to work in a certain way in a democracy. Donald Trump believes in Twitter Democracy. Journalism is crucial to democracy. Twitter provides those nuances which are acted upon. Free Speech is valued. And social media has emerged as a perfect platform in becoming the voice of the voiceless.
5. Unfettered development of Human Spirit and free expression of the human mind: Rabindranath Tagore in his vision for India i.e Bharat expressed the following:

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action into that heaven of freedom, my Father, LET MY COUNTRY AWAKE…….”

India can develop faster, but the breaks and rethinking provided by democracy make it a more workable and accountable form of government in modern times as India’s destiny is intertwined with that of democracy. In ancient Greece and Rome, democracies degenerated into political anarchy and necessitated the rise of militarized states. In the modern world, states are prosperous and they succeed because they are democratic and they are free. And India is not an exception.

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I write more on Aman Khanna – Medium now. This piece was written in HERE in Platocracy – Medium. Platocracy Space is also Quora -