What causes democracies to fail? Pakistan provides an answer. Democracies fail when 200 powerful families manipulate the country for their own ends and communication between classes break down. A gleaming pajero with beggar children scratching at the black tinted windows is a stark symbol of failing democracy in South Asia. The dreamers of 1947 had no Pajeros. Instead they wrote an idealistic Constitution. Justices S. Murlidhar and A.P Shah recently delivered a terrific judgement decriminalising Section 377. They did not endorse homosexuality, instead they asserted constitutionality. Similarly, this 15th August lets pledge to assert constitutionality in our daily lives. [link]
Well, it took us just one family to do the job.
9 comments:
Damn neat!
One family controlled the destiny (most families in the bottom, anyway, were robbed off their destiny years ago) of millions of families in an immensely diverse country with many distinct pursuits,successfully, which became an instant mantra to a few other power hungry families in each state.....
what we need now is a tribe of Robinhoods..
-Anonymous Bloop
Dude.. your one-liners are amazing..
Our democracy failed the day Gandhiji accepted Nehru's demand to be made the PM instead of Sardar Patel.
Someone tell Ghose that the most convincing thing about any argument she makes is her girlish pretty eff-ing face.
She could be more convincing if she shows up some cleavage, hips and thighs OR shows up completely naked as in some "naked news" programmes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_News
I wonder whether she had any experience working as 'Honey Trap" for Congress dynasty.
She is to Indian news media, what Sarah Palin is to USA politics.
Will we even be talking about her and her fundoo opinions if not for her pretty face and her famous husband.
On second breeze of thought
a handful of families or a single dimpled family thrive for years due to lack of strong opposition
show them strong n well thought out a body of resistance (instead of a flailing n ailing opposition in our country) n watch the fun
-Anonymous Bloop
Part of your argument of one family ruling is correct.
But i refuse to accept the other part of our Democracy having failed.
I think our democracy is very much alive and kicking. It has so far given every single party a chance at power. Looking at the way the BJP is disintegrating it looks like the Indian electorate has again chosen correctly (though i fell very sad at the turn of events vis-a-vis BJP).
Individuals and Institutions are tested when things arent going well.
By calling our democracy a failed democracy and there by equating it to the Paki democracy, you are doing a great disservices to the people of this country.
Even though there is one family at the top, dont forget that even that family has come by the way of the ballot and not by the way of the Bullet.
Anon,
You are reading a little too much into it. By the way, India was pretty much a failed state from 2001 till the recent elections in the eyes of our intellectuals.
Of course, now that the prospect of BJP is a viable challenge to the secular party is all but gone, a new narrative is being created.
@Anon who says "Someone tell Ghose .."
Pretty offensive comment. In a democracy, everyone has the right to opinion, even if it does not amuse you.
@author
The one family is detrimental to democracy but they have come to power every single time by legitimate means. There is a general impression that they are clean despite Bofors. BJP spoilt their chance by inclining too much right. In a way, the Gandhi family is not responsible for anything. The only failure of our democracy is that the rest of the political parties are not able to give Congress a worthwhile competition, which cannot be termed the fault of the Congress.
Hello kiteinthewind.
BJP spoilt their chance by inclining too much right.
Depends on where your right is. Do you really believe our Government can grow even bigger than it is today?
In a way, the Gandhi family is not responsible for anything.
That is the basic problem, they don't want to accept responsibility for anything. For some reason they feel they are entitled to rule, but every failure, corruption and hair brained policy is pinned on opposition or Hindus or some sort of global conspiracy. This simply does not wash. Obviously you will fail to see the massive corruption of the party. It may be that the family itself has not accumulated too much wealth, relatively speaking but their path to power is littered with corruption and mollycoddling unsavory elements. Add to it the systematic destruction of every democratic institution including the constitution. Perhaps you are aware that they are adding caste/religion criteria even for determining BPL lists!
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