Half-Democracy

As I look at the polling participation post elections, I wonder if this is what our law-makers had envisioned when they made us a democratic nation.

In spite of many voting appeals by NGO’s and awareness about voting rights, in spite of making the election day as a holiday and in spite of huge election budget for ensuring security (IPL was moved out for the same), we Indians have failed in our national and most fundamental duty. We have made a mockery of ourselves in front of the entire world. How dare we say that we are the largest democracy in the world when more than half of our citizens do not vote?

Now-a-days, people find time to write and discuss lengthy articles about non-functioning and inefficiency of government. They talk of all those things like “how rains expose the quality of roads in metros and cities”, “how cheerleaders are becoming a threat to our culture”, “how media has become paparazzi”, etc. They even go to the extent of protesting against new policies by making human chain or by lighting candles at India Gate. Not only that, the same people who don’t vote, criticize the politicians and mock at the politics of coalition governments, immediately after the election results.  How do they find time and energy for all these protests, when they can’t spare a couple of hours to get themselves to vote?

Democracy has now become synonymous with protest. It won’t be wrong to say “Democracy is a form of government, where people protest against the leader, whom they haven’t voted”. These people won’t vote a new leader and still complain about the current one. As if, they don’t want themselves to be blamed for the government, hence they play safe and keep their hands clean in the election process. As if, people always are on the look out for a scapegoat, not realizing that they themselves should be the one.

Is this the only way where we use our weapon of democracy? As long we continue to exploit the one-sided meaning of Democracy, we will remain “Half-Democracy”