Democracy - "Of the people, By the people and For the people"

The preamble to the Indian constitution says that -


"WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation"

In 1949, we were quick in copying Abraham Lincoln- "Of the people, By the people and for the people"


More than 60 yrs later, i feel like challenging the basic philosophy or challenging the current system.

A common man technically should be the most powerful man in democracy. Government is only the elected representative of common man and hence controls the entire system.

But today, governments and public servants behave no less than monarchs.

Government can increase taxes, prices at its own will. A poor common man has no option but to agree to it.
Even if common man unites, he will get an opportunity once in 5 yrs, which is too less.

I feel that the fundamental concept of democracy is faulty. Otherwise, 60 yrs down the line a common man should be in a much better state of affairs than what he is ?

If it is "of the people", why is it that tons of money is lying in swiss banks since years, common man struggles for basic amenities and the government picks up 17 account holders of swiss bank to find out 34 crs of black money. Do they think we the common people of India are idiots ? 34 crs is nothing. They should have added at least 3 to 4 zeroes. Why are they hiding the names of those 17 account holders ?

Why did they take 30 to 60 days to arrest Kalmadi and Raja ? Simple - They were given time to settle there money at the right place and then get arrested.

Do we even know what is happening to people like Abdul Karim Telgi, Lalit Modi, Ramalinga Raju, CR Bhansali, Ketan Parekh, etc. Jayalalitha and Lalu Prasad yadav were named in multiple scams but nothing has happened.

I will leave the scam story and come back to empowerment of common man.

Why do we always hear that Supreme court is supreme ? A supreme court judge is also a human being and is prone to errors. Why should we treat his judgement as supreme and final. Why should supreme court not behave as a servant meant to serve public ? And the judges at supreme court get paid by common man's money only. So, they should behave.

A court is meant to facilitate disputes among people. They can never be supreme. They can never be above a common man.

A government who is not able to handle people's money properly and large number of scams come up under its rule - Why should such government be allow to collect taxes ?

Government is so particular about collecting advance taxes. Why is it not particular about making quick refunds of extra taxes collected.

Why should a EPF office be allowed to work in a way that it doesn't even know about its own Rs 1700 cr.  And when it discovers the money, they decide to distribute it. Why are they not being questioned ? I am sure there is more money lying and they don't even know where it is.

Its an end less story. I can keep writing my entire life.

Our country got independence without any revolution. "दे दी हमें आज़ादी बिना खड़ग बिना ढाल"

Had it been through a revolution, things would have been very different.So, the revolution is still pending.

Look at Egypt - It takes 15 days to bring about a change.

Why can't we in India bring about a change ? We have hundreds of Mubaraks (in terms of wealth).

My concern is that a common man in India is still not the most powerful. We have some idiots who think and behave as if they are the most powerful - Politicians and their kins, Bureaucrats and their kins.

There is something wrong with this democracy.

Why is food costlier

1. Twenty years back a Maruti 800 with an AC fitted used to cost Rs 2 lacs. And today it costs Rs 2.5 lacs.
2. Twenty years back an AC used to cost Rs 20k/30k. And today its the same and we get a better AC.
3. TV prices have crashed too heavily.

But why has it not happened with food items. From Apples to mangoes to onions to pulses and almost every food item has more than doubled in last 3/4 years itself. We can't even compare the prices with those 20 years back.

Lot of times in our country various governments have come down due to high food prices and lot of opposition parties have made inroads into power riding on promises of controlling food prices.

But food prices have still remained out of control. Is there something fundamentally wrong that we are doing and none of our leaders and planners have not been able to think about ?

Though prices of food items have risen like anything but farmers have not gained and are still the poorest of the lot and at times forced to commit suicide.

Since decades, we have been claiming that India is an agriculture economy. Remember, we used to write during school days - "भारत एक कृषि प्रधान देश है"

But i feel thats exactly where we are lacking. There have been no agricultural reforms since decades. The auto industry, FMCG industry, Electrical and electronic equipments industry have all undergone multiple reforms in last 60 years.

Where are the reforms in agricultural sector ? Last we heard was green revolution and that was almost 40-50 years back.

We need to initiate reforms in agriculture sector, inculcate supply chain efficiencies and create high quality storage facilities to ensure we produce more and keep it safe and prevent wastage. Thus, we can prevent ourselves from costly food items and high food inflation.

And thus contain overall inflation too without raising overall policy rates by RBI. :)

Is'nt it ??

This was a wonderful trip to mauritius in Oct 2010. I have already started feeling the need of a similar break. I hope i will be able to plan something in coming April.