Democracy in India

Democracy in India, according to Abraham Lincoln, is measured as a two – thirds democracy only. In India, we have a government of the people and by the people but it is not for the people. For a full – fledged democracy in India, there are three things need. Firstly, the citizens must be educated and literate to understand the politics so the government is really effective. Secondly, the government must be transparent. And lastly, the citizens must have the freedom of information and access to that information.

If Indian democracy has to be really on these lines we have to build the National Information Infrastructure. Every public call office must provide access to the data with the government both at the Centre and in the states freely, and also, all this data must be available in Indian languages. But to achieve this meaningfully and also the type of growth rates the Asian Tigers achieved, despite the recent temporary setback on the currency fron,t education is the key. A nation which is half illiterate cannot face the challenges of the 21st century. Education is the route for a variable democracy as well as the economic development of the country. We need to focus on the spread of the primary education for all the masses living in remote areas of the country. But in today's scenario, it is seen that there is a close linkage between the local politicians and vested interests. Starting from the appointment of the teachers and their transfers to the required places of interest, it is evident that in many states, primary education and perhaps the secondary education too is highly politiczed. We find that even though attractive salaries are given to the primary school teachers, many of the single teacher schools are not at all effective in creating interest in people towards need of education. At the same time, there are reports that even the poor parents want their children to go to public school and study. They are prepared to pay even higher fees for the same.

In a democratic country like India, nothing happens unless there is a political will. The government must think definitely at this point. The Indian democracy will get organized only under two circumstances. The first one is if there is acrisis. The second situation is when there is a perceived and immediate advantage in terms of electoral gains. After all, unemployment is a national problem and to the extent we are able to provide avenues for removing unemployment, it will be a politically popular vote gathering measure. It is seen that under the various employment generation and poverty alleviation schemes like Prime Minister's Rojgar Yojana and the Integrated Rural Development Programme, thousands of lakhs of rupees are being spent. Instead of spending such huge amounts without any effective results, the educated youth can become teachers and give tuitions to the poor masses