State of Democracy: Here in India, we take democracy for granted; which means you get to do what you like, when you like, wherever you like. It means travel without tickets in certain states in the country, in a reserved compartment; throwing your weight around if you or your father is well connected and doing as you please; getting a post doctorate in hooliganism, an essential requirement to become a political leader with immeasurable riches just waiting to be grabbed; showing scant regard for a cop because, after all, you are well connected and hence untouchable;using money and muscle power to buy/ grab votes, because in India we come cheap and it takes very little to get our vote. It doesn't matter that the voter never sees his/ her candidate again until the next election dawns. It doesn't matter that we never see even a fraction of our taxes being put to good use. Because our elected rep is having the time of his life and is plotting for his rise in the hierarchy. Or to be bought out by another party. Morals and election promises be damned.
What India Needs.What India actually needs is a little less democracy, a little more stick. We keep hearing people(who remember)cursing the Emergency in the mid 70's. But do they remember trains running on time, government officials at their seats and actually working? Yes there were excesses, but also what India could produce with a little wielding of the stick. Chandrababu Naidu did just that and made the State of Andhra Pradesh tick, a favoured destination for investment. But of course, he was pulled down by the bureaucracy in the next elections because he had actually made them work and deliver.
So, in the hopeless state that we are in, what's the remedy? More next time.
