India at Crossroads - Time to rethink our Political system

India is going through extraordinary times. Many people now believe that India will not survive as a Liberal Democracy. Civil society of India strongly believe that Modi-Shah Govt is the cause of present decline of India and subversion of constitution. Undoubtedly, Modi-Shah BJP Govt is an unprecedented threat to India's liberal Democracy & preamble of constitution. But Modi-Shah Govt is actually a CULMINATION of a system which was decaying since last several decades. Modi-Shah Govt is the conclusion and final phase of our dysfunctional political, social and Democratic system.

For quite some time, i had been thinking about Challenges India is facing and solutions we need to address them. The challenges are vast and daunting. These are in arenas of our Economic Policy, Defense Policy, foreign policy, socioeconomic development, economic disparity, Environment, social backwardness, standards of living etc. All these things need to be discussed specifically in their own right. But one of our greatest challenge is decay and collapse of our Political system and how to address that. Before talking about solutions, we first have to acknowledge and understand the problem. So lets start with our fundamental problem.

Our fundamental problem is that our Political system doesn't have the capability to lead the country in a positive direction. All the challenges we face in Economy, Industry, environment, socioeconomic development, inequality, Justice system, Defense & foreign policy etc etc - Our Political system simply doesn't have the answers to solve these problems. Our Political system & most of our Political leaders don't even acknowledge and understand these problems. So our Political leaders can never do anything to address the core problems of our country in any meaningful way.

So the crux of our problem is - Our Political system is BRAIN DEAD.

I have seen many people & their views on our national problems. Some people say that Corruption is the main problem of India. Some say that Constitution is not faithfully implemented. Nowadays people also blame EVMs (electronic voting machines). And most people blame Modi-Shah as the cause of all problems. I am sure you can also add several more things to this list. But all these problems are actually a RESULT & symptom of failure of our Political system. All these problems did not cause the failure of our Political system on their own. On contrary, our Political system has created many of these problems.

I came across many passionate people who worship the Constitution. So these people, gets alarmed when i say that India is suffering from a Constitutional failure. Our constitution itself has failed and it doesn't have an answer to the crisis we are facing. Elaborating on this. Constitution is a wonderful document in a way that it gives all the rights and liberties to citizens. Freedom of religion, freedom of speech, Concept of Justice, equality & Liberty etc etc. But Constitution also prescribes a Political system that actually fails to deliver all those rights & freedom. Our present Parliamentary system & State assemblies which are based on present model of Democratic elections is a failure.

At this point, when i say that our Democratic system is a failure, this also offends people because they believe in supreme sanctity of our Democratic elections. But what is a Democracy? What is the concept of Democracy? These are questions which requires an intellectual debate. These questions cannot be comprehended by casual thinking of ordinary people.

A country requires a structure and a model of government to stand upon & run itself. There can be many models of Government. You can see many kind of models throughout the world. In China, Europe, America, England, Africa, Middle east etc. All these places have different models of Govt.

Democracy is one of the models of Government. But going deeper into this. Every model of Government is a Social and a Political experiment. An experiment to see the result of XYZ model of government on the country. An experiment that is ever evolving optimizing & reforming itself so as to suit the national interest of country. Sometimes the whole experiment needs to be abandoned altogether!! These are revolutions when the entire models of Government are changed. This is a natural process of world. That's how world evolved from Feudalism, Communism, Monarchies, Fascism & other kind of dictatorships etc.

What is Democracy? Democracy is a Political and a social experiment where people choose their government through elections. But there is a lot more to it. As i said, model of Government is an experiment. And every experiment has prerequisites and protocols. There are prerequisites for Democracy to ensure a degree of success in proper functioning of government. In my opinion, these are some of the prerequisites.

1. A significant population of country should be educated, informed & stable. That means that a large part of Population should be middle class, with good education and financial stability. In short, the population should have the knowledge and intelligence to choose their elected representatives.
2. A country should have Social harmony & social integrity. A country should not have significant frictional social divisions like - caste, religion & culture. Note that, a country can have have diversity of Religions & culture BUT it must not have a situation of conflict between different cultures & religion.
3. A country must have a some degree of class Equality & economic parity. A country with Oligarchs, Landlords, super rich businessmen, Kings & Royal families can never have class equality.

These three are the main prerequisites for having a successful Democracy in a country. Notice that India did not have any of these things at the time of independence. Also these things could never be achieved after independence. But the creators of constitution envisioned our Political system mostly on HOPE, not very much on REALITY & PRACTICALITY. The creators of our constitution hoped that if they give all these wonderful Rights & freedoms to people on a written piece of paper, then hopefully our Political system will deliver these liberties & rights. If not today, then maybe tomorrow. Even if Political system is dysfunctional today, maybe tomorrow it will reform/evolve & deliver all the liberties & freedoms to people in a better way. But that never happened.

The features of our Democratic system & election process is like this. You should compare these with that of prerequisites to run a Democracy.

1. A vast majority of our population is Poor/Backward/illiterate. Most of our population have no education or very little education. We only have a tiny minority of middle class while a large part of population is in acute poverty. I think middle class is only like 10% of overall population. Poor, uneducated & desperate population simply do not have any understanding of our national problems. Our population is like a Mob which is full of emotion, but no intellect.
2. Since most of our Population is uneducated, poor & backward, they are also deeply religious, superstitious, Tribal and communal. We have religious militant organization like RSS, VHP & other Hindutva outfits. These militant religious organization also exercise a control over our political system. This communal nature of our society has created deep division and friction in our country which is very dangerous & harmful for a Political system. India also has a Caste & Tribal system which is discriminatory & divisive. India has a caste system which discriminates lower class Dalits & other minorities. And we have Tribal system in society like Jats, Gujjars, Baniyas, Patidars, Rajputs etc in various states which contend for power and privileges. We also have Tribal militias and Gangs in states which contend for power.
3. At present, our country is strongly influenced by Oligarchs & Billionaires (Ambani, Adani, Tata etc) who also have a control over the Political system. But historically, Our country had always been ruled by Kings & Maharajas. Our social structure is such that we have huge economic disparity & class inequality. A vast majority of Population is in poverty, hunger and homelessness.

Lets summarize our discussion. India is in a crisis -> Main cause of this crisis is our Political system -> Main cause of our failed Political system is Our Democratic system.

Now coming back to our Political system of today. What are the features of our Political system?

1. Most of our elected leaders are illiterate, backward & corrupted criminals. They do not have any understanding of public policy & national interest. Their only goal is to accumulate wealth & consolidate power for themselves
2. Our Political system is highly corrupt, inefficient & incompetent from the very top. So all that piss trickle down from the top down to the bottom. All our Ministries, Government departments, public offices, Bureaucracy & entire State apparatus is also corrupt, inefficient & incompetent. This is because our Political leaders (which are completely corrupt, incompetent & illiterate) create our public policy - on economy, trade, industry, foreign affairs, Human resources development, environment etc. Our Political leaders have the power to appoint the core Bureaucracy which runs this country.
3. The problem with our Political system is not only that the most of our elected Politicians are corrupt. The other dimension of this problem is that our Political system simply doesn't allow competent, educated, intelligent & visionary people to join our Political system & get elected. The smart & competent people simply cannot rise to the top in our Political system.

Summarizing the situation of our Political system. The worst kind of people (criminals, crony businessmen, Mafias, religious fanatics, psychopaths etc) rise to the top of ladder of our Political system. And the system just doesn't allow the best type of people (educated, committed, intelligent & visionary) to be a part of our political system.

So how does our political system & Democratic system works? This is a secret which has been cracked by big Politicians. Presently Modi & Amit Shah have mastered the secret art of our Political system. This is how it works.

1. Majority of Electorate/Voters do not have any understanding of our fundamental problems. They do not understand the causes of inflation, causes of Pollution & other environmental problems, causes of unemployment, causes of Banking crisis/NPAs/Bank failures etc, causes of Agrarian distress, causes of economic slowdown etc etc. In a nutshell, our electorate do not have any understanding of our economic policy, foreign policy, Trade & industrial policy, legal & administrative policy etc. Our Electorate/Voters have no intelligence & intellect. They only have emotions. They get angry with price rise of their food & groceries. They get angry because they can't find employment. In case of farmers, they get angry when they can't sell their crops at adequate price or if they are being crushed under their Agricultural loans. Students get angry when they don't find a job after college degrees. Ordinary people get angry when they are harassed & exploited by hands of corrupt bureaucracy of Govt for getting permits, license, pensions & other public services. So our population is filled with rage & anger.
2. Since the population is full of anger and without any intellect, they can be easily exploited, and their anger can be misdirected. People like Modi & Shah diverts people's anger & emotions away from core economic & social issues and towards religious & cultural issues. So anybody looking for a job can be misdirected towards thinking about Pakistan & Muslims. A farmer in distress can be misdirected towards thinking about Ram Mandir & Ram Rajya. Ordinary people suffering from problems of inflation, corruption & social insecurity can be misguided towards NRC & threat of Bangladeshi infiltrators.
3. There is an old saying. You can fool all people some of the time. You can fool some people all of the time. But you can't fool all people all of the time. But Modi & Shah have figured out the flaw of our multiparty Political system. They only need to fool only 30% of people for 3 months during election seasons. People can be fooled in name of Nationalism, Hindu Rashtra, Pakistan se Badla or any find of foolish slogan. Also Modi can create events that will dupe people into accepting these foolish slogans. Events like Communal Riots and False flag attacks (blamed on Muslims or Pakistan) can be orchestrated at critical times.
4. Modi & Shah Govt through various means have taken control over all institutions of country. The Supreme Court, Election Commission, Investigating agencies (CBI, ED, Police IT, etc), Army & Military, Media houses etc. So whenever Modi & Shah adopts a certain policy, they do not face resistance from anyone. Also Media plays a critical role in helping establishment of Modi & Shah dictatorship. Indian media is like North Korean media, whose sole aim is to misinform, misguide and misdirect people.

We have a vicious cycle of decay of our Political system. Dysfunctional Democratic system -> Produce corrupt & incompetent Politicians -> Create foolish, whimsical, regressive & reactionary policies -> Create failures of economy, foreign policy, socioeconomic breakdown, anarchy & chaos -> Further deteriorates society & Democratic system.

Some people have strong inclination towards Gandhi, Ambedkar & Nehru. There are many positives you can extract from their legacy - ideas about freedoms, fundamental rights, secularism etc. But you should also start thinking out of the box. The Political system created by India's founding fathers is now failing and collapsing before us. The kind of Political solutions we need today, were not anticipated by founding fathers.

So now when we have accepted and understood the failure of our Political system. We have to think of possible solutions. This is an uncharted territory. Where do we go from here? If not Democracy, than what? Do we go to dictatorship or authoritarianism? This is where you need to get creative. Forget about the Political system prescribed by the constitution. Think about a new Political system that can take India forward in 21st century.

We don't need to go from Democracy to a Dictatorship. I would say that ideas about fundamental rights, freedoms, concept of secularism equality & Justice as mentioned in constitution are great. These ideas have evolved globally with great success and these ideas will never be out fashioned by anything. In fact we need expand these ideas more to the point of economic rights (as visioned by FDR in America). But what we need is a Political system that carries and implements these ideas in an effective way. The concept of Democracy in preamble is still very relevant but the process of Democracy needs to be amended.

I strongly believe that India needs Electoral reforms. Electoral reforms that gives power of voting and power of leadership in hands of educated, capable & stable segment of Population. Segment of population which includes Students, Civil society, Middle class and intelligentsia of country. A better electorate will have a better chance to elect a leadership which will have capability, integrity, intellect and vision to run this country.

I will elaborate on ideas of electoral reforms & concept of voting in next part of this thread.