India's multi-party democracy is heavily loaded with politics for power and authority. Thus, "the victim of democracy is politics itself". People, as voters, have been strongly giving priority to the leaders of the political parties. Every political party bats to make all voters into supporters. Leaders of all parties are the strategic followers who ruin their counterparts. The party in rule over any government in India’s federal system uses exclusively and inclusively its power and authority for political gain. The ruling party employs various schemes for specific purposes. It selects beneficiaries of different schemes conditionally to bag captive votes. Therefore, the political dynamics, characters, and role-relationships of the political leaders are like feudal lords.
The role of democracy has been derided. Generally, democracy ‘stands for the common man and his welfare.' But it has gone to ruin in India. Is the "survival of democracy in India" in peril? "The fact is that Indian democracy is not just in crisis, but there is a deep diminishing of hope at this juncture…." That’s why, Vladimir Lenin was doubtful about the implications of democracy. He opined, "Democracy is the form of governance in which many evil elements like pettifoggers, necromancers, scoundrels, anti-social and anti-national elements endowed with the despicable traits like conceit, deceit, corruption, fraud, and threat rule the roost and indulge in all sorts of atrocities like loot, rape, and murder, further accentuated by looting the government exchequer to become millionaires at the cost of the very people who voted them to power."
The Indian democracy system eventually proves Lenin’s doubt through the democratic activities of the political leaders, where corruption and nepotism are the norm. It is a fact that freedom is an essential part of democracy, for both the rules and the ruler. But unfettered freedom brings with it its own hazards that would undermine the institutions that help sustain democracy.
Local leaders and local problems are not ‘significantly correlated with the likelihood of voting, compared with dissatisfaction with non-local leaders because of their political activities and attitudes. Political awareness and political participation of the poor and underprivileged are usually determined by ‘receipt of recurring benefits (such as employment, credit, and subsidized agricultural inputs), one-time benefits (rations, government provided housing and toilets, drinking water access), and some informal benefits. Consequently, it ensures ‘political participation (ranging from participation in elections, village meetings, and political campaigns).’
This type of give-and-take policy is the cause of dissatisfaction among voters with local and non-local political leaders in different dimensions. It promotes the growth and development of feudal lords as autocrats. People at the grassroots are under fear and threat. Their voices are dominated, and there is hardly democratic priority. Every function of democracy depends on the decision of feudal lords (as per the hierarchy of organization of the particular political party), It is the greatest mischief to the people. These feudal lords used to report wrongly to their top hierarchy. The overall political system is trapped within the realm of the attendance of supporters at political gatherings and activities. Gradually, as well as ideally, people are detached from ethics and morality. Further, these political feudal lords were involved in rampant discrimination, and they were blind to use the administration for their own benefits.
As a result of this, people in Indian democracy are too tired because of political feudalism and their leaders' behaviour as feudal lords. There is hardly any ethic because ‘politics has no policy.' Various problems (economic, social, etc.) are deeply rooted, and these are becoming stronger every day. Government and political leaders are deliberately making strategies, policies, and programmes for temporary relief and making divisions between supporters and non-supporters. Today's democratic people only seek benefits from a particular party. Morality, integrity, and love for the nation are not significant factors for them as citizens. Of course, people in India are still residents, and they have not yet obtained the status of citizens so far as our different identity proofs, i.e., Aadhar, voter ID, etc., are concerned. This democratic political system has been teaching people to enjoy some gain from the government as rewards for voting for a particular party.
So, democracy has lost its true identity. People in this democracy are misguided and ill-motivated as far as their voting rights are concerned. They use to make wrong every time. They do one wrong to correct an earlier wrong.
Indian democracy is in peril, and it is nothing, but a shadow of the feudal system. Every democratic person should raise their voices for the reformation of ongoing policies and systems.
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