Quantity Vs Quality – When it comes to Democracy What Matters?

Timesonline had a recent editorial in the current elections in India. The editorial questions whether, India the largest democracy, is just that or if there is any substance to the democratic process and the outcome as a result of it.

The editorial does raise some very serious questions about the role of government in improving the lives of its citizens, social and economic policy as well as the how the government going to position India in the changing world.

However, what the article does not address is that, for a country the size and scale of India, where every state is so much diverse in terms of culture, religion, languages etc, the fact that every five years we have a democratically elected government is a success worth celebrating in itself.

Also, India has been a democracy for a little over 60 years. And in these 60 years there has been tremendous progress to get the voice of the people heard. Granted there are still challenges in terms of factionalism, dynasty politics, corrupted elected officials, criminalization of politics, and the transparency of the various political parties in how they manager and choose leaders.

But with the growing clout of the middle class and the raising awareness of these issues among them are heartening signs that there is hope improvements can be achieved. In addition work being done by various organizations like the Association for Democratic Reform is creating awareness about the criminalization of politics will go a long way in cleaning up the elections process.

After all you don’t expect a diverse country like India to be a perfect democracy in just 60 years. Even America, which has been democratic for the last 200 years, is still a work in progress when it comes to democracy.