In 2016, a liquor businessman man scammed INR 9000 crores ($1.35 B) in one of the largest democracies in the world- India, and fled the country.
On 1st Jan 2018, a major jewellery businessman defaulted INR 11000 crores ($1.65 B) in one of the largest democracies in the world- India again, and fled the country.
A couple of years ago, a foreign Greenpeace NGO activist was successfully offloaded from Delhi-London flight.
While people who owe to the country so much managed to escape.
Why there is an elite club? Why laws are different for people with extraordinary influence?
A couple of years later... things would only get worse.
When I was in school I was taught that democracy is the best form of administration. A government of the people, for the people and by the people.
I believed it.
How can teachers be wrong? How can books be wrong?
But then I observed chaos all around- mob lynching, communalism, denial of justice, laws molded and broken as per convenience, scams, frauds, suicides and worse. I couldn't stop thinking- this isn't for the people at all.
Teachers are humans period. And books are written by humans.
And I find humans to be wrong everyday.
In 399 BC, Socrates was put to trial for corrupting the young minds and believing in strange gods.
He was sentenced to death by drinking a poisonous beverage of hemlock.
His crime was to try and teach Athenians to think rationally before they cast their vote in elections. He asked the citizens to know about the candidates in detail- their history, their achievements, their experience, their education and background etc.
Plato already warned us.
Whatever we know of Socrates is through Plato;s dialogues. In his view pure democracy was an inefficient form of leadership.
He said that voting is a skill and not an act of intuition. We need specialists even to stitch our shoes, then how can we give the power to choose leader of a state in the hands of common people.
Socrates considered it to be a mob rule- a government by the crowd. That can be easily misled by the demagogues (Political representatives that manipulate common people to win political support)
He said that a common man can only understand the good and bad directly affecting his self interest, not the other indirect implications and manipulative tactics of the government.
Humans have progressed in all other fields but our systems of choosing a leader and running a country are still the same, No one ever cared to improve them. And probably no one ever will.
Here are some of the flaws of a democratic system that need to be addressed.
All Votes Aren't Equal
The system believes in giving every citizen an equal right to vote.
it considers the intellect of a retired university professor having a Phd in public administration equal to that of drunkard who begs and steals for survival.
Humans might be born equal, but they grow into vastly different individuals with poles apart opinions and beliefs.
We might be the most civilized generation of all times, but our ideologies are still primitive. Most of us identify ourselves to be part of some group based on nationality, religion, caste, creed, occupation, etc. And a significant number of us are biased towards some other group- Elections are always 'us vs them'.
On the other hand, the uneducated take impulse and misinformed decisions based on lies they are fed via media- a round of applause to the IT cells of political parties.
A crowd is easier to manipulate. Divide and rule.
That's happening all around.
How can vote of a biased individual be equal to an unbiased? And a rational individual's be equal to an irrational? And an educated individual's be equal to an uneducated. Does it make sense?
The Mob And Majority Rule
Parties need people.
People who can vote on their side or who can make others do the same.
The reason we see all political parties having huge groups associated with them- people with wealth and influence and goons- people of all sorts.
In return they get a firewall. Preferential treatment at offices, superpowers to play with the law and promise from the leaders to safeguard their interest.
On the other hand, a democratic government is formed by the majority, in which minorities are usually overlooked.
An opinion doesn't become right just because most people agree with it.
Empty Promises & Lies
We all must have experienced them already.
There are truck full of lies offloaded non stop while asking for vote in every election.
The reward to offer everything without fulfilling any word is much more lucrative than being trustworthy.
There is no check or rule about what will happen if they couldn't accomplish even fractions of what they promised.
Words do not mean anything, unless in an law abiding agreement on paper. The common man is being fooled with words by the leaders since ages.
The future is Dark.
It's About Choosing The Least Bad Leader
The system is stubborn now. More than ever.
Anyone who participates have to resort to all foul measures to stand any chance against an established party .
As soon as you enter the politics, you start on the road of lies, fake promises and telling people what they want to hear instead of logical solutions to their problems. Even if you want to, you'll watch the crowd dissipate much faster than they assembled.
The sole purpose is convincing them to cast a vote in your favour by fueling their fantasies of self-interest, using their hatred for some other group, accepting the superiority of their beliefs and anything else as required.
The dilemma people face while voting today isn't who is right, but who is less wrong - less corrupt, less immoral, less communal and less stupid.
They don't have a choice.
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Democracies are only good for countries where majority of the population is educated, civilized, peaceful and think of public interest.
But will it ever change?
I never casted a vote, it doesn't make a difference.
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