Democracy Cannot Survive on Institutions Alone!!

The current political situation is revolving around the institutional framework of Election Commission of India; the opposition is claiming that there has been a massive voting scam in the country in past few elections. The right to vote, which is heart and soul of any democracy is also being taken away from people arbitrarily by the procedure which has initiated recently called SIR (Special Intensive Revision).

But in order to understand the scenario in whole as to how the situation went to that extent, we need to understand history behind it. The institutional framework of our country arose through the political ideas of our forefathers. Our forefathers, after getting independence, adopted the ideas of liberty and equality, but we failed to make them work practically, despite having institutional framework for enforcement. The reason behind the failure is quite obvious, independence received, political sovereignty gained, but the aristocratic societies kept developing. We didn’t even realise that few aristocrats ultimately took the control of our democratic country. The large population in our country have no idea what rights the constitution has guaranteed to them; what is the basic framework of the country; what are remedies available to them, in case any injustice happens to them. The representation in the parliament is grossly favouring the commercial, financial and industrial classes in the country rather than resolving and representing the questions of farming community which constitutes more than 40% of population of our country i.e. more than 60 crore people.

We all know mandate of people is very important in any democracy, but the people of our country are completely unaware of what they are approving to, and misfortune is that they are not willing to know. Let’s understand this situation with greater clarity with the help of ongoing revision of electoral rolls i.e. SIR, process by which the names of voters are being added and removed from the electoral roll. Where the name of voter is removed, the law does not leave such person remediless. An aggrieved voter can challenge the order of removal of his name from roll before the District Magistrate within the prescribed time of fifteen days, and, if not satisfied, he can file an appeal before the Chief Electoral Officer. These provisions provided in law are not mere procedural formalities, they are the safeguards which protect the democratic franchise from arbitrary activities. Practically, a large part of population is unaware of these remedies, and therefore they do not know whom to approach, or how to claim their lawful rights when their names are removed from the electoral roll. This ignorance is not accidental, people seeking arbitrary power does not wish to educate people. A society deprived of constitutional education and legal awareness becomes vulnerable to exclusion and manipulation, people in power silently encroach their rights. Therefore, it is important to cultivate constitutional literacy amongst the people because the democracy cannot survive merely by the existence of institutions; it survives when people understand those institutions, question them, and invoke the remedies available to them. The forces which are benefiting from an uninformed electorate are inevitably resisting such awareness, because an educated and constitutionally conscious citizen is the greatest obstacle to arbitrary power.

It is not only about SIR, it is about everything that is leading our country towards arbitrary power. To change this situation, the forces of change are supposed to be stronger than those of reaction, whole series of revolution must break out, to develop constitutional temperament and awareness in people to keep the the democracy alive in this country.