Future of Indian Democracy

8/6/2019 Future of Indian Democracy

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Future of

Indian

Democracy

Megha Vishwanath



Present

� Anyone trying to concretely sum up thesituation right now is a ready prey to criticismfrom one school of though or the other.

� High GDP growth rate� Nuclear weapons capable and legally allowed

to be so.� Stable and functional democracy; Corrupt

Government� High unemployment, Farmer Suicides, Poor

rural infrastructure� Measly 65.3% Literacy rate� Caste based/ Religion based division of

societies often leading to violence� Enjoying global infatuation



Future

� Economic

� Social

� Judicial

� Legislative and Executive

� Military

�Media

� International



Economic

� Mechanical extrapolation provides arosy picture. In fact ± Not too sure

� High GDP growth rate doesn't

guarantee development but doescreate ambient conditions.

� Much reforms needed to sustain the

growth.



� In the private sector, there is a thumb rule whichsuggests that across each doubling of thenumber of employees of a firm, fairly

fundamental and far-reaching changes to theorganisation structure are required.� In similar fashion, roughly speaking, across each

doubling of GDP, fairly fundamental surgery isrequired to the organisation of the government. A

set of laws and government agencies whichare appropriate for an India which has a $250billion GDP are quite out of place at $500 billion.

� In the US, with growth of 3.5 per cent, eachdoubling of GDP takes 20 years. This gives thepolitical system 20 years to reinvent governmentto deal with the new world that a doublingrepresents. But in India, with trend growth of 7.5per cent, GDP doubles each 9 years. Thisrequires the political system to reinventgovernment every 9 years.



� Capitalism

� While India has liberalised capital flows in

many ways, it remains one of the least opencountries of the world, even when comparedwith other emerging markets. The cost-benefit analysis of the existing system of capital controls is increasingly hard to justify:India has veered towards de facto opennesswhile retaining a complex license-permit rajof de jure restrictions. Full openness on thecapital account, and particularly large scale

FDI both in India and by India, will be of greatimportance in the emergence of India on theglobal stage.

� From equally poor to unequally rich is a nicetrade-off.



� Need to infuse money in Nationalinfrastructure, particularly ruralinfrastructure.

� Village economy should be madeproductive and a major contributor to

the GDP.



Social

� Social welfare schemes need to berevamped to focus on immediate as well aslong term development. NREG A is a goodstep ahead but needs to restructured too.

� Health and Education two important areas.� Right to Education Act note worthy

� Food Security bill worth looking forward to

� Budgetary spending on Health should be

increased� Money should be poured into R&D,

Academic think tanks



� Higher Education should be liberalizedtowards more providers but should be

well regulated towards quality of education.

� Foreign University Bill nice initiative� Tighter laws against social violence

like communal riots.� Delinking religion and politics� More branding of a common

Nationhood by using flags in public

spaces more commonly as it iscommon in other developed nations.� Policies to involve aggressive groups

like Naxals into broader public

participation in the Democracy.



Judicial

� A separate Judicial Budget like the railbudget to delink judiciary from thelegislative financial authority

� Judicial activism shown by the

SC iscommendable. Squashing of CVC

appointment; Stand on importantEnvironment and Health relatedmatters

� Better access and faster relief at thelowest level. More courts, specializedcourts like Marriage court, Consumer

court etc.



Legislativ e and Executiv e

� Shift towards a more two party system.

� Coalition government ± a trade off between an inefficient government and

a government that represents all theaspirations.

� Common aspiration can be sought bythe people more easily than by

politicians.� Electoral reforms needed.

Communism and corruption to be aBIG NO!



� Most of the parties win power due tocandidates who get only 20-30% of the votes.Rest of the electorate is either dividedbetween other candidates or doesn¶t vote.

� Thus a candidate has to just win over onecaste/community to secure this 20-30 %.

� As in Europe, a minimum 50% vote must bemade necessary for victory. In case no onegets min 50% , there should be a secondround to vote amongst the top two votegetters.

� Since the winning candidate has to get a fiftypercent majority and in most places in India

one will require more than two castecombinations to get that majority, partisanpatronage politics based on two castecombination or one caste dominance will bemade more difficult



� Politicians with criminal record mustbe checked

� More comprehensive debates on

bills before voting

� Public debates between politicalparty candidates on important policy

issues



Military

� Defense budget reduction� More emphasis on technology transfer

model� Building of a Military Industrial Complex

(MIC) for better military products atcheaper rates not just for national use butalso for selling internationally

� More alliances against a rising Chinawithout causing a aggressive response

from China� More emphasis on defensive strategy than

offensive strategy� More armed forces for fighting domestic

insurgency



Media

� More focus on National news withan increased regionalist approach.

� Control on the media as a industry

gaining immense power � Government owned media channels

of radio and television must bereformed, made more artistic and

less bureaucratic.� Liberalization over Radio spectrum

to allow better services to reach

rurals.



� India shouldn¶t try to become a super power through the conventional means of military might or economic prowess. Indiain the 21st Century would be a knowledgepower.

� USA would remain the military super power, and China would balance it by

becoming an economic superpower.India would be the third power, theknowledge power, and would play theswinging effect in the global power

structure.

International



� Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakesup.

It knows it must run faster than thefastest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning a lion wakes up.

It knows it must outrun the slowestgazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn't matter whether you are a lionor a gazelle. When the sun comes up,you better start running.

- African proverb (p. 114)



� Thank You«

Future of Indian Democracy

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