IMPROVISATION ON THE EXPERIMENT CALLED DEMOCRACY

It is 7 pm already and the sun is still not ready to set in this Norwegian land. A typical situation for this countrymen, but unique to the set of Indian brains sitting to resolve issues and make India a better place to live in.

Supposed to be out on a vacation to Scandinavia, where each day the beauty of the nature and culture makes us think and question what went wrong in our homes? How to make a better world of our given situation? Do this or do that? etc..

We are done with our series of experience in Copenhagen and toured the city of Oslo today. It was nothing exceptional yet striking for the nitty-gritty functional details of the land.

Brief on OSLO:
Without going deep into its historic lands, a few things about OSLO, which should help paint a better picture to our eyes.

Oslo is the capital & a center of activity for Norway. It has a list of historic and scientific sites but on personally visiting them, nothing really striking touched my eyes as far as aesthetics is concerned. There is no debate on the natural beauty and fantastic weather.. We experienced chilly winds at 10 – 13 degree Celsius! This is summer for you!

My discussion-cum-debate is more in relation to the man-made creations in this country (art, culture, politics etc).

The Main Theme:
Going back to where we started… Over tea we randomly landed up discussing the various aspects of the striking distinctions between the political, economic and social outlook between India and the various other nations (of which I can only share few extracts).

One of the turning points therein was on our Political system – the never ending “why’s & wherefore”, “if’s & then”, the “but and also” so on and so forth.

One solution which was reached at was to work on the laws pertaining to the political system. When today the results of the election are looming and expected round the corner, some of the concerns I am sharing have become even more urgent.

1. Who will come to Power?
This is the favorite debate for most of the intellectuals as well as the “pan-pati” experts around the world for this up-coming economic giant. There are various theories proposed by all on who should win and why. But the question is will the party coming to power really be in power?

With an intermediate level experience in history of by-elections, a question concerning the coalition governments who were saved from that disgrace have had to face a looming sword of loosing support during the tenure.

A government who has come to power, in reality has no power - More than half our precious resources go in appeasing the supporting parties to ensure the balance of scales and keep the machine running till the next elections come around. The never ending cycle of political business!

The protection from this kind of wastage would be if there was a constitutional provision in accordance to which, a party once having submitted its support cannot withdraw it for the next 5 years, would help empowering the government in its true sense.

2. How long will the government be in power?
The government who comes to power has to have a fixed duration. Unless the next government is elected, the existing cabinet shall be responsible for all the tasks and jobs. The period constitutionally is 5 years and so shall it be.
The solution is to say “bye bye” to Bye-elections.

3. Who will be the Prime Minister?
The Danish election System could provide an interesting answer to the given situation. With the Danes, when the elections results are declared, the portfolios are assigned to the winning parties in the ratio of their victory. Thus, if party A wins 40 %, he will have 4 out of 10 seats/ representatives; party B wins 1/ 10, they will still have once representative from their party. Thus all who win are given portfolios as per their contribution. Equality with Equity!

Since I am not writing a political thesis on the same, for now, I shall restrain myself to the above only. Yet there is one question, which needs as much urgent attention...

Will this government be capable to address our needs and take swift decisions?
One can argue that probably it is too late to raise this question. But I agree to disagree. The question of capability has to not only be raised but answered at some point. The simple logic behind it all is that when we disagree to take an under-qualified individual for employment, how can we agree to let individuals govern our nation/ state with little or no basic qualification?

Where the leaders themselves are not motivated to learn, how can we expect the masses to want to look up to the gift of education?

It is still not too late to answer this last question, we have an election waiting 5 years from now.

Lastly, to conclude, I am not saying all that I state is fool-proof. We are heading for excellence; obstacles are bound to come in. Lets face it together!

To make all this happen, the government (probably) needs to pass a bill and approve these amendments. A bigger question is which party will initiate, pursue and in reality sign in favor of these amendments?

This is what I mean when I say.. Welcome to the Movement: Improvisation on the experiment called Democracy!

P.S: You have a right to Comment/ Suggest/ Criticize only if you had that ink-blot on your finger.