Let us think and Act with an open mind to

Develop a Vibrant Democracy – Article 16

SRB

Introduction: I have identified thirty obstacles which cause a distorted and ineffective democracy and possible solutions for these. Because very few people have time / inclination to read long articles, these are presented in separate brief articles for pointed attention and easier assimilation. I hope this will lead to spreading of awareness and facilitating point by point debate on each of these for saving our democracy.

(Please keep these articles within easy reach for referring back till the series is completed.)

Role of media

Effective functioning of democracy requires an alert media with broad vision which functions as a watch dog of democracy, informs people about the state of affairs and provides a platform for public debate. The media in India needs to improve its functioning to reach the goals in all these aspects.

It has to make more alert checks on the functioning of our democracy. For example, Articles 1 to 15 had identified twenty-three obstacles which caused a distorted and ineffective democracy.  These articles have made use of some media reports to emphasize on the sinking of our democracy. But, sad to say, media was not alert enough to fulfill its responsibility for (1) creating awareness among people about these and other obstacles which are ruining our democracy and (2) starting meaningful debates.

Article 15 has listed number of deplorable situations which are shameful for the country, despite a misleading GDP growth rate.  Unfortunately, the media did not adequately question government and MPs / MLAs about these. Article 15 has also emphasized that Government and Parliament were so obsessed and boasting about growth rate that they did not have the time and inclination to rectify many shameful situations pointed out in Article 15.  Media failed to highlight these to make people aware of all these shameful situations so that they will cease to be misguided by GDP growth and will raise their voice to rectify matters (as required under a democracy).

Moreover, media has not been sufficiently active in provoking and encouraging debates about saving our democracy and arriving at consensus on possible solutions.

Article 15 has also pointed out that Parliament (1) has a highly imbalanced and unhealthy representation of people with a large majority of MPs in both houses being crorepatis and (2) has brought disgrace on itself due to (a) lack of guts to punish government for breaking promises thousands of times and (b) lack of dignity by spinelessly tolerating such disrespect so often. Sad to say, media did not start a debate on why we should spent thousands of crores of public money to maintain such an unworthy Parliament. It ought to do so immediately without further waste of time.

Ministers and important political leaders have not been subjected to periodic media scrutiny to ascertain their assessment of the situation and plans for improving governance and welfare of people. Regular checks needs to be carried out by media on fulfillment of accountability by these leaders who have serious responsibilities for governance and ensuring welfare of people.

Panchayat Raj institutions at village, taluk and district levels play a major role in sustenance of democracy at levels closer to people. But, media has hardly cared to review their activities (on a sample basis) and inform people about these even though these deserved constant scrutiny and praise where due.

Editorials did not focus adequately on the decaying democracy and how to save it. Printed media did not adequately encourage journalists and social activists to publish articles discussing need and / or suggestions for improving democracy. Acceptance of articles by media is decided more on the basis of the status or influence of the contributor than by the quality of the article.

Those who watch panel discussions on TV get the impression that the moderators are more interested in hearing their own voice than eliciting the views of the panel for the benefit of viewers. Their attitude and expressions seem to depict that they are all-knowing “judges” and not investigators of truth. What is worse, these discussions often tend to focus on trivial inter and intra political party matters and not on how to improve democracy.

There is an urgent need to review media’s value system. For example, 1.42 lakh people died from accidents in 2011. This was casually reported in bottom corner on page 8 of DNA dated 24 July 2012. Most other newspapers and TV news seem to have even totally ignored this!! Compared to this, when 14 persons lost life from a terrorist attack (i.e., as few as one in 10,000 of the number of accident deaths), this has been splashed in bold headlines in front page of all news papers and repeatedly splashed on TV as “Big News”. It is shocking that media attached more value to one death from terror attack than to about 10,000 deaths from accidents!! Moreover, loss of life due to terrorist attacks has been followed by a much larger hue and cry than for even grossly bigger losses in lives due to calamities such as floods, earthquake, hurricanes, collapsing of structures, stampede etc.

Such mismatch in value of life is grossly illogical and deserves to be condemned outright. Attaching such enormous differences to value of life and splashing these on headlines has only created unnecessary panic among people and did not help to prevent such occurrences.

On the other hand, this has unwittingly helped terrorists in their main aim of creating panic. Media has not realized that terrorists themselves know that they are incapable of doing any large scale harm. They had planned only to create panic and media has helped them exceedingly well to achieve their aim!! Innovative approaches are essential to tackle this delicate situation and spoil the aim of terrorists to create panic. One way is to completely suppress  news of terrorist attacks in public interest and confidentially take it up with government and impress on the need to ensure proper preventive steps. Such a blackout of news will make terrorists frustrated, exasperated and miserable. Fighting terrorism needs innovative strategy and not might.

This example also cautions media to make sure that their eagerness to splash news does not help enemies of peace or create problems for the society and country. Right to freedom of expression should not be misused even unwittingly to create problems for society. A total review of value system and right to freedom of expression is called for, particularly for splashing news.

Another problem is lopsided priorities. Important aspects of governance and peoples’ welfare do not receive adequate attention.  Major parts of printing space / TV time are wasted for inter and intra political party disputes and making statements and speculations about these to add fuel to the fire.

Space for proper news is often displaced by photos of VIPs and their activities like celebrations of birthdays, weddings and other events; news about their pregnancies, divorces, travels, retirement etc.; and their speeches of doubtful importance or relevance to governance or welfare of people. Gossips about VIPs and politicians are a major weakness. Obsession with celebrities is bad in itself but much worse when it leads to denial of space for problems faced by aam admi and the activities of their unsung leaders who have contributed to happiness and peace in society.

Semi naked colour pictures of women (not befitting our tradition) have become an essential part of printed media.  Is this done for promoting sales of printed media or to provide mini porn which children also can see? These numerous semi naked female photos give a wrong impression that most women like to be voluptuously dressed!!   This also shows disrespect to Indian women because they like to dress with dignity.

Other subjects that fill pages are murders, rapes, molestations of women, extortions, kidnappings, robberies, and other crimes which give a dismal picture every morning. Since giving these news has not motivated concerned authorities to act effectively, the net result has only been creation of helplessness, disgust and cynicism among people.

Media has a short memory even for important matters.  It has not realized that government has adopted a strategy of “buying time” on their correct understanding that media never persists with its “protests” long enough and allows them to die quietly because of loss in news value. Media should develop a system of regular follow up of all serious matters till government action produces desired results. It should think out of the box and adopt innovative methods to have news value for its follow up activities also.

Concentration on news items which give importance to high society gossip as mentioned in a previous paragraph or focus on crimes, disasters, failures etc. reveal a negative mindset which is not conducive to growth of democracy.

On the other hand, number of positive activities which show healthy developments such as individuals or small groups (who are not VIPs) contributing to welfare of people and / or peace in different parts of the country hardly finds a place because of media’s inertia and lack of interest and vision. Very little importance is given to the positive consequences of such news to the society. Moreover, media does not realize that for fighting social injustice (which is one of its major responsibilities), publicizing positive developments which can set healthy examples also are crucial.

Media has been side tracked by monetary considerations. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and Jean Drezse have alleged “Rather than engage with diagnosis of significant injustices and inefficiencies media celebrates only the rich and powerful, perhaps because it is an advertisement driven business.” (DNA dated 04-08-13, page 9). Often, in many newspapers front page which should get priority for main news has given way to advertisements, even full page, which fetches enormous amounts of money. This is in addition to space for advertisements far outstretching space for news. Recent trend is to push main news to the 3^rd sheet (i.e., 5^th page)!! A day may come soon when news papers will be displaced by “advertisement papers” in which we have to spend lot of time to hunt here and there for hidden news!!

Paid news is another shameful matter.

Media organizations have become greedy. They forget that their main aim ought to be serving as many people as possible by providing correct information and analyses of situations in the country to make maximum number of people aware of positive developments or lack of these. With increase in cost, newspapers are becoming increasingly out of reach for aam admi.

Thinking out of the box is a rare phenomenon. 

All these show lack of vision on the part of media and failures in fulfilling their social responsibilities as a watch dog, information agency and guide for growth of democracy.

These failures of media depict the twenty-fourth and very serious obstacle which resulted in a distorted and ineffective democracy.

To overcome these drawbacks, the media should give immediate attention to President Pranab Mukherjee’s speech at the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of the Indian Newspaper Society. Expressing concern over “aberrations” like “paid news” which have crept into the media, he said “Sensationalism should never become a substitute for objective assessment and truthful reporting. Gossip and speculation should not replace hard facts. Every effort should be made to ensure that political or commercial interests are not passed off as legitimate and independent opinion.” He also emphasized that the media can undertake its role of cleansing public life only if its on conduct is above board. He made out a case for not just weeding out “aberrations” but also put in place self-correcting mechanisms to check such tendencies.

Following his advice, all round introspection on all the aspects mentioned above is essential. It should be undertaken by the department of journalism in colleges, media establishments and their national organizations like Press Council, Editors’ Guild, Indian Newspaper Society etc. and working journalists. After these, a code of ethics to guide their activities should be evolved. Thinking out of the box needs to be given high priority and widely encouraged by publishing such articles. Lacunae in constructive and positive journalism have to be overcome.

Constitution of a national regulatory authority is also needed.

Meanwhile media ought to immediately start a debate on why we should spent thousands of crores of public money to maintain such an unworthy Parliament, as detailed earlier. It should also create awareness among people about the various obstacles in proper functioning of our democracy so that we can avoid pitfalls while developing a modified system of democracy.

Note:

You can help to save our sinking democracy by making as many people as possible aware of these obstacles and possible solutions, through personal group discussions, newspaper articles, e-mail and social media like face book and twitter so that we can have healthy debates and arrive at some innovative ideas to save our sinking democracy.

Comments (especially those which point out errors or deficiencies, if any, in this article and thereby help to improve it) and suggestions to overcome this very serious obstacle are welcome. Please send these to StartRemovingBlocks@outlook.com. I shall make use of all befitting suggestions to prepare the last two articles of this series – Articled 23 will spell out the basic principles which will guide formulation of the revised system of democracy and Article 24 will outline the revised system of democracy for public debate to arrive at a consensus.

The Let us think and Act with an open mind to

Develop a Vibrant Democracy – Article 15

SRB

Introduction: I have identified thirty obstacles which cause a distorted and ineffective democracy and possible solutions for these. Because very few people have time / inclination to read long articles, these are presented in separate brief articles for pointed attention and easier assimilation. I hope this will lead to spreading of awareness and facilitating point by point debate on each of these for saving our sinking democracy.

(Please keep these articles within easy reach for referring back till the series is completed.)

How Parliament / Assemblies work

The callous and interrupted manner in which these pillars of democracy work is notorious and has resulted in loss of respect for these institutions, besides huge wastage of public money. Attitude of members and their actions show that they are always guided by their party’s interest. Peoples’ needs and aspirations are often ignored. Disruptions and walk outs are so common that lot of time and public money are wasted. The Speakers of both Houses have often felt disgusted and adjourned these. For example, Lok Sabha Speaker described the incidents in Parliament on 13-02-14 as a shame and said “It is a blot on democracy” (The Hindu dated 14-02-14, page1). Shameful “photographic” exposures of members sleeping or watching porn during sessions speak volumes about their lack of desirable character, dignity and sense of responsibility.

All these show absence of both accountability and commitment to the work for which they have been elected by people. Yet, they quite often greedily and shamelessly vote without conscience to increase their remuneration and perquisites (which are already very high), forgetting that they have neither fulfilled their responsibilities to ensure development and peace in the country nor acted sincerely to reduce sufferings of lakhs of people!!

Neglect of national and state interests has led to many serious and shameful consequences described below:

1. Poverty and hunger continue to be alarming while number of millionaires and extravagant spending by many thousands of persons (including politicians) to show off wealth are shooting up.

2. In the Multidimensional Poverty Index complied by UN for 109 countries India ranked the worst!!  UN Millennium Development Goals report 2014 states that one-third of world’s extremely poor live in India (Times of India dated 17-07-14, page 7). Yet, government callously boasts about the misleading GDP growth.

3. A World Bank paper also shows that India tops the world for number of poor people, having a miserable 33% of world’s poor while China (with more population) has only a 13% share, which is less than half of India’s share. (DNA dated 11-04-14, page 9)

4. India had a very low ranking (136 out of 186 countries in 2013) in UN Human Development Index, which highlights our abysmally low socio-economic level. The situation was actually more alarming because there has been deterioration from the earlier rank of 122 out of 170 in 2010 (a fall of 14 points).  It is ironical that government was smug and exhilarated because GDP growth rate was high during this period!!

5. While India gives high priority to FDI to enhance GDP growth, a World Bank report ranked India a lowly 134^th out of 183 countries for ease of doing business and world’s 2^nd worst for enforcing contracts.

6. India is ranked 71^st in the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness report 2014-15. What is most disturbing is the downward trend since 2007 for the sixth consecutive year resulting in a drop of 11 places this year. India ranks lowest among BRICS countries. The rank differential with China has shot up from 14 in 2007 to 43 today (Deccan Chronicle dated 04-09-14, page11).

7. The latest report by World Economic Forum shows that India has plunged 35 places to 62^nd rank in terms of effective regulation of stock exchanges. (Deccan Chronicle dated 09-09-14, page 11)

8. Global Peace Index 2013 has ranked India at a very low level of 141 among 162 countries because of losing more than two lives a day due to internal conflicts. It is among the 25 least peaceful countries to live in. If the daily reports on rapes are also taken into account, the position may be much worse and India may be having the dubious distinction of topping the list of least peaceful countries. (This is despite the misleading GDP growth!!)

9. A WHO report on suicides states that India ranked the worst with  “nearly a third of the global total and more than twice as many as China, which is second in the list”  of suicides in 2012. (The Times of India dated 05-09-14, front page)

10. According to a Thomson Reuters Foundation survey last year, India was ranked fourth among the most dangerous countries in the world (The Week, May 20, 2012, page 44).

11. In the World Bank Report for 2012, India had an extremely low rank of 133 out of 146 countries in the Gender Inequality Index and even lagged behind Pakistan and war-torn countries such as Iraq and Sudan. In the last 50 years of our democracy, the number of women left out from electoral rolls increased fourfold from an already high 15 million to 68 million. (The Hindu dated 10-02-14, page 8).

12. India ranked a very poor 111 out of 189 countries on women in Parliament, as reported by the Inter- Parliamentary Union. This makes India one of the worst countries for women in Parliament. It is a matter of shame that India is much worse than its neighbours with Nepal 33rd, China 61^st, Pakistan 72^nd and Bangaldesh 74th in ranking - all far better than India’s 111th. (Times of India dated 09-03-14). Of the 543 MPs elected in 2014 only (11%) are women. During the period of more than 65 years after the first general election, the proportion of women MPs has only crawled up from 5% to 11%!! (DNA dated 22-05-14, page 8). The proposed Women’s Reservation Bill has been pending for many years and shows utter lack of interest in the matter on the part of the government, the Parliament and political leaders.

13 In a report on the “State of World’s Mothers” India is 4^th worst even among 80 less developed countries. (This is despite the misleading GDP growth!!)

14. Malnutrition is widespread and alarming. According to WHO, 50% of Indian children are either underweight or stunted.

15. Foeticide to get rid of girl child is ridiculously high.

16. India retains the dubious distinction of topping the list of nations with most premature births (DNA dated 17-11-13, page 2). With 7.79 lakhs, India accounts for the highest number of neonatal (new born) deaths in the world. This number is five times higher than that of China (The Hindu dated 22-05-14, page 17), even though it has a smaller population than China

17. National Sample Survey (65^th round) showed that only 47% of urban households have individual water connections. Currently, it is estimated that as much as 40 t0 50% of water is “lost” in the distribution system (The Hindu dated 01-01-14), even when water shortage is a serious problem!!

18. India has retained another dubious distinction of defecating in the open with more than 620 million people (over half of India’s population) being forced to practice open defecation in 2011 (”WHO and UNICEF joint report – The Hindu dated 07-12-13, page 12). GDP growth rate was high in 2011!!

19. “Between 2000 and 2012, jobs grew by a mere 2% per year” “Agricultural employment, the mainstay for over two thirds of the people, has not grown in these thirteen years.” (Times of India dated 09-02-14). GDP growth was remarkably high during most of this period!!

20. “Over 20% of youth between 15 to 24 years of age were jobless and seeking work according to startling data released” by Census 2011 (Times of India dated 02-07-14, page 9).

21. According to UNDP, India has a very low ranking (136 out of 186 countries in 2013) in gross enrolment in education (both sexes). A recent survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has shown that 15-year old Indian students fared 2^nd worst among 73 countries, for reading, mathematics and science. 

22. Out of 1.5 crore persons who enter the work force, only 3% undergo vocational training due to limited access to such training institutions. There are major skill gaps across all industries, more so in Information Technology.

23. “Not less than 65 per cent of prisoners in India are under trials   making the country  one of the world’s 10 “worst” in terms of  the proportion of under trails  languishing  in its jails” (The Hindu dated  27-07-14, page 6).

24. Even in information technology, which gives pride of place for India and boosts employment and income, its use for e-governance has fallen from an already dismal rank of 119 to 124 in 2012, as shown by a UN e-government survey.

25. Instead of helping the poor and down trodden, richer classes have been repeatedly helped to become richer. According to Forbes, there are “55 billionaires in India, making it the fifth biggest country in terms of number of people with at least one billion dollar net-worth.” (Deccan Chronicle dated 25-03-13, page 12).  Undemocratic and inhuman practices of helping the rich at the cost of  the poor have led to the abysmal fall in respectability of Parliament and Assemblies and their members. This  has led to stinking remarks like the following (for example): “…..the glaring tale of how a handful of companies are becoming abnormally wealthy by amassing an obscene amount of land and natural resources, that too at throw away prices, thanks to the dacoits running this country in the garb of politicians” (page 12, Deccan Chronicle, Bangalore dated 13-04-12).

26. According to news paper reports, there are large numbers of instances in which large private companies seem to have exercised control over government decisions. For Instance, the government, instead of enforcing the contract given to an oil company and ensuring that it delivers the promised volumes of gas (not to mention penalizing it for causing extensive losses to standard gas consumers) has allowed it to sell the natural gas, a public property extracted by it, at double the price, against public interest. (The Hindu dated 19-02-14). This was allowed even though the company’s cost of production was much less and it has  already been  receiving the  highest price that any private company was paid anywhere in the world!! Not only that, according to news paper reports, it seems to have got the minister concerned replaced by a more pliable minister during the discussions for fixing prices. In our sinking democracy voice of people hardly matters but that of rich persons does!!

27. Association for Democratic Reforms has observed that 86% of Rajya Sabha members were crorepatis with average assets of Rs. 44.74 crores and Lok Sabha 2009 had 58% crorepatis (The Times of India dated 06-02-14). This shows a highly imbalanced and unhealthy representation of people. No wonder, Parliament favours the rich and many anomalies like those mentioned under items 25 and 26 above have occurred.

28. Breaking of promises given during replies to questions in Parliament or discussions on bills and motions is alarmingly high. During the last 10 years this immoral action was repeated 1,024 times, as reported by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs!! (DNA dated 16-09-13) Over a longer time period many more instances of such disrespect of Parliament could have happened. Surprisingly, this shocking information did not cause even ripples!! Sad to say, Parliament has been spinelessly tolerating disrespect thousands of times, without the dignity expected from the august supreme body and failing to exercise its responsibility of having a check on functioning of government. Besides lack of dignity, Parliament also lacked in guts to punish government for breaking promises thousands of times!!

These shameful situations covering almost all crucial sectors are despite a high growth rate!! Government and Parliament are so obsessed and boasting about growth rate that they do not have the time and inclination to rectify the shameful situations pointed out above. It is likely that there are many more of such deplorable situations waiting to be highlighted!!

Have any of our MPs and MLAs and political parties bothered to think about all these manifold shameful situations, let alone take any action? Have any questions on these been at least raised in Parliament? Politicians, being obsessed by party matters and selfish interests, have neither time nor interest in such important national matters. May be, most of them may not even be aware of all these shameful situations because they are preoccupied  with  their  selfish and party interests!!

It is a pity that instead of hanging their heads in shame, MPs, MLAs and political parties assume airs of superiority and feel smug and exhilarated. No wonder, people have lost respect for MPs, MLAs and political parties who make a mockery of Parliament and Assemblies!!

It deserves to be reemphasized that Parliament brought disgrace on itself due to lack of dignity by spinelessly tolerating disrespect thousands of times and lack of guts to punish government for breaking promises so often.

Since attempts to stem the suicidal rot in these pillars of democracy are sadly lacking, disillusionments, antagonism, cynicism, intolerance, hostility and violence have already crossed danger levels in many areas (e.g., Maoism, separatism, attempts at disintegration, manipulated violent protests, ethnic violence and disgruntled or intolerant groups taking to the streets and burning vehicles at the drop of a hat) and more are likely to follow.

The editorial in The Hindu dated 24-02-14 states: “As the 15^th Lok Sabha comes to an ignominious end, it is no longer possible to put off the question: are we a democracy only in name? Without a proactive course correction, India’s robust record of conducting elections could end up being just that – a ritualistic, five yearly obeisance to democracy that hides the appalling state of the country’s institutions, in particular Parliament which today resembles a wrestling arena. In truth, the comparison would insult the sport of wrestling, which is governed by well laid-out rules and regulations.”

As pointed out twice earlier, Parliament brought disgrace on itself due to lack of dignity by spinelessly tolerating disrespect thousands of times and lack of guts to punish government for breaking promises so often. We ought to be ashamed of this even though our MPs seem to have no shame. Lastly, as pointed out forcefully in Article 14, the worst attack Parliament has been facing is from within and it has qualified itself for self destruction.

These aspects depict the twenty-third and fundamental obstacle which resulted in a distorted and ineffective democracy.

To overcome this fundamental obstacle, we should ask ourselves: why do we spent thousands of crores of public money to maintain a Parliament which lacks dignity, guts to punish government for braking promises thousands of times, accountability and an ethics of care for aam admi? Why should we not try another system which is cheaper and can uphold the voice of people more efficiently and gracefully? If a way cannot be found to avoid mostly crorepatis being elected to Parliament (see item 27 above), abolition of Parliament with such distorted and unhealthy representation of people is further justified.   

Comments (especially those which point out errors or deficiencies, if any, in this article and thereby help to improve it) and suggestions to overcome this very serious obstacle are welcome. Please send these to StartRemovingBlocks@outlook.com. I shall make use of all befitting suggestions to prepare the last two articles of this series – Articled 23 will spell out the basic principles which will guide formulation of the revised system of democracy and Article 24 will outline the revised system of democracy for public debate to arrive at a consensus.

You can help to save our sinking democracy by making as many people as possible aware of these obstacles and possible solutions, through personal group discussions, newspaper articles, e-mail and social media like face book and twitter so that we can have healthy debates and arrive at some innovative ideas to save our sinking democracy.