Article written by Jagriti thakur and Keshav raj
INTRODUCTION– Democracy is the most popular form of government of the day and major portion of the world is under its spell. The countries who do not have democracy are struggling to achieve it. But it had various forms and in each country its form is different . Besides this, in some of the countries it is working quite successfully whereas in other countries it is facing quite few threats . For example it is working successfully in India whereas it has to face many difficulties in the country like Pakistan, Bangladesh , Nepal etc. In fact, democratic system does not work in a vacuum rather total social, economic and political set up of a country influences its working and since the social and economic and political condition of each country differ from one another, therefore , the working of democracy is also different from country to country. In this poverty is the root of all evils, and the poor person can remains concerned with the basic need of life and about 21.9% people are still living below the poverty line.
Democratic provisions of the Indian constitution
Sovereign power is vested with people in democracy the sovereign power is vested with the people and in India the people are the source of sovereign power. In India, the makers of the constitution and the adopter of it are the people themselves . The words in the beginning of the preamble of the constitution and the words in the last , “ We the people of India”. These words mean that the constitution was not imposed on us by any foreign power as before 1947 it was done , rather, this constitution has been made by the people of India for themselves .
Responsible government both in centre and the state the constitution of India gave the responsible government in center and in state and then main aim and to achieve this purposes parliamentary form of the government has been adopted. In the centre, the president is the head of the whole administration and and the council of minister include with Prime minister as its leader to aid and advise the president run the administration this is the provision. It is responsible before the house of the people , the council of minister make use of all the powers of president.
Independent judiciary in this the provision is made of free, independent and impartial judiciary for the protection of the rights as well as the liberties of the people of India. The constitution of India has made all the arrangements necessary to maintain the independence of the judiciary such as impartial method has been adopted to make appointments of judges.
Rule of law this is in keeping mind democratic principles , the rule of india is made a provision in India and for this, we are indebted the constitution of India of great Britain There are meaning of the rule of law like- First is on law for all which means whether somebody is poor or rich, high and low etc. all are answerable before law. Second is individual is punished only on the violation of law has been proved. And third is law protects the rights and the liberties of the people and in case the rights and liberties of any individual gets violated, the victim and the victim can even approach the courts which protects the rights and liberties according of the law.
Respect the opposition In democracy , the opposition is not suppressed after rather it is given due respect because the opposition criticizes the government and make it responsible. The opposition also presents the weakness of the government before the people and creates awareness among people. The opposition also provides an alternative team to form the government. The leader of the opposition is recognition both , in parliament and state legislature and they get all the facilities to which a cabinet minister is entitled. The opposition holds the protest rallies , demonstration etc from time to time.
Secular state freedom to abstain and manage religious institution. No religious institution or education can be imparted to students in the government and educational institution nor any tax can be imposed in the name of religion. There should be not any discrimination is made while the government offices , rather all the appointments are made on the basis of qualification which are equal for all in this secular state muslim and sikh who belong to minority community are holding the highest offices in India and it is the miracle situation of secularism in India.
ECONOMIC INEQUALITIES
An important saying that he who controls the purse, controls the administration or in other words , we can say that with the use of money power for the promotion of their own interests . the poor people just become a part of the machine and they used by rich just as commodity. This way economic inequality and democracy cannot go side by side. Even after a long years of independence a large number the population lives below the poverty line. The thinking of such people always revolve around food cloth and shelter. A poor man can neither become a good citizen nor he can take in political activities. He loses his self esteem and he becomes either fatalist or revolutionary. He starts feeling that the political rights are mere an eye wash and the rupees and all this has its bad effects on the working of the democracy.
And there are also some impacts of the economic inequalities on democracy and they are every citizen has right to vote , yet the poor man fails to make proper use of right to vote and second is increase in corruption. On July 22, 2008 during the debate on the confidence motion the prime minister of India Dr. Manmohan singh, the waving of the wads of the currency notes , claimed to be bribe money for influencing MPs had put every Indian to hang his head in shame.
FUTURE OF INDIAN DEMOCRACY
Doubts were expressed about the success of the democracy by western countries when India was declared a democratic country after the attainment of the independence, in 1947 and when universal adult franchise was granted in 1950. They were of the opinion that to give the right to vote to the illiterate and incompetent was just like giving the loaded gun in the hands of monkey. But Indian has removed the doubts expressed by the western countries in the wake of independence and the implementation of the constitution of India. It goes to credit of the Indian voters that whether in the past they came to realize that any government was turning responsible and indifferent to their interests, they changed the same by constitutional , methods , showing their firm faith in democracy. Inspite, of the challenges , the Indian democracy is faced with the following factors which are indicative of its right future of India
Long history of democratic institutions the history of democratic institutions in India very old. They were in existence in India before the arrival of the Britishers. The britishers too gave the limited right to vote to Indians and they also set the pattern of the legislatures at the central and state level in India , on which the present organization of the parliament and the state legislature has been taken place . In a way the present democratic organizations both at the central and the state levels owe much to Britishers.
CONCLUSION– At last after through above mention the facts we arrive at the conclusion that there are some problems like socio and economic inequalities , poverty and illiteracy and unemployment and communalism etc. To this time India , has bravely faced these challenges and its fervently hoped that in future too it will equally well with stand these challenges successfully , keeping the banner of the democratic system flying high.