The fall of Ben ali form the high pedestals of power in
tunisia following a public uprising marked the beginning of a series of public
protests across the middle east north africa region. The historic tahrir square
protests brought to an end , the rule of an iron handed dictator. This showed
the world, the power of public opinion. Soon the fellow authoritarian rulers
faced similar protests and are trying to suppress them.
The
african continent for long had remained under developed despite it being
endowed with rich natural resources. The colonial powers like england, france
colonised vast areas of africa to exploit the human and natural resources.
Following the nd of world war II, the colonia powers withdrew leaving behind a
brokn and battered continent divided into dozens of countries by unnatural
borders. This resulted in formation of nations with tribes, groups with
conflicting interest. This lead to internal conflicts and hence no sense of
nationalism existed among the people . this lack of unity was exploited by
dictators to build their autocratic regimes. Globalisation brought riches to
the elites as the world started extracting resources from africa to fuel its
growth. However there was no attempt to develop the regions by the
authoritarian rulers. The dictators resorted to grave human right vi0olations
to suppress political opposition to them. The 2008 economic crisis and food
price inflation further heightened the discontentment among the people . The
self immolation of a youth in tunisia owing to torture by state authorities in
2011 sparked off protests against the autocratic regime which soon spread
across the region.
The
root cause for these revolts was not merely autocratic regimes because if that
was the case revolts were expected in all autocratic regimes. It was the lack of responsiveness of
governments to demand and greivances of people that formed core for discontent.
Hence there is a need for all nations across world to introspect on whether
they are responding to public needs and demands.
People of
21st century are more empowered and assertive of their rights than
ever before. With advent of technologies like internet, there is a
globalisation of ideas. People across the world are now more aware of their
rights. Hence there is bound to be increased expectations and demands on
governments. Governments need to take measures to improve governance. This includes
even democracies. The recent london riots have proved that it is a fallacy to
presume public protests won’t occur in democracies. In this context there is a
need to analyse the capacity of world’s largest democracy to repsond to needs
of its citizens
India
is nation comprising diverse beliefs, ideologies and culture. Its general
election is considered among the largest organised man made event in world.
India emerged as an independent nation following an independence struggle which
largely comprised of peaceful non violent protests , known as satyagraha. Hence
public uprising is not alient to India. Everyday it witnesses protests of
various scales on diverse issues. It has a multiparty dmeocracy, stable and
strong institutions and a vibrant civil society. Any public uprising in a
democracy is due to a deficit in governance. There is a need to analyse the
reasons for possible discontent among public.
The
discontent among indian public has been rising on various issues. The cocktail
of corruption, nepotism and redtapism has made bureaucracy inefficient. Globalisation
has widened the rich poor divide. The ineffective redistribution policy is a
major area of concern. Despite being the largest democracy, its parliament is
only the 13th largest in world with countries like nepal, rwanda
boasting of a larger parllament. This shows that people to representative ratio
is large, indicating that citizens have lesser opportunities to put across
their greivances and demands. The slow progress in devolution of powers despite
two decades since the historic 72nd and 73rd amendment
has left the public politically disempowered to a large extent.
The
constitution guarantees to its citizens a set of fundamental rights which are
available to citizens to exercise anytime. Yet the government resorts to use of
archaic draconian laws like sedition act, section 144 to suppress legitimate protest
of people .
Democracy
in India is increasingly viewed as right to vote. But in reality , debate and
deliberation are as much important as vote. Today, with a growing middle class
and more politically aware rural mass, the demand for their voices to be heard
during policy making process is on a rise. The government has taken half
hearted steps like putting certain bills out for public consulation, public
hearings etc. but still a lot is left to be done.
In
context of these problems, what measures need to be taken to make democracies
more responsive to peoples demands? It is clear from current trend that peoples
demand s and expectation will continue
to increase. The state needs to provide a platform for citizens to put across
their demands and interact with state. This requries an effective public
greivance redressal emchanisms. Technology tools like facebook, twitter may be
put to use to enable two way communication between government and citizen. Measures
need to be taken to replace the elite, exclusionist political culture with an
inclusive participative political culture. In this context there is a need to
strengthen gram sabha and replicate such models in urban areas as well. People should
be viewed as stakeholders rather than mere benificiaries of development.
The
strength of parliament needs to be increased to an appropriate extent such that
a MP gets adequate opportunity to interact with his/her constituencies and
address their demands and greivances. Internal party structures need to be
democratised to bring to an end dynastic politics. Democracies need to evolve
with time and yield space for public to put across their views.
International
organisations need to focus on human resource development rather than on
natural resources. It is only though efficient human resources that one can
exploit natural resources effectively.
People
anywhere across the world demand only for a SMART governance ie a government
that is Simple Moral Accountable Resposnible and Transparent. If governments
are able to deliver there 5 basic aspects of governance, there would be little
scope for public discontent and uprisings would become a thing of the past
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