Democracy as we experience it in India is a ‘fake self surrender’ (farzi aatma samarpan) to a system that is slowly throttling the very tenets of the constitution, said Dr Nandini Sundar, eminent sociologist and author.

Professor  Sundar, who teaches at the Delhi School of Economics delivered the second Vinay Kanth Memorial lecture organised by East and West Educational Society and others on the occasion of  the 66^th birth anniversary of  Educationist and Human Rights activist Vinay Kumar Kanth.The venue was the AN. Sinha Institute of Social Sciences. The topic was “Threats of Democracy and Threats to Democracy..

Ms Sundar spoke in Hindi to a gathering of some of the city’s well known academicians, teachers, and  cultural, social and political activists.

What she said could be summed up as follows: We all know that a country’s identity is its democracy but what if the democracy itself becomes a threat for the public or what if the publics themselves cause threat to it? Generally people equate Democracy with the peaceful holding f elections. They generally believe that if free and fair elections are there then it’s a healthy democracy. But this is just a half truth.

Democracy can be preserved by separation of powers and the judiciary should be powerful enough to resist pressure from the government of the day. Apart from the  Judiciary, other institutions should be allowed to function work  without interference from the elected government. The Reserve Bank of India’s institutional authority is vanishing; and other key institutions seem to be losing their autonomy as well, Ms Sundar pointed out. The Rule of Law should be equal to all the citizens including the elected representatives and ministers as well as their officials. However, aberrations have been written into the system that protect the party in power and their administration from prosecution on the one hand, and on the other, police and lower  judiciary are often used to attack the very citizens who stand up for justice.  ‘We have freedom of speech but are we really free to raise our voices?’, she asked, If we do not, so how can we say that we are living in a democratic society?

The most powerful threat to the Democracy is the unrestrained ‘corporate donations’ that have recently been disclosed. It is now common knowledge, thanks to the intervention bythe election commission, that, from 2017-19, some rupees 983crores were donated by corporates, out of which 93% of the donations went to the ruling BJP party. She stated that 94% of the BJP’s income has come from the corporate donations. The seminal question here, said Ms Sundar, is the fact that corporations and big business are donating huge amounts to the coffers of the party in power. Why such huge amounts? Is it to ensure that government will reciprocate in terms of  contracts, lands and forests in exchange of the donations? She also noted that Attorney General Mr. Venugopal had given a statement in the Court that citizens don’t have the right to know from where the funds and donations coming from. It would not be wrong to come to the conclusion that it was money from big business that funded the BJP election campaign .

People are being deprived of their lands with the promise of implementing projects like building dams, factories and industries but they are not provide with equitable lands and compensation to live. Even there’s been talk of cutting down  thousands of mangrove trees and endangering the sweet water balance for a  Bullet train that the general public doesn’t need.

On the environment and livelihood rights front, government has a stranglehold on  the forests, and it can be seen how private operators are being allowed to come in and destroy the forests in the name of mining and mineral exploitation. The real forest protectors and inhabitants are the adivasis who are being branded as criminals and being driven out of the forests, which in turn are being handed over to private mining companies, which destroy the forests and contaminate the natural water sources in the name of development.

A country where intolerance is at its peak, where the citizens couldn’t use their rights freely, Caste bias spread all over, gender discrimination, inequality, communal disputes taking place everywhere cannot be called truly democratic. Therefore, if our  Democracy has become a false Democracy, it is high time that the educated and capable middle class begin to do their duty and take an interest in active politics that will strengthen and safeguard the constitution and democratic values, she said.

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Shradha Chhetry is a 3rd year student of CEMS, Patna Women’s College

  citizens, democracy, naked truth