In the democracy, the party that wins the majority of seats form the governments. In the parliamentary democracy, the elected members exercise power. The members are elected through electoral processes, such as casting votes, and counting, and whoever wins more votes than others is elected. This system is called first-past-the-post. So even a candidate having just 30 percent of the popular votes can get elected to the parliament. There is another system which is called proportional representation in which the people vote for the parties, and parties send members to the Parliament in proportion to the percentage of votes they received in such elections. In the absence of this system, the majority of the people’s voice is not reflected. Some systems practice a combination of both the methods to send the members in the Parliament. Judging the current Indian parliament, though the Lok Sabha is dominated by the BJP-led NDA, its popular share of votes is 30 percent. That means 70 percent Indian voters are not with the BJP-led NDA. The Rajya Sabha is dominated by the non-BJP and regional parties as most of the members are elected by the State Assemblies in Rajya Sabha. Thankfully, the duration of these houses of the Parliament are different, and in Rajya Sabha, the members are indirectly elected.

Democracy has many attributes. One of the attributes of the Democratic system is the division of power between different organs of the Government and effective Checks and Balance mechanism. When the first constitution came into being, the founding fathers of America spent a lot of time in discussing and putting in place check and balance mechanism. However, in the two prominent democracies, India and USA, the constitution is supreme. It is the law that is superior to any existing institution. And the constitution of India created that check and balance mechanism. But, the check and balance mechanism is completely subverted by the BJP and in fact, the current government is run by the invisible omnipotent organisation, RSS. There is no ministry which is not dominated by the Pracharak or some office bearer of RSS. RSS is taking important decisions. The RSS deployed its workforce and seamlessly weaved it with the Government. All important decisions are taken by RSS. The Right-wing think tank, India Foundation, of which Shaurya Dhoval, Son of Ajit Dhoval, is head has become the main policy maker of this country. This is the murder of democracy and beginning of Brahmanocracy in this country.

RSS is not people’s organisation. It is not a social movement for justice for India’s majority of the oppressed. It was founded by Brahmins to stop the movement of Non-Brahmins. It is a draconian organisation whose members openly praised likes of Hitlers and Mussolini. Then why the Indians who did not vote for RSS must be ruled by this pseudo-nationalist organisation? There should be an open challenge to this. It is India’s democracy and the constitution that has given rights to India’s majority oppressed. The RSS is now coming out as a commentator or the spokesperson for the Government itself. It openly wants to do away with the reservation, India’s most successful policy of forging a country for all.

So long as India will be ruled indirectly by such forces, democracy in India is in danger. In fact, the democracy is already sabotaged when the discussions are not taking place in the Parliament and the PM trust his judgment and fancies that bringing in the diversity of opinions into policy and decision making. The degradation of democratic tradition that is somehow coming into shape after the constitution was promulgated is alarming. The media that is supposed to mediate between the will of the people and the limits of state has become the pimp and handmaiden of the powerful and rich.

In the sacred principles of democracy, we will all flourish. In the absence of it, we might end up losing our freedom and rights. That is why the steel-hold of RSS on Indian Government is a door to turmoil and anarchy.

Author – Mangesh Dahiwale, Human Rights Activist

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