India... Model Democracy?

I live in a democracy. Well, that's what the constitution of India says - we are a Democratic Republic and are secular. How can a constitution - an incredibly complex document actually be of any practical use? The simple answer is that it cannot. We are taught everyday that various things in theory seem to be simple and to actually put them in practice is incredibly tough.

So, when the President of our country is voted for by a bunch of parliamentarians, all of whom are politicians - it really does pose an incredibly ridiculous question. Are we a democracy? The answer is that we are a quasi or a pseudo democracy. We 'elect' our MLAs who then elect the President. We don't even elect the Prime Minister! We just vote for the various political parties and they come out with who they want as Prime Minister. I don't think many people even thought that Dr.Manmohan Singh would become PM after our last elections.

The Right to Freedom is probably the most fundamental of the Fundamental Rights. So, my question is that when India appears on the list of countries which regularly tracks website activity of its citizens - how does that give us adequate freedom to express? Many people don't even want to report crimes to the police for fear of death. Where's the freedom?

Mahatma Gandhi, I hope envisaged an India free from oppression, free from political disturbances, economically forward - well the latter most point can be partially satisfied but the former ones are the ones that cannot be. We are a country where bonded labour seems to be common. We have a Constitution and the zillion safeguards but in practice have zero.

So, when Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam - probably the most admired human being in the country was cruelly made a to be in the centre of a political tug of war - it begs the question.. where on Earth are we headed? For all the potential we seem to have - bureaucracy and red tape negate development.

I know that the business of being a democracy is probably the toughest thing on the planet - priding ourselves on being the largest democracy in the world is probably not such a good idea. It is probably the biggest misconception - it makes us look as if we're the model of democracy. The fact is that we have a massive population - that's what makes us the biggest democracy. Ironically, the politicians and politics itself makes India a mockery of a democracy.

I'm sure people who have been oppressed in various other countries would beg to differ. Then again, they've not been independent countries for over 60 years and certainly aren't the 'biggest democracy in the world'.