Re: Re[2]: [nukkad] The Devil's advocate

["Indian Rediff" <>]

TVji,

On 5/22/06, Tirumurti Vasudevan  wrote:
> On 5/22/06, Dr.M.C. Gupta  wrote:
> > 2. The will of the majority must prevail as per the basic tenet of 
>democracy.
>
> and who said that democracy is perfect?
> what is the avarice of the populace is not necessarily good for the
> country and the people themselves.
> that is where the presence of a good statesman matters.
> sadly we dont seem to have any!

I must take exception with you on this statement of yours.

This is the form of government that we have chosen - and we must live
within this system. Once you introduce an exception as you have
suggested above, an exception to the 'majority rule' of democracy,
then it is a very slippery slope to Mrs. G's emergency, and
dictatorships.

I would find fault with two other things.

One is the form of democracy that we have chosen - first through the
gate wins all. This is true when the electors choose 1 out of 2 or
out of 250! Thus, the guy to get the majority of the votes - even if
it is NOT the most popular vote, wins. e.g., it is possible for a
candidate with 1% of the votes to win - provided the votes are
uniformly distributed among all the candidates - and there are more
than 100 candidates. In such a case, can anyone truly say that this
candidate, with 1% of the popular vote, actually represents all the
people of that locality? How do we deal with this anomaly? Other
democracies have slightly different ways of dealing with this. There
is the run-off where the top two vote getters participate in a
secondary election - after the first one where they were placed 1 and
2 - and the one to get more than 50% of the votes wins. I haven't
researched this sufficiently - but this is certainly a better way to
elect ones representative.

The other thing I would find fault with is the process of buying
votes. Although this practice should have lessened after the EC's
model code of conduct, in the recently held Tamil Nadu elections, such
bribing was rampant. They were thinly disguised (meals to the poor,
rice to the needy etc.) and other elements of the code were violated.
The EC is powerless to do anything about such blatant challenges to
the code. How about the booth capturing that occurs in the less law
abiding parts of India? Can we genuinely claim that the people elected
there are true representatives of that place? How about the
intimidation that takes place when people try to run for elections?
What about the intimidation of the electors whose ballots are supposed
to be secret?

All that said, I believe that in the current agitation, the students
that are protesting the establishment of quotas, are in the right.
They are certainly being wronged - and all that will happen with
reservations is that we (India) will be less able to compete in the
world. After all, in the free economy of the world, there is no such
thing as reservation.

There may be OTHER ways in which the government can encourage peole
that are from a needy background - give them lower interest rate loans
to establish businesses, add 50% more marks in their exams so that
they have a leg up on the competition (kidding), petition the UN that
all Indian reservations should receive international
co-operation(kidding), petition the US that all imports should be
'quota'ed' (what a thought).

Sai


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The truth is not always the same as the majority decision. 
- John Paul II: (1920-2005), the Pope 
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