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Coveted change
SANJOG MAHESHWARI
Kudos to the American democratic processes, systems and institutions which, once again, unfailingly reinvented themselves by electing the best man, Barack Obama, to the most powerful position in the world, eschewing all extraneous considerations, for affectively answering the need of the times and to meet the “pressing urgency of now in the best interests of America”.
To usher in the much coveted ‘change’ to ‘meet the pressing urgency of now in the best interests of India we will have to switch over to the American model of Presidential democracy. We will then have our own Lincolns and Obamas, who are conspicuous by their absence in the present-day India.
We were made to adopt, enact and give to ourselves a Constitution, the good-intentioned provisions of which, when put to practice, delivered just the opposite. It was hoped that the Executive would be de-linked from the Legislature to ensure clean and vibrant administration. Instead, it has been reduced to the position of a handmaid of the Legislature. Very often, calculated attempts are made even to subvert the Judiciary and undermine its independence.
Our system of elections and electioneering contributed substantially to the criminalisation of politics. Vote-bank politics helped demagogues to ascend to powerful positions in the government by playing the religion, caste and regional card and pursuing quota-reservation policies. Our democratic system of governance and institutions are totally incapable of producing an Obama-like phenomenon in India. While we always want the best man to win an election, he simply dreads to run.
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