Why Socialist Government Selected by Democratic process in India is not a good Idea?
Democracy finds its origins in Socratic school of thought which was later documented by Plato in the well-known artifact - The Republic. The Socratic Utopian society was based on partial democracy. Socrates valued the immense power that the veto in a choice of government beholds. However, as per many accounts, he wanted this veto power to lie more in hands of intellectually blessed minds, rather than all commoners. He believed that such important choices should be in hands of well-informed minds or lest the Democracy will fail.
Though the way we see Democracy today -in principle, it has now a very strong underpinning of the right to social equality(irrespective of intellect or capability). In fact it can be said to be the extension of the idea of social equality in the dimension of Politics and National administration. From an ideological spectrum standpoint, democracy can be said to be a more center left. When Idea of Social egalitarianism is stretched to the extreme right, it takes the form of communism. When one travels to the other end of spectrum, we find proponents of free markets talking about wealth creation with very limited appreciation of the concept of social equality.
Obviously, Nothing is right or wrong in an absolute sense. In a Utopian society through the wealth distribution might be done in communistic fashion, but then the drive of people to contribute is so strong that it leads to a wealthier state, with equality stitched in every fabric of society. Or the other way round, though the markets are free and capitalistic, Generosity and deep appreciation of the idea of social and economic equality encourages people to make society more egalitarian.
Though Utopian, neither is possible. In fact every state has to look at various aspects to come up with policies that are right for that state considering its internal and external circumstances. Just staying in center won't help. Administrators have to be astute, to navigate policies that are right for the state at a point of time, rather than sticking to one ideology throughout their lives. But what do we do with diverse country like India?
In this Context, if we view India, we see that we are a dangerously confused country. We are a socialist secular state following a mixed economy with a right-wing government, which has won with an overwhelming majority. To add to this farrago, we have a significant number of people in every Socioeconomic strata. Finally, the icing on the cake is that India is a volatile mix of 565 presidencies which had signed a contract of accession after the land bound by Ocean and Himalayas got freedom from British rule.
Irrespective of India's economic growth rate, the base of Indian economy is extremely poor when we consider from standpoint of per capita. We are not doing any great from many other fundamental perspectives like poverty, Education & health. Hence the challenge to any government is what kind of political/Economic Ideology does it subscribe to. Is it able to focus on Wealth creation based initiatives - which will have a strong capitalistic underpinning? This will lead to accelerated and wider Inequality. On the other hand, the government is expected to pay heed to the majority of the population living in extremely poor conditions. These cannot be sequential. Hence we need a democratically elected government which has initially Right-wing policies, helping in accelerating the economic growth. Subsequently, we need to see the government change to be a bit more liberal in its outlook. So that Wealth distribution becomes better targeted, efficient and effective.
Even from a Global relationship standpoint, the volatile environment and more & more right-wing leaders coming to power. India definitely needs its own right-wing patriot leader to hold the international waters steady.
Hence I think, systemically with congress's socialistic Ideology, India would have been in a soup. Thankfully India gave an overwhelming majority to Modi Government which can be said to be "so far so good."
What remains to be seen is how, when and in which policies of wealth distribution does Mr. Modi Focus in the latter half of this cycle or his next 5 years. And last but not the least we hope that Modi's right-wing religious sentiments don't overpower his decision making. As that would not only hamper the growth path but draw battle lines in this highly diverse state and Nation.
Though the way we see Democracy today -in principle, it has now a very strong underpinning of the right to social equality(irrespective of intellect or capability). In fact it can be said to be the extension of the idea of social equality in the dimension of Politics and National administration. From an ideological spectrum standpoint, democracy can be said to be a more center left. When Idea of Social egalitarianism is stretched to the extreme right, it takes the form of communism. When one travels to the other end of spectrum, we find proponents of free markets talking about wealth creation with very limited appreciation of the concept of social equality.
Obviously, Nothing is right or wrong in an absolute sense. In a Utopian society through the wealth distribution might be done in communistic fashion, but then the drive of people to contribute is so strong that it leads to a wealthier state, with equality stitched in every fabric of society. Or the other way round, though the markets are free and capitalistic, Generosity and deep appreciation of the idea of social and economic equality encourages people to make society more egalitarian.
Though Utopian, neither is possible. In fact every state has to look at various aspects to come up with policies that are right for that state considering its internal and external circumstances. Just staying in center won't help. Administrators have to be astute, to navigate policies that are right for the state at a point of time, rather than sticking to one ideology throughout their lives. But what do we do with diverse country like India?
In this Context, if we view India, we see that we are a dangerously confused country. We are a socialist secular state following a mixed economy with a right-wing government, which has won with an overwhelming majority. To add to this farrago, we have a significant number of people in every Socioeconomic strata. Finally, the icing on the cake is that India is a volatile mix of 565 presidencies which had signed a contract of accession after the land bound by Ocean and Himalayas got freedom from British rule.
Irrespective of India's economic growth rate, the base of Indian economy is extremely poor when we consider from standpoint of per capita. We are not doing any great from many other fundamental perspectives like poverty, Education & health. Hence the challenge to any government is what kind of political/Economic Ideology does it subscribe to. Is it able to focus on Wealth creation based initiatives - which will have a strong capitalistic underpinning? This will lead to accelerated and wider Inequality. On the other hand, the government is expected to pay heed to the majority of the population living in extremely poor conditions. These cannot be sequential. Hence we need a democratically elected government which has initially Right-wing policies, helping in accelerating the economic growth. Subsequently, we need to see the government change to be a bit more liberal in its outlook. So that Wealth distribution becomes better targeted, efficient and effective.
Even from a Global relationship standpoint, the volatile environment and more & more right-wing leaders coming to power. India definitely needs its own right-wing patriot leader to hold the international waters steady.
Hence I think, systemically with congress's socialistic Ideology, India would have been in a soup. Thankfully India gave an overwhelming majority to Modi Government which can be said to be "so far so good."
What remains to be seen is how, when and in which policies of wealth distribution does Mr. Modi Focus in the latter half of this cycle or his next 5 years. And last but not the least we hope that Modi's right-wing religious sentiments don't overpower his decision making. As that would not only hamper the growth path but draw battle lines in this highly diverse state and Nation.
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