Rahul Balakrishnan
“Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers”
Aristotle
The word democracy is a confluence of the Greek words 'demos' meaning the people and 'kratos' meaning power. It is a term that first appeared in ancient Greek philosophical thought. The first democracy was established by Cleisthenes in Athens. However, this was not a truly representative form as a vast majority of the population was prohibited from participation.
India is the world’s largest democracy and while efforts have been made in the past to fully include Kashmir in the democratic endeavor, these efforts have been stymied to an extent by violence fomented by Pakistan. Yet the people of Kashmir have always believed in the institution of democracy.
Issues like education, healthcare, infrastructure have been affected by the miasma of terrorism. Participative grassroots democracy can be a palaver for all these ailments of society. Grassroots democracy is a mean by which people can participate in civic issues. Since people from the society are representing the villages they would be cognizant of the aspirations and problems of the society. A secure environment is requirement for the offshoots of democracy to take hold and flourish. This is the responsibility of the security forces to provide a safe environment for people to participate in democracy. Confidence must be instilled in the local populace that they can participate in the democratic process without fear of reprisal from Pakistan sponsored terrorists.
In a nascent democracy like Kashmir, the faith of the people on their elected leaders assumes primacy. The people must be absolutely confident of the fact that their chosen representatives would act in their best interests. The representatives must be men of unimpeachable integrity and character. Their actions would further promote the democratic endeavor.
A truly representative democracy is not merely a rule by the majority but one in which the minorities and vulnerable sections of society are afforded an equal say. It is imperative that Kashmiri women come forth in increasing numbers to participate in the elections so that women centric issues may be resolved.
It is vital that the elections in Kashmir be conducted in a safe manner with participation by a majority of the people so that the normalization of the Kashmir valley may progress further.
コメント