India is still a solid democracy

I have been hearing a lot of doubts about democracy in India over the past decade or so It worries me as it should worry any true patriot because as everyone knows by now people who ask questions about the government or raise doubts about it are almost certainly being funded by China Pakistan Bangladesh or any of the other neighbouring countries that began to be extremely jealous of India around the year 2014 or so This is common knowledge by nowThat said these doubts are only expressed in private because saying something critical in public can get one into all kinds of serious trouble these days To be clear I still donrsquot think of this threat as a sign that something is wrong Just because students minorities farmers women the poor people from the North East South India or the Punjab seem to think that their fundamental rights are being taken away from them doesnrsquot make it true Itrsquos just a sign that a lot of people are misinformed and I think of it as my duty as a columnist to try and correct this They need to know how lucky they really are to have the government and the politicians that they doItrsquos why these doubts prompted me to try and examine what India really is I assumed that the best way to do this would be to examine some of the other terms that tend to crop up in some circles whenever the government is being discussed One of them is lsquooligarchyrsquo which I found out refers to a form of government where political power rests in the hands of a small elite group Apparently this group tends to make decisions that benefit their own class rather than the general public I dismissed the idea because I canrsquot think of a small group of Indians doing this It just wouldnrsquot be allowed would itThen therersquos lsquoplutocracyrsquo which is also like an oligarchy except that this is based primarily on wealth In this instance political power belongs to wealthy individuals who indirectly control laws and leaders by using their financial standing They use lobbying for instance or ownership of the media to obtain a louder voice than regular voters I donrsquot see this happening in India either because that would imply that a couple of billionaires are controlling our politicians and using them to gain access to public resources If it were true wouldnrsquot our independent unbiased journalists have said something by nowI then stumbled upon lsquokakistocracyrsquo a system of government that is run by the worst least qualified or most unscrupulous citizens in a country The term was supposedly popularised as the opposite of an aristocracy which is meant to define being ruled by the best If this were true of India we wouldnrsquot have the most highly educated politicians in the country in charge of education defence finance and the environment We wouldnrsquot have a Prime Minister with a Masters in Entire Political Science which as everyone knows is among the rarest degrees offered by any university in the world todayOne last term came to mind lsquokleptocracyrsquo which refers to lsquorule by thievesrsquo and describes a government where leaders use their power to steal public money and national resources for themselves Itrsquos what happens when a small group of people gets very rich while regular citizens stay poor This sort of government promptly takes over all major industries and natural resources then changes the rules to protect the corruptI didnrsquot even bother taking that last term seriously because of how far removed it seemed from what life in India is like If something like that were to take root around here politicians would see their wealth climb in rapid mysterious ways after just one term in Parliament They would suddenly have crores in their bank accounts and apartments across the country purchased in their names They would also get away with this because no one would call them out and ask them to explain the sources of their income I simply couldnrsquot see the possibility of this happening without someone noticingSo after all my research I have come to the conclusion that India is a fullyfunctioning healthy democracy ruled by the most qualified people who only have the best interests of the country at heart Anyone who chooses to disagree with this is an antinational or a fool and India no longer has space for these kinds of individualsWhen he isnrsquot ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He can be contacted at wwwlindsaypereiracomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper