DNA Special: Is India suffering from Too Much Democracy?

Today is the International Day of Democracy. It is believed that the first democracy was established in Greece two and a half thousand years ago. Whereas today, India is the largest democracy in the world. To understand how the nature of democracy changed in these two and a half thousand years, first of all, you have to look at two pictures of India and Greece.

The people of Greece have been opposing the coronavirus vaccine for the past several days. In the name of protest, there is arson and public property is being damaged. On the other side is India, where you must have seen many pictures of stampedes for vaccination in the last few days.

In the name of democracy, people in developed countries like Greece, America and France start opposing the necessity of vaccines. Whereas in a country like India, people consider democracy as the only way to not stand in line. That is, the democracy of these developed countries and India turns into too much democracy at times.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were only 11 democratic countries in the world. In the year 1920, their number increased to 20, in the year 1974 the number of democratic countries in the world was 74. In the year 2006, this number reached 86 and today, out of 167 countries of the world with a population of more than 5 lakhs, 57 per cent i.e. 96 countries call themselves democratic countries.

Apart from this, 21 countries have some kind of dictatorship, while there are 28 countries that have the characteristics of both dictatorship and democracy. The United Nations started celebrating International Day of Democracy in the year 2007. Now imagine that the world saw the first example of democracy in Greece two and a half thousand years ago but it took hundreds of countries of the world thousands of years to dedicate a day to democracy.

Today there is democracy in countries like Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea. People there also have more rights than many countries but these people got these rights only when they performed their duties with discipline.

Mahatma Gandhi once said that those rights have no meaning, whose clause does not emanate from the sense of duty. For example, you go to a doctor and he tells you that if you want to be healthy, you have to eat bitter medicine and take a diet with discipline. Now it is your choice whether you believe the doctor or not. You can say that there is democracy in this country and it is my right not to listen to the doctor but it will harm your health and not the doctor.

The disadvantage of unlimited rights and excessive democracy is that it harms the health of a nation.

For example, in February 2020, there were communal riots in Delhi. At that time, the mob had reached the roof of the house of one of the accused of these riots and from there, this mob started throwing petrol bombs at the policemen standing below. In the same year, there were protests in Delhi against the new citizenship law and even then the mob attacked the policemen. Today we are talking about this so that you can understand what happens when there is too much democracy and freedom.

There are many countries in the world, where the scope of freedom has been woven according to the rules. Here freedom is limited but there is also discipline. Like people in Singapore can't eat chewing gum. These rules are there so that people do not throw chewing gum on the streets and litter.

In Singapore, if a person is using a public toilet and he comes out without flushing, then it is considered illegal. There is a fine from 150 to 500 dollars. Apart from this, it is also illegal to make any kind of noise after 10 o'clock in Singapore, use another person's Wifi and feed pigeons.

Similarly, in Denmark, people can name their children only out of 7 thousand predetermined names. If a person wants to keep any other name, then for this, permission has to be taken from the government there. 

In Mexico from the year 1892, it is a rule that people there will not remove their feet from the pedal while cycling. The government there believes that doing so spoils the balance of the cycle and can lead to accidents. In Switzerland, people cannot climb mountains without clothes. This rule was made in 2009 so that people living in the mountains are not uncomfortable.

In Venice, feeding birds is prohibited at Saint Mark's Square. Those who do so are fined 700 Dollars i.e. Rs 52,000. This rule is to protect people from bird-borne diseases and to maintain cleanliness there. In the Canadian city of Petrolia, people cannot shout, sing loudly and whistle at any time because of noise pollution. Is it possible to implement such rules in India?

People can't wear high heels in Greece's national monuments. In Germany, if a vehicle is stopped on the highway due to running out of petrol, a heavy fine is imposed on the owner of that vehicle. There is no speed limit for vehicles on highways in Germany, so this rule has been made. Whereas our country is still deciding what should be the maximum speed of trains on the expressway. Yesterday, the Madras High Court quashed the notification of the Central Government, in which the maximum speed was fixed at 120 kilometres per hour.

In Australia's Bars and Pubs, no one can force another person to drink too much alcohol. Those who do so face heavy fines. But this is a common thing in our country.

Many people in our country do not even care about the freedom of their neighbours. They would park their car outside anyone's house or shop, drive on the wrong side, throw the garbage of their own house on someone else's roof, play music in high volume and when neighbours object to it, many people say that can do anything in their house.

Similar people take pride in littering the streets as well and consider breaking the queue as freedom. But breaking the line is not democracy. And democracy doesn't just mean standing in line and casting votes every five years. The true meaning of democracy is to perform one's duties while respecting the rights of other people. But in our country people remember their rights but forget their duties.