The Question of Democracy
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00:00 Outlook brings to you excerpts from its latest issue titled "Omni-Present, Omniscent".
00:06 The issue looks at Modi's personality, his cult and his brand in the light of the recent consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya,
00:14 which also kick-starts the election campaign.
00:17 Modi is an avatar, a statesman, a saint.
00:21 Beyond Hindutva, there is now the Moditva project.
00:25 The question of democracy by Prakala Prabhakar. Prabhakar is a columnist on current affairs and author of "The Crooked Timber of New India".
00:35 It is a challenging time for democracy in our country.
00:38 We are observing the 75th anniversary of our Republic, but we have failed to seriously take stock of our journey as a democracy.
00:47 It is noteworthy that India is one of the very few countries which kept its polity democratic amidst serious challenges.
00:55 Many nations like Africa, Asia and Latin America fell prey to military juntas, authoritarian, communist despots and religious obscurantists.
01:06 Most post-colonial societies could not nurture democracy.
01:10 Compared to them, our country's record is exemplary.
01:14 However, in the recent past, our political discourse has increasingly turned undemocratic.
01:21 Our commitment to core democratic values such as diversity and tolerance is weakening.
01:27 Center-state relations are frayed, causing deep fissures in our federal structure.
01:33 Legislatures have turned dysfunctional.
01:37 Our national statistical architecture stands compromised,
01:41 impeding efforts to make the government accountable.
01:45 Media freedom is severely constricted.
01:48 Expressions of dissent is smothered.
01:51 And the state institutions which ought to act as guardrails are being manipulated and undermined.
01:58 The independence of our judiciary is questionable now.
02:02 Evidence that the state enforcements and investigative agencies are deployed to serve the ruling dispensation's partisan interest is mounting.
02:11 All these trends are reflected in the rankings published year after year by several reputed global watchdog organizations.
02:21 At this crucial time, civil society must engage in a serious debate about the state of our democracy
02:28 and find ways to deepen the democratic spirit in our polity.
02:33 We should evaluate our democratic practices to see how they are delivered and what their failures are.
02:39 We must discuss the ways to prevent such failures from recurring.
02:43 It is also necessary to celebrate our successes, identify the reasons for them,
02:49 and think of measures to strengthen the factors that contribute to them.
02:54 For this and more, read the latest issue of Outlook.