Dictatorship or Democracy

One of the biggest arguments going around in India is - Should we have a democratic freedom or a bit of dictatorship. In terms of discipline many will argue we should have a little bit of dictatorship. During Emergency time, there was

1) no ragging - a Jadhavpur university type incident that happened a few days back would not have happened. 

2) Autos, particularly in chennai, will come by meter and not ask extras on top of meter

3) Near the chole bhature/pani puri stall, everyone will put the dhonna (leaf cup) in the bin and not outside.

4) Trains/Buses will ply on time

and list goes on.

The only problem faced was by the political opponents and as SM was not there at that time, there was not much of hue and cry as we face today with a little bit of dictatorial style (through media and SM curbs) and with no emergency rule.

With a bit of autocratic style we have been able to accomplish a lot of stuff in terms of infrastructure (world class airports and highways), economy brought to 5th largest, stock market booming with foreign funds coming in, inflation to an extent controlled unlike in other countries, certain decisions be it art 370 or 277 taken which democratically elected govt with true democracy would have never taken in our or future life time. The biggest gain is technology through UPI and implementation of Aadhar and PAN linkages. Yes, no doubt criminals do attempt to bypass these and sometimes succeed, but lower than earlier times of rations getting diverted elsewhere in bulk.

The criminal activities can also be reduced, but unfortunately our courts and justice system takes so long that a criminal continues to be scot free, while a law abiding citizen is threatened by these criminals and has to run from pillar to post for justice. One sometimes wonders if our motto of - Let 1000 criminals be free, but 1 innocent not be punished to Let 1000 innocent be punished, but not 1 criminal be set free.

Modi has set a steep target for anyone to follow. If opposition comes and our economy goes down to 8 or 10, it will be too big a price to pay for democracy. In the name of democracy, certain sections are allowed space while not allowing for others will cause a further divisions in this country. This is a risk one has to consider. This election is going to be a watershed one and not an easy one. It is going to be a messy election