Politically speaking, the past few months have been quite critical as many of our fellow citizens have not been able to reason out with the developments that have been taking place nationally, be it the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution that led to the revocation of special status of Jammu & Kashmir or the foundation laying of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya pursuant to the Supreme Court verdict.

There is a murmur in some quarters about the crumbling of the Indian democracy and democratic institutions. Without going into the merits of the happenings or ominous incidents, as may be for some, let us examine this Independence Day, what have we gained and lost as a democracy so far and how robust or weak are the fabrics of our democratic design. So, when we started our journey as a democracy with the first general elections in 1952, one would never have imagined the events that led to the survival of our democracy till the present day.

Undoubtedly, as a democracy we have performed extraordinarily well than our contemporaries, and have never faced a coup or suspension of the Constitution unlike our other contemporaries, and fortunately a majority of our successive Governments have completed full terms.

Although we have been a thriving democracy, as long as it pertains to electing a democratic Government is concerned, with actual harness of governance in the hands of the political executive.

However, we have and had our own challenges right from the beginning, like, in the form of the beginning of Naxalism in 1967 as propounded by the historic eight documents of  Charu Majumdar, the infamous imposition of Emergency in 1975, the anti-sikh riots of 1984, the self immolation of Rajiv Goswami and the subsequent anti-Mandal uprising of 1990,  the Babri Masjid demolition of 1992, the Godhra Carnage of 2002, the NRC issue and the CAA stir.

Despite of the blatant infringement of civil liberties during the Emergency era, the nation quite successfully elected an alternative Janata Party Government in 1977 which made us see two Prime Ministers, Morarji Desai and Chaudhury Charan Singh, although, the Government was manifestly infirm in many ways.

The other interesting events that we as a democracy have witnessed are, the evolution of Bharatiya Jan Sangh, which subsequently went on to become Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980, which led the first non-Congress united front to form Government at the Centre, that existed for a full five years term in 1999, and subsequently became the single largest ruling party at the centre in 2014 and 2019 general elections. The unforeseen rise of the Aam Admi Party to  form Government at the national capital in 2015, holds testimony to our ability to self determine our Government by breaking conventions of standard politics and reassert the fact that the absolute power lies with the masses.

The creation of Bahujan Samaj Party in 1984, from the All India Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation (BAMCEF) and by the endeavour and leadership of Kanshi Ram holds significance, as the voiceless oppressed classes got self expression in a politically organised manner for the first time; however, the party has been out of power for many years now.

The other noticeable changes that have occurred, which have further qualified our democracy are, the 73rd Constitution Amendment of 1992 which formally introduced the democratic decentralisation of power or three-tier local self governance in India and the fulfilment of our goal of achieving good governance and transparency through the aegis of democracy took shape of Right to Information movement which gave us, ‘Right to Information Act-2005’.

On the judicial side, the Right to Privacy was declared a fundamental right by the Supreme Court of India in  Justice KS Puttaswamy vs Union of India; in 2017,  the misogynistic Islamic practice of triple talak has been declared unconstitutional by virtue of the verdict of the apex court in Shayara Bano Case; in 2017, and further, the decriminalisation of Section 377 of IPC, by the apex court, excepting the bestiality part, has further been elemental in harmonising the interests of various stakeholders of democracy.

Besides, we have shown remarkable maturity in upholding our democratic goals by respecting the principles envisaged in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966, even long before it was in vogue, as in 1959 we facilitated the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso to escape the Chinese occupation of Tibet and establish the Tibetan Government in Exile at Dharmasala.

Besides, we have afforded political asylum to distinguished personalities like Taslima Nasrin and have over years, offered habitat to Tibetans, Chakmas of Bangladesh, ethnic Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka and the Afghans. This shows that, always we have in furtherance of our democratic values sought to assail the persecutor and become the voice of the persecuted.

Democracy has its own virtues and also vices in the form of mis-utilisation of the liberty of self-expression it offers, which has taken shape of mob lynching, hate speeches and cash for vote etc. The irony is that, the perpetrators of such unconstitutional and undemocratic activities, have taken defence in Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression and Right to Life as guaranteed under the Constitution.

The ‘Democracy Report’ of Swedish V-Dem Institute, which has raised concerns about the decline in democracy globally, has said that “India is on the verge of losing its status as a democracy due to the severe shrinking of space for the media, civil society, and the opposition.” However, it suggests that India’s democracy is declining, but hasn’t yet collapsed.

On this note, we can settle for the thing that the values that we have inherited as a nation from the struggle for freedom, still inspires us and has proven to have given the resilience to come out of any torment throughout the history of this great nation. We are such an enormous and diverse nation, that we may agree on some and disagree on some issues which is obvious, but shall never stop deliberating, debating and shall never cease to be world’s largest democracy.

(The writer is a legal and public policy expert, currently serving as Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Law & Media Studies, KIIT University. He can be reached at sjyotiranjan3@gmail.com.)