Not constitution, but people can establish a democracy.
Dalip Singh Wasan, advocate.
We must accept that Constitution of a country is just a paper transaction and if in some parts of that constitution, it is declared that a particular country is a democracy, we should not believe in these lines in the Constitution, but we should have a look on the people of that country and then we shall be able to say whether the people have attained a democracy or they are still living life of slaves.
There are three recognized basics on which a democracy is established. It should be government of the people. It means the people should themselves elect the government and the people ruling them should not be rajas, maharajas, monarchs and the imperialists. There should not be a family rule, there should not be an autocracy or dictatorship of a particular party. There should not be a family rule. On each occasion only competent people are elected and they work as public servants. They should not act like rulers. They should be faithful, sincere and honest towards the people who have elected them and they should serve the people in letter and spirit and they should not be allowed to give to the people wrong and false hopes. The ministers must be elected by the people and while nominating their names, the political parties should show to the people the qualities available in that particular person which make him fit for a particular portfolio. The man should be honest and he should not be acting like rajas, maharaja or like an imperialist and he must not collect money from the people and from the state through bribes, through scams, scandals, muddles, sale of jobs, sale of licenses, sale of quotas etc. etc.
Secondly the people elected should be from amongst the people of that country and they should not a separate class in themselves. In most of the democracies the people elected are not nominees of the people. They are nominees of others and they are elected through votes of the people and that is the reason in all the democracies in the world, these nominees of other classes do not work for the welfare of the people with whose votes they have been elected. The people standing as candidates are not from the people, therefore, if such people are elected and they form a government, we should not call such a government a democracy. The people sitting in government chairs shall not work for the people and therefore, we can call such a government a government of a few, for a few or by a few.
When the people elected by the people are not their nominees, these people would not work for them. Therefore, it is for the people to establish a real democracy. Only a Constitution would not establish a democracy. Therefore, the people of a democracy have got higher responsibility. They must be vigilant that they are choosing right persons for right job and they are choosing an honest person. They must be having an eye on the people sitting on government seats and they must make it sure that they are not having money from the people. The people shall have to accept that they are the masters of that country and all these people who are sitting on government chairs are just public servants and therefore, it is the duty of the people to elect right people, give them right work and they must be able to have supervision on their work and conduct. If the masters are no vigilant and they are trusted all the work on the servants, such masters are liable to be condemned to insolvency. Where the people who are the real masters of a country are not vigilant, they shall suffer and they are liable to be condemned as insolvent.
The master must choose i.e. must have a proper selection and they must ensure that the people are trained or expert in the line which is being entrusted to them. When incompetent people sit on chair, inefficiency shall be the result and they shall bring all losses and the losses shall be suffered by the people who are the masters of the country.
Only educated people can establish a democracy. Where most of the people are illiterate, unemployed, poor, starving, they would not be able to establish a true democracy. They may be voters, but they would not attain the status of masters of that country. They may be designated as masters in the Constitution of that country, but it is just a satire on them.
We have noted that people who are coming to government seats are well aware that people must be kept illiterate and starving so that they may not be having an occasion to watch work and conduct of those who are sitting on government seats. Therefore, the people in power always try to keep the people illiterate, poor, houseless, starving so that they may be busy in establishing their minimums and they should not be having time to supervise work and conduct of those who are sitting on government chairs.
In most of the countries where paper type democracies have been established and they have drawn very good constitutions. But all these are paper transactions and the people are still slaves and they are not in a position to say that they are masters of that country. They are still standing before the people sitting in chairs as slaves. They are not being allowed top learn the art of becoming independent and democrats.
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