This season, democracy is the new black.

Coming to the second reason mentioned in the previous post. I find the advertisment campaign for bringing out the vote infuriating, to put it mildly. Now I have nothing against encouraging voter turn out, but to believe that voter turn out is all that is wrong with our democratic system is a serious error.

Unfortunately for us, this error is a rule and not exception as far as educated Indians are concerned with the smirking idiot in the advertisement perfectly embodying the middle class. Ignorant, superficial, narcissistic and self righteous.

We have failed, or to be more precise, never even bothered, to understand what are the necessary condition which must be fulfilled before democracy can survive and deliver. In absence of any comprehension, and their hubris aggravated by rhetoric essentially similar to "We are the ones we have been waiting for ", the middle class have turned democracy from one of the systems of governance to a secular cult. This cult, like all the regular cults has, its  paraphernalia, most significantly a priest class in media, and a five yearly ritual of voting.

The belief that somehow higher percent of voting is the rambaan for all the problems that India faces is akin to belief that altar worship will result in favourable weather.

"But it is a start", you protest. Well, I wish it was, but I am afraid it is not. These campaigns are a regular occurrence meant mostly for corporate publicity and are forgotten with the news cycle.

"Well, do you have any solution, smart ass".You retort. Unfortunately no, so far I have been unable to reach to a definite conclusion. However what needs to be understood is for democracy to work, every constituent institution/ sub-system should be designed considering the underlying social environment. Further the proper function of institutions depend upon engagement of citizens with the institutions. With this is mind, here is my partial answer.

1. Engagement with the political process (beyond voting), this entails becoming  part of the political set up, organizing and informing as much as, and as many as, possible.

2. Evolution of political structures necessary for democracy to work, whether political funding, or grass root organization, or intellectual institutions.

In absence of this, democracy can not achieve much beyond an expression of activism chic.