WARSAW: The solution to addressing the gaps and failings of democracy is indeed ”more democracy”, Vice-President M Hamid Ansari today propounded.
Elaborating on the safeguards for an open and plural society, Dr Ansari praised the people of India as being ”the best guarantee for our democratic future”.
”As long as the ordinary Indian holds true the values of democracy and cultural practices of syncretism, as long as our people are resistant to usurpation of their rights and do not succumb to sectarian and communal thought, there remains great hope that our democracy will continue to thrive and inspire others,” he said delivering a lecture on ‘Seven Decades of Indian Democracy’ at the University of Warsaw, Poland.
”For last 70 years India has worked democracy to best of capacity, not yet to best of ability,” the Vice-President said candidly.
The Rector of the Warsaw University, Prof Marcin Palsy and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.
Warning against majoritarian culture, Dr Ansari was forthright, saying that ”a majority, no matter how overwhelming, does not invalidate opposition. The one crucial test of a true democracy is how it protects and respects the rights of minorities, be they religious, or political, especially in face of populist currents.
A democracy only flourishes when divergent voices can be freely heard without fear of an official or populist backlash.”
He referred to doomsday prophets that democracy in India would not survive, pointing out that ”seven decades after Independence, the miracle of Indian democracy continues to shine like a beacon of hope for those who cherish freedom with its foundations in basic human values.”
Speaking about the Indian democratic traditions, he highlighted the Constitution that provided the framework for a bicameral parliamentary democracy in a quasi-federal framework with the objective is an equitable society to be achieved through a socio-economic transformation using constitutional institutions and the principle of Rule of Law.
The Constitution, he noted, granted Universal Adult Suffrage to all the citizens at a time when it was not even conceded in many older democracies even in the West. Dr Ansari is on a three-day visit to Poland from Armenia on the second leg of his European journey. He is leading a high-level delegation including Minister for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Giriraj Singh, MPs Sitaram Yechury, D P Tripathi, Vivek Tankha, and Thupstan Chhewang. (AGENCIES)
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