Go Ahead Daddy...Make My Democracy! or. Criminalisation Of Politics Explained

Democracy means many things to many people and has assumed manifold incarnations in the various countries that have advocated this system of government. However, by virtue of being an occidental creation, the western embodiment of Democracy is assumed to be the ‘correct’ form, the benchmark for newly formed countries and newly liberated nations around the world to aspire and follow.

Democracy is not a system of governance in itself but a systematised process that eventually perpetuates the prevalent system of governance, evolved over centuries by a people, their culture, religion, geography and resources.

For example, China, Singapore and Malaysia have highly regimented systems that seem undemocratic to the west but quite acceptable to their own people; Afghanistan and Iraq have systems determined by tribe and community, once again appearing undemocratic by western definition.

In the nation state of India, risen from the cradle of an ancient culture and civilization, the preferred system of governance has not intrinsically changed since time immemorial but India has absorbed the democratic process and the procedural trappings that go along with it.

What is most fascinating to observe is how Democracy has assumed a multiplicity of incarnations – almost like sub-species - determined by class, caste, community, feudalism etc., but all functioning symbiotically within the same nation state.

While the great Indian urban middle class – a creation of western education - seeks its democratic inspiration and direction from the western world, the rest of the country has looked within and always displayed a disposition towards kingship. Throughout history it has preferred the benevolent dictator with charismatic authority and citizens are prepared to negotiate their rights and freedom to obtain such charismatic leadership.

Even after independence, the Indian citizen has had implicit faith in royal lineages representing him in Parliament. When he has not had access to royal lineages, he has chosen to repose his faith and vote for the progeny of charismatic political leadership. This is how the system worked while India was a socialist democracy.

When the Indian economy was liberalised and its markets opened, endemic corruption made the price of democracy unaffordable, thus depriving access to the poor and the marginalised. The prosperous classes found it easier to grease the cogs of the democratic machinery with their purchasing power.

So, the democratic process itself churned up another option for the poor and marginalised –an alternate facet of kingship - competing with established royal lineages and political dynasties: the slum lord, the gang lord the mafia don. He is all three branches of government rolled into one, ensuring immediate delivery of social welfare, employment, justice and protection for the price of abiding loyalty… not a high price to pay in times of a precarious existence within a liberalized economy.

The poor man who hitherto could not access the democratic machinery system, without an ‘old school tie’, caste or, community connections, money etc., is now able to use his vote as currency to ‘purchase’ his fundamental rights by accessing power, through the criminal. He now has a better chance of a acquiring a water connection, electricity, employment and education for his offspring.

By including the criminals, defined above, as candidates during elections, political parties know that they have immediate access to vast vote banks, fashioned by loyalty, money and muscle power, which would ensure election victories and return to power.

We have created a system of alibis in which authority is de-linked from accountability, and stake-holding is divorced from power-wielding. In such a situation, honest legislators have very little capacity to influence events for public good. But a mafia don enforces iron discipline, and makes the bureaucracy comply. The very criminal reviled by the media and middle classes is perceived as a saviour by the common man! And once a gangster makes money, he spends lavishly for 'good causes', styles himself as the leader of his caste or religious group, and can muster the muscle power required to navigate through the political and bureaucratic minefield.

Ironically, while the middle classes publicly protest the criminalisation of politics, economic greed has driven them towards the mafia don too, for protection of business interests and immediate ‘justice’ in the settlement of disputes. He is prepared to vote for the ‘don’ like Arun 'Daddy' Gawli who is a “man of action” capable of using means fair or, foul to deliver on his promises.

With mafia Don’s like Arun ‘Daddy Gawli, as their representative the poor and marginalised know that for the price of a vote they can sup at the same table, with the more prosperous classes and perhaps fulfil their aspirations … that is the fascinating story of how democracy works in India.