Democracy and Dicipline

Democracy without discipline is a body without soul. If there is no discipline in the country, democracy will degenerate into a monocracy i.e., a Government by a unruly crowd. In fact, in Greek ‘Demos’ means crowd. The word ‘curacy’ is from the Greek word ‘Krait’ or ‘Cratos’ which means power. A lack of discipline in democracy justifies Plato’s criticism that democracy is the divine right of the ignorant people to rule ignorantly. 6It is true that democracy is based on the free will of the people who are supreme and. Sovereign. But this does not mean that democracy grants absolute liberty to the people to do anything. Under this mistaken belief, some people misuse their rights and liberties. Not only that, some people also think wrongly that in a democracy they have only rights but no duties. These people do not know that rights and duties go hand in hand.6No doubt, under a democratic form of government, people enjoy the freedom to elect their representatives in accordance with their wishes at the time of election. Even after the election, they can always make their views on various issues known to the Government through the press, radio or T.V. But they must air their grievances through constitutional and non-violent means. If people take the law in their own hands and become violent, they will neither deserve democracy nor can they make a success of it. 6Everything is fair in love and war but it is not so in a democracy. Democracy calls for a high degree of discipline, respect for the views of others and unflinching faith in equality, fairly and justice. Mahatma Gandhi had stressed the need for spiritualizing our politics by inculcating moral discipline among the people. According to him, democracy does not mean simply the grant of rights and their enjoyment. If the people want to enjoy their rights they must be prepared to perform their duties as well.6 We find that in the world only those countries whose people are disciplined have made progress and achieved