Indian Politics: a Government by, of and for the People?

India is the largest democracy in the world. It’s the most diversified nation with more than a billion people living with communal ‘cacophony’ among each other. We have the longest written constitution among any sovereign nation with 117,369 words written in the English version. There is an elected government which is suppose to work for a period of five years under the citation that it is a government by , of and for the people. The above statements make our political system look like a very gruesome establishment which would be dealing with the requisites affairs accordingly. But as usual things are not going the way they should. In a government that is ‘By’ the people there should be elected representatives who are nominated by the votes of the common people. It should be an unbiased, unforced and uninfluenced choice. But with the election season round the corner we can just see how fairly we are practising this. Each political party is trying to influence its voters by one or the other way. The motto is to get the maximum number of votes by hook or by crook. The election campaign launched by the parties is more a star show than proper election rallies. Just recently a strong political party in U.P roped in a top Bollywood star to campaign for its party. What convictions this party will stand for when it signs a star who is himself has a past record of a criminal background. The voters are influenced with power and money both. Media is constantly showing footages of politicians distributing money and other souvenirs to the people. This blatant ignorance of election norms shows the desperation of the parties for the votes. ‘Fair elections’ is what is being promised to the people and disregarding the norms, booth capturing and various other unlawful methods are being used. People in many regions are being issued fake voter cards and genuine citizens are not able to access their right. Capturing of the polling booth or influencing the counting