What are some of the significant achievements of India’s democracy?

(1) India’s democratic base has stabilised as a working federal polity. With the Constitution-73rd and 74th Amendments, the base of democratic debate has widened. There is a greater push towards non-centralisation.

(2) The educational qualifications of members of parliament and legislatures have shown marked improvements.

(3) The main cause and source of political-decay is the ineptness of the electoral process which has not able to keep out criminal, anti-social and undesirable elements from participating in and even dominating the political scene and polluting the electoral and parliamentary process.

(4) Though democratic traditions are stabilizing, however, democracy cannot be said to be an inclusive representative democracy. The pluralism and diversity of India is not reflected in and captured by its democratic institutions.

(5) The enormity of the costs of elections and electoral corruption has been a grievous deleterious effect on national progress and has led to the degradation of political process to detriment of common good.

(6) Political parties, which have a fair share of the criminal elements, handle enormous funds collected ostensibly for meeting party and electoral expenditure. Money-power and criminal elements have contributed to pervasive degeneration of standards in public life and have criminalized politics.

(7) There are no legal instrumentalities or set of laws regulating the conduct of the political parties, legitimacy of fund-raising, audit and account requirements and inner-party democracy.

(8) National political parties are more divided on the definition of ‘common national purpose’ than ever before.

(9) ‘Fraternity’, the noble ideal of brotherhood of man enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution has remained unrealized. The people of India are more divided among themselves than at the time of the country’s independence.

(10) There is increasing criminalization and exploitation of the political climate and processes and an increasing criminals-politicians-bureaucratic nexus.

(11) There is crisis of confidence. There is crisis of leadership. Political leaders, owing to narrow partisan and sectarian interests and desire for short-time political gains, are unable even to agree upon broad common national purposes.

Performance of Bureaucracy

(1) Corruption, insensitivity and inefficiency of administration have resulted in extra-legal systems and parallel economies and even parallel governments. Bureaucratic corruption and pettifoggers, which cause frustration in people in their daily lives has more serious fallout of pushing more and more people into extra-legal systems.

(2) There is an increasing non-accountability. Corruption has been pervasive. Public interest has suffered.

(3) Dishonest officials to protect themselves from the consequences of their wrong-doings have largely exploited constitutional protection for the Services under Article 311.

Administration of Justice

Judicial system has not been able to meet even the modest expectations of the society. Its delays and costs are frustrating, its processes slow and uncertain. People are pushed to seek recourse to extra­legal methods for relief. Trial system both on the civil and criminal side has utterly broken down.

Areas of Concern

(1) There is a fundamental breach of the constitutional faith on the part of the Governments and their method of governance lies in the neglect of the people who are the ultimate source of all political authority.

(2) The foremost area of concern is the present nature of the Indian State and its inability to anticipate and provide for the great global forces of change ushered in by the pace of scientific and technological developments.

(3) Increasing cost of government and financial defects, which is alarming.

(4) There is pervasive impurity of the political climate and of political activity. Criminalization of politics; political-corruption and politician-criminal nexus

(5) Issues of national integrity and security have not received adequate and thoughtful attention. Mechanisms for the assessment of early warning symptoms of social unrest are absent.

(6) The working of the institutions of parliamentary democracy, have thrown-up serious fault-lines, which might, if unattended, prove destructive of the basic democratic values.

(7) The Parliament and the State Legislatures, owing to the inherent weakness of the electoral system, have failed to acquire adequate representative character.

(8) The increasing instability of elected governments is attributable to opportunistic politics and unprin­cipled defections.

(9) System of administration of justice in the country is another area of concern.

(10) The state of social infrastructure is disturbing; there are 380 million children below the age of 14.

Measures suggested by the commission to improve the working of the constitution

It suggested enlargement of fundamental rights. For example Article 14 of the Constitution promises equality before law and Article 15 prohibit discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. The commission has suggested widening of the list of prohibitions to include ethnic or social origin, colour, age, and language, political or other opinion, property and birth.

The Commission has proposed a constituting amendment for setting up a panel comprising the PM, Lok Sabha Speaker, Union Home minister and the CM concerned for the appointment of governor. It opined that the practice of sending or fortnightly reports to the President is not a healthy one.

It has suggested a fixed tenure of five years for the governor and deletion of the provision on “during the pleasure of president”. It has recommended that there should a provision for impeachment of governor by the state legislature.

It has also suggested amendments to Article 356. It has expressed the view that before issuing the proclamation the President/Centre should indicate the matter wherein the State was not acting in accordance with the provision of the constitution and give it sufficient time to redress the problem. Also, the confidence of a ministry should be tested only on the floor of the house and the governor should not dismiss ministries if they enjoyed the confidence of the House.

The Commission has also suggested that certain freedoms, which the Supreme Court has already deduced as fundamental right, should be codified as fundamental right.

These include the right to freedom of press, freedom of information, right to privacy, right to free elementary education to the age of 14, right to clean and healthy environment and right to have access to courts and legal aid.