The ‘Art’ of Making Democracy Sinister

In more recent years, the Indian democracy has been pushed into the political sphere where it faces a stiff challenge to its decent character. Arguably, democracy tends to acquire such character through political practice that necessarily involves deliberative processes, made active through the public culture of debate and healthy discussion. The challenge to the decent political sphere, however, comes from unrestrained public expression that shows deep disrespect for the decent form of democracy. Disrespect that has its source in morally offensive expressions is driven by sinister designs. Such designs involve the complex but morally objectionable mobili­sation of social forces that, in recent years, have acquired a diabolical form.

Sinister designs, indeed, have become quite complex. For example, at one level, as one can observe, they involve what could be described as a studied silence of the government over the rise of diabolical forces that have been increasingly and unabashedly undermining the decency of democracy. The decency of democracy is not only secured by following the deliberative procedures, but most importantly, it is guaranteed through the protection of dignity of all those who participate in democratic practice as outlined by the Indian Constitution.