The two facedness of Democracy!

The government won the trust vote, and so early elections have been stalled. But, what was witnessed in parliament on that Tuesday sent disturbing and mixed signals. There were media reports that some MPs were allegedly bribed to sidetrack the ruling coalition in the confidence motion. The fact that bribes were alleged, and even the opposition went on an alleged smear campaign about this sends out dangerous signals for democracy.

However, the common word used in both is alleged. The fact is that the UPA, the ruling coalition won the trust vote and thus, the Indo-US Nuclear deal will possibly pass through in the coming months. It will be interesting as to how media covers this incident, because the print media may frame the issue in a different way, as have broadcasters.

The recent events in parliament have shown, that the term national and democracy have to be revisited. At one point, you have ordinary people who are pre-occupied with other pressing problems who dont know what is the fuss about. On the other, you have people who will allege a lot of things either to grab power or retain power. The fact is that politics, as of today, is disconnected from the ordinary citizen, and that may make the nation disconnected from Democracy.