One Cannot Murder A Ghost!

 The Aam Admi Party has called the arrest of its leader, Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, as the murder of democracy in India AAP leaders have called for a nationwide protest against it, and some protests have taken placeOpposition leaders, such as Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerji, Akhilesh Yadav, Shashi Tharoor, etc, and a section of the media too are shouting themselves hoarse that arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal amounts to murder of democracy in India I am not going into the merits of the charges against Kejriwal, which principally relate to a massive liquor scam

However, in my opinion the question whether democracy has been murdered in India or not by this arrest arises only if we presuppose that there was democracy in India in the first place at all, or just a charade or a sham pretending to be democracy. 

As defined by US President Lincoln, democracy means government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Modern democracies cannot be government of the people. That was only possible in ancient times e.g. in Greek city states like Athens, where there was direct democracy. With the growth in population people cannot gather together in one forum and rule themselves. So it has to be a representative democracy.

As for government by the people, this implies that even if there is indirect or representative democracy, the leaders really represent the people, and hence can be equated or identified with the people, not just in the sense of being elected by them, but by working for their welfare, and securing them better lives.

Does this happen in India ? Not at all. Our political leaders only seek power and pelf, and do not have any genuine love for the people, nor really care for their welfare. To achieve power they polarise society on caste and religious lines, seeking vote banks, for which they incite and spread hatred, an activity in which they are experts. Is our 'democracy' for the people ? Again, the answer has to be in the negative. As stated above, our politicians work for themselves, or their kith and kin, not for the welfare of the people. This is evident from the fact that even 77 years after Independence, there is massive poverty, record and rising unemployment, appalling level of child malnourishment ( every second child in India is malnourished, according to Global Hunger Index ), skyrocketing prices of essential commodities like food, fuel and medicines, almost total lack of proper healthcare and good education for the masses, atrocities on minorities, etc.

So where is democracy in India, which is said to have been murdered ? One cannot murder a ghost, or something which does not exist.

- Justice Markandey Katju(retd)