Political Empowerment: Promises & Predicament
... sought for effective administrative functioning. Hence democracy and its inherent participatory character enabling thereby the empowerment of the common man were in the minds of those who were to shape India’s ‘tryst with destiny’. Democracy has been variedly interpreted by both its defendants and its detractors and the one oft –quoted is of it being “a government of the people, by the people and for the people’. This definition attributed to the 16th President of USA, Abraham Lincoln, has been the bottom line of arguments in favour of democracy. To be fair to the thesis, ‘a government of the people’ and ‘by the people’ ought to naturally be in favour ‘of the people’ and therefore democracy by itself is a guarantee of political empowerment. A system of governance, which owes allegiance to none and seeks justice for all is indeed supposed to be the fairest of the fair. Therefore with the knowledge bestowed by hindsight, the drafters of the Indian Constitution incorporated the six Fundamental Rights, which offers to all c...