Living in India I've heard the "we are the largest democracy in the world" slogan over and over again. This line has been beaten to death by everyone. The fact that the statement hold mainly because we are the largest country in the world by population doesnt seem to bother anyone using it.
Anyways today I heard about Ian Murdoch joining Sun Microsystems. For those who dont know Ian is the founder of Debian and is a strong leader in the open source communicty. He leaves the FS to joing Sun as a person who would guide Sun in its open source manouvers. In his recent interview with a tech site he clearly states that the reason why Debian lost out was because of a democractic process. This process though theoretically ideal leads to a lot of dilly dallying and in most cases a lot of time is lost for useless purposes. I am totally in agreement with this fact.
Take for instance the case of Linux and Linus Trovalds. The main reason why there is a good and steady stream of work in the linux kernel is because come what may it is Linus who decides what is going to be put in or left out. Ofcourse the so called community exists but there is noone who would dare question Trovalds. When push comes to shove Linus Trovalds has always won.
Coming back to the topic of democracy. As in the above cases I think that democracy has its merits but like any other form of governance has its limitations as well. It can be used as a tool to further the cause of the people and many a times in India it is used as a tool by the rich and the corrupt to further their own agendas. Take the case of the problems faced by the Tatas in Orissa and West Bengal where unnecessary delays are being faced by a project that could very well change the entire social and economic map of those regions.
Or for that matter take the case of the past 60 years of Indian Independence. The theory that India should be ruled by a dictator for its inital few years of Independence has been debated bt many of us and usually shunned. Indulge me for a few minutes and consider if such a thing were to happen. Yes there are many pitfalls associated with it but just consider it for a moment. Using a strong leader we could have anhialated many of the evils that plague our society. Corruption for one could be rooted out with enforcement of extreme punishment. Civic sense and order could be bought about through the use of a stronger police force, giving them more powers. A strong sense of community and nationality could be inculcated into people all across India. This would lead to the weeding out of anit social, criminal and even terrorist elements otherwise hidden in our country. The possibilities are endless. Yeah democracy is great and all but some restraint needs to be imposed, afterall we are simply a higher breed of animals right.
Yeah yeah the caveats are huge as well. But well you need a high risk portfolio for maximum gains in a minimal duration right?
No comments:
Post a Comment