Why Indian Democracy Is Doomed to Fail!
Indian democracy is built on the principle of votes being bought by political parties, irrespective of idealogy, and region. It is a proper business model, with politicians being the consumers, voters being sellers, and India being the product. It is doomed to fail soon as it is evident now that in the near future the cost to win an election will be much much higher than the potential profits for political parties in the enterprise of politics. Therefore creating utter chaos, and a system where there will be no investor, thus naturally no democracy.
The age-old theory of Aggregate Demand namely a critique of certain aspects of monopoly/profit-driven economical systems first proposed by Italian Economist and philosopher Léonard de Sismondi can be used as a base model to analyse the situation in the Indian theatre of elections and enterprise of votes!
The theory in its simplest essence in this context states that an investor has to make a profit/surplus in order to survive and thrive in the world, this need makes him or her so desperate and forces them to come up with new ideas, and create a bubble in a profit-driven system. It this desperation that creates an overproduction of goods, underconsumption of goods, exploiting their works and eventually creating artificial loans and bubbles in order to boost up consumption so investors can make a profit, which creates a large bubble that eventually goes kaboom! Unable to make a profit despite large investments due to underconsumption and a starved populace of workers. The investor/producer eventually has to give up investing due to a lack of profit, leading to utter chaos and anarchy and a complete breakdown of a profit-driven system. History through the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the ensuing Great Depression, and even the 2008 Financial Crisis has proven this theory right over time and time.
But how this relevant to the enterprise of Indian democracy? A simple example, in the last General State Assembly Elections in the Indian state of Telangana. For a single assembly constituency considered a tough bastion for both the ruling and opposition parties. Officially each candidate stated they spent roughly 20–25 lakh rupees each for the election. The unofficial number is much higher, a whopping one hundred crores were spent by a certain party who wanted so desperately to attain victory in the constituency! The opposition spent close to thirty crores but obviously lost to the leading party. This isn’t just the case of a single political party or a single constituency. Be it any political party, outfit or leader anywhere in India is forced to shell out crores and crores of rupees to attain power, even if they went to serve the people and protect the interests of their idealogy and have good intentions! It is the greed of a common voter who needs a two thousand rupee note or more and a bottle of liquor and not policy, idealogy or the skill of a leader or party.
A whopping 60,000 crores were spent officially in the Indian Lok Sabha Elections in 2019, doubling from the previous expenditure of 30,000 crores in the 2014 Elections. This is an official figure, the unofficial obviously more than double this number. One mustn’t be surprised even if it stands at a whopping five or six lakh crores. Now the essential problem lies in the fact that Political Parities don’t get such whopping amounts for free, they get it in form of donations or loans from rich industrialists or previously stashed money from corrupt scandals. Some leaders in these parities even sell their own property to fund their own campaigns.
Now obviously those who finance the Political Outfits, like the rich industrialists demand favours, kickbacks, contracts from the Government to earn profit out of their investment. Thus Governments are forced to give up Government lands, deals, contracts and kickbacks (remember the 2G Spectrum Scam?). For survival political outfits are also forced to take small cuts or “service fees” from Government Funds, generated from tax revenue during various Government schemes, and programmes which is also one of the reasons why populist schemes are encouraged in our system.
This is a fact we all know. But this system is doomed to fail, not because it is morally wrong or it halts the development of our country. But because the cost to win an election is escalating at a rapid pace, while the potential to recover investment and make a profit from Government funds, corporate kickbacks remain constant. Simply put, here the overproduction is that of money to win elections, and underconsumption is that of lack of expansion in Government funds, directly related to tax revenues and the rate of expansion in the economy, which itself is slowed down by corruption, and corporate kickbacks/crony capitalism. This disease has created its own grave.
In simpler terms, the Union Budget of India for 2020–21 was 26.22 Lakh Crores. The amount spent to win the Indian Lok Sabha Election is roughly around five or six lakh crores. That is around 5% of the entire budget for the Union of India. No matter how many service fee cuts they make, political parties will find it impossible to gobble up a staggering five per cent of the budget to compensate for their investments as this might affect basic administration and maintenance of Government resources. The gobbling up might be less, but with each election, it will be increased by those in power to survive. Therefore leading eventually to a percentage where they will be unable to gobble up without causing anarchy and complete fall out of the Government and economic turmoil in turn. Imagine a party spent a staggering ten lakh crores on its own barring corporate sponsorship to win an election. It will be impossible for it to recover even though service fees or bribes as it makes a bulk of the Union budget. If the parties are dumb to not see the warning signs, perhaps they might spend more than the entire union budget in the future! This is a possibility and in which case ensues utter failure of the entire system.
Despite multiple kickbacks, favours, extensions of loans from banks, to corporate investors from political outfits. The cost of corporate sponsorship in political campaigns will be ever-increasing, but their demand for profit and surplus or their expectation of using political power to sell their products with ease or kickbacks/contracts/loans from Banks or Governments will also at a risk. Because the economy or its GDP won’t expand as fast as the costs to win an election are expanding, as the first is a testimony to a voter’s greed, the former is the effort of creative entrepreneurs and their value addition to society. For example, the GDP of India in 2020 is an estimated 145 Lakh Crores, what if Corporate Investors because of rising costs to win an election end up spending 72 Lakh Crores down the road to win an election? That’s fifty per cent of the GDP, a staggering which no corporate lobby can recover through overproduction of goods in all sectors. As such high spending or consumption from the economy is impossible. These numbers are a mere example, the essential point here is. Eventually, there will be a point where the money spent by Corporate Lobbies on an election will not yield a situation where they can profit off of it. And that is when they shall be forced to halt pursuing it.
A close relative of an MLA and a veteran politician in one of the leading Political Parities in India once told me “The cost to win an election. A simple State Assembly election is so HIGH for a contestant that eventually all contestants and parities will drop the idea, being unable to recover even their basic investment forget profit!”
This doom of the failure of democracy, where no one would be willing to fight an election, if and when it arises. Is the sole fault of every imbecile idiotic Indian voter who puts the country on sale by selling his or her vote for cash and liquor! The solution perhaps lies in the elimination of votes of that lack the maturity and wisdom to use it! Indian Democracy is a sinking ship and it needs an alternative fast!
