Democracy: Political or National

DEMOCRACY: POLITICAL OR NATIONAL

Date:16^st January 2011

Like India we have lot of countries with democratic form of governments. Since the democracy is guided by basic principle of Government by the people, of the people and for the people. This basic tenet has always faltered when the government faces issues which could be a pain for their very existence.

A case in point is the latest Bicentenary celebrations in Mexico. I happened to be in Mexico during the same time. Mexico got its independence in 1810 and in 2010 they had a euphoric moment to celebrate the Bicentenary celebrations of independence. The government took the opportunity to gain excess footage in the minds of the people. Government announced big spending plans and painted an optimistic picture of the economy. The people and particularly corporate were happy to recognize that finally there will be some strong increase in the domestic demand.  Countries with lesser festivals to enjoy like India crave more for the occasions to celebrate.

As the year passed the enthusiasm amongst people reduced, there was increase in the tax levied on the common man as well as the increase in the sales tax on all the commodities by 100 basis points.

With such measures taken by the government, corporate found themselves in the lull with reduced demands and the businesses were not doing well even compared to the recession year. I discussed this issue with most of my customers during the visit and found that almost all the customers were of the view that the government is trying to play on with the reductions to be done towards the end of the year, so that the government will have a good will during the election year 2012. Hence the necessary benefits to be accrued to people will be initiated towards end of 2011.

The question is “IS IT DEMOCRACY IN REAL SENSE OR POLITICS TAKING THE ADVANTAGE OF BEING DEMOCRATIC”

Sangwai@InternationalBiz