जास्तीची majority

Democracy is not a perfect system. But, it is better than any other form of government known to man. Many people equate democracy with freedom and liberty. This is a wrong notion. Democracy by itself does not guarantee freedom or liberty or even equality. What guarantees these very very important and essential values is how a democratic government functions. What guiding principles it follows. How it decides and executes policy.

So what would you like the government to do? Would you like it to give free food to all those who are hungry, or shelter to everyone who wants it? Free education, free electricity, free medical care? All these seem like nice things to do, but just remember that a government does not produce anything. So everything it does is at an expense of somebody else. Almost every policy decision involves two things, whom do we take it from? and who do we give it to?

So do we really need a government? Can't we just take care of ourselves? The answer is no. We need a government to protect our liberty. That is it's only and most essential function. We need it to ensure "fair play" in all our social and economic transactions, everything else can be taken care of by individuals, like you and me.

In India, we are used to the idea of a माय-बाप सरकार. We expect it to solve any and every problem. That will not work. The government is unfit and dangerous at solving any other problem, than the problem of liberty.