GAYATRI SWANI

BA LLB 3A
02951103816

COMPARISON OF INDIAN
DEMOCRACY WITH
NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES -
PAKISTAN AND CHINA

A. PAKISTAN

India and Pakistan are neighbouring countries that share much

in history and culture.
The difference between the two does not appear to be in law.
Both have constitutions that enshrine parliamentary democracy
as the law of the land. It does not appear to be in people. Both
have talented, thoughtful and deeply patriotic populations
eager to see their nations thrive.
The difference appears to be a culture of democracy that has
evolved in India over the last 57 years, while in Pakistan,
democracy remains stillborn.
One key to India's democracy is its development of strong
institutions. Its Supreme Court and its election commission
have managed to remain relatively independent of politics. Its
enormously diverse population has also found that regular
elections can relieve the pressures of economic, social and
caste differences.
Another difference in political culture is that India is a secular
state and Pakistan is a specifically Muslim state.

FUNCTIONING OF DEMOCRACY
Since 1947, India has had 16 General elections held at five
year intervals which had voted in governments for five year
terms. All the elected governments had completed their five
year terms except for four which had lasted for less. In the
case of Pakistan its democratic functioning was interrupted
from 1947 to 1969, 1979 to 1988 and 1999 to 2007. During
its 68 years of existence it had been under the rule of military
dictatorship for almost 39 years. It held its first democratic
election only in 1970 and was ruled by elected governments in
1970 to 1979, 1988 to 1999 and 2007 to 2015.

EQUAL OPPOTUNITIES TO MINORITIES

Despite being a Hindu nation, India provides equal

opportunities to its Non Hindu Muslim and Christian minorities.
No Citizen of India faces discrimination on account of his
Muslim or Christian background. This is not so in Pakistan. Not
only is Pakistan a declared Islamic state but Hindus are barred
from occupying certain position within the Government. While
Indian minorities are growing larger annually the minority
population of Pakistan is decreasing.

RULE OF LAW

Both countries are governed by elaborately defined set of laws

made by the Parliament of elected representatives of the
people. However most of these laws are very poorly
implemented. Most personnel of the Police force are not only
corrupt but dishonest to the core. The average policeman in
both India and Pakistan is overworked and lacks motivation.
However in India the public is more outspoken and uses the
media and judiciary to rectify problems in the rule of law. In
Pakistan the situation more difficult as the ordinary citizen has
spent more time under dictatorship than a democratic
government.

MEDIA

Both the print and electronic media in India and Pakistan enjoy
the basic freedom to criticise and challenge the party and
government in power. However the Indian press is much freer
than its counterpart in Pakistan. In Pakistan the Press in recent
years has come under pressure from the Military and the
Jihadist. Many Pakistani journalists have fled to the west from
where they publish their reports. Some journalist have been
brutally beaten up or threatened by terrorist and secret service
agencies. In India however such attacks and intimidation of
journalist do not occur. There has been a case where journalist
have been poisoned or burnt to death but these are rare cases.
Indian press has strong liberal and secular values unlike the
Press in Pakistan which cannot go against religious extremism.

B. CHINA

Indian democracy is a democracy while Chinese communism is

not communism.

Firstly, China is not completely communist. She is a form of

capitalistic , dictatorship state where the power exists in one
man's hands. Frankly speaking, capitalism is driving the
economy of China.

India is the largest democracy in the world. There are over 800
registered political parties in India catering to a wide range of
political, social and economic ideologies. India also has the
largest electorate in the world.
Indias vast democracy at times acts as a hinderance to the
decision making process by making it tedious and the leaders
who are elected and not the best of the crop. Dynastic politics,
casteist politics, etc are not foreign to the Indian democracy.
China on the other hand has a single party system which is
loosely based on communism. Chinas economy however is
capitalistic.

Communist Party of India is the de facto authority of the State.

It is not a democracy and leaders often win the internal
electoral votes without a single vote against them. This system
allows faster decision making as well as a unified and
streamlined vision for the country. The tradeoff of course is the
lack of several rights which are fundamental in nature such as
freedom of speech, freedom to express dissent against the
government etc.
Chinas lack of democracy has allowed it to expand at an
unprecedented rate. Today, China is the second most powerful
country after the United States of America. The lack of political
conflict has allowed China to practice expansionism.
India is bogged down by internal political strife. The upside
however is that every citizen has the power to vote. Individual
rights of humans in India is superior to that of China. If the
quality of our politicians improves, internal strife would be
productive and we'd be on the way to actual progress.