[Reader-list] Is Indian democracy turning into a farce now?

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear Venu jee

I feel the demarcating element here is the intentions of the actors
concerned. If these intentions help the people, the poorest human being as
Gandhi jee said, then obviously it would be beneficial. If not, then
obviously there may be some problem with it. For example, RSS popularizing
Hindutva is not going to help the poorest human being obviously, whereas
when Ambedkar fights for the rights of Dalits who are poor indeed, so that
they can live with dignity in the society, obviously it can help the poor,
the downtrodden and give them political, social and economic empowerment,
bring about their development and in my sense, make them happy, which is
what development must ultimately aim at.

Identity politics should aim at, as Anupam jee said, transforming oneself or
improving the lot of one's own community but not at the expense of the
others. And obviously, I agree that identity politics focuses on
discontentment, but that discontentment should be at the bad condition one
is in, not converting that into an enemity factor against others, which can
tomorrow lead to violence.

Regards

Rakesh