Who are the most powerful and privileged groups in Indian (the world's largest) democracy? The answer is very simple and obvious: political leaders (from the very grassroots) and elected representatives from panchayat members/councilors to members of upper houses because their mindset witnesses that they are doing democratic political business. It is a great setback to people's democracy because people have voting rights, but they have no or little rights to monitor the work of their elected members. The political leaders/elected preventatives have no or little accountability to the voters. Of course, it is revealed almost during the poll time because they lure the voters variously with false promises. It becomes a causal law of inheritance. The parliamentarians/legislatures make the laws to break it for themselves. They pass anti-corruption laws, while almost many of them are corrupt. There is a tireless effort in the courts to establish their corrupt acts as if these are quite natural to them, and it is their right. The political party nominates many times the people from the bottom of the pyramid who, after the election, forget their own community. They become poor to rich, rich to richer. What is an unfortunate scenario witnessing the people's democracy in India?

It reminds us of a memorable novel by Charles Dickens written with reference to the insurgency during the French Revolution in the 18th century. The strike scene is ‘an aristocrat is driving in his carriage drawn by four horses in the crowded lanes of Paris where children are playing. A child is killed. The carriage comes to a halt. Its aristocratic occupant looks out casually and inquires why the rabble cannot look after their children and flings a coin at the dead child’s father.’

This scene is replicated in 21st century India when a democratic government fails to provide safety and security to girls and women, even in protected places. So, after rape and murder, the bureaucrat/democratic leader in rule offers an amount of money as compensation for the dignity and life of a girl/woman. And we witness many such incidents happening in a democratic state, and the democratic government is deliberately repeating the same fact. These types of incidents speak to how politicians/leaders are entitled to enjoy the wealthy and privileged status in Indian society. Here is the charisma of the politicians who deliberately do business with the votes of the democratic people when hundreds of people wait to visit a doctor in a government hospital for hours, but a political leader makes it easily. ‘In India, privilege comes with money, clout, or connections. The last is the commonest and most misused.’

In this democratic country, ‘a minister (central/state), an MP, or MLA, wears his entitlement like a badge of honor.’ They may break ‘traffic rules without fear of being penalized or break queue systems without being reprimanded. If he occupies a higher position in the pecking order, he can stop all traffic on the roads while his car and his outriders go whizzing by. The little red light on his vehicle proclaims his entitlement in no uncertain terms.’ Here the politicians/elected representatives get the very status of VVIPs along with their family members, even their relatives/followers. So, their children get admission into school and access the best health care at no cost, even cricket/football match tickets from VIP quota.  'The notion of getting freebies and extra benefits seems a very typical Indian syndrome’ to be considered as ‘VVIP benefits syndrome’. It might be an attractive incentive to the future political aspirants. Today’s political milieu says that they have forgotten ‘the Gandhian ideal of traveling third class “because there is no fourth class."

At present, political leaders (elected or non-elected) are hurried to save their family members or relatives for flouting any rules, while ‘Prime ministers like Morarji Desai, who announced that his family members should be subject to all the laws of the country if found flouting’. Are these incidents glorifying Indian democracy? How long would these privileges and power be enjoyed by the political leaders? Are democratic people born to face their daily democratic suffering underprivileged and powerless? Why would they not get the real democratic benefits in a democratic nation as the key players of democracy? Will any meaningful steps be taken for the rectification and reformation of Indian democracy?