Monday, July 30, 2007

Democracy 101 :: OF | BY | FOR - it's people {Sikkimese - Style}



The Preamble to the Indian Constitution, summarizes the aim and objective of the Constitution:

"WE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to Constitute India into a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic and to secure to all its citizens:

JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY, of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY, of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all;
FRATERNITY, assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation;

IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this 26th day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, INACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.
"

The Preamble to our Constitution serves two purposes: -
a) It indicates the source from which the Constitution derives its authority;
b) It also states the objects, which the Constitution seeks to establish and promote.


Representation/Proportionment:
Members are elected by the Legislative Assembly of Each State. Seats are fixed for each state on the basis of its population, and not equality. The numbers of seats as of 2006; according to the official website are:

Rajya Sabha [Upper House]: 242 members

Lok Sabha [Lower House]: 545 members

Total strength of both houses of Parliament = 787 representatives

Sikkim has only 2 representative; 1 each in both the houses of Parliament based on its population of 540,493.

Looking at those figures it is NOT that hard to imagine; how our issues are hardpressed getting noticed in the corridors of powers in our nation of 1,028,610,328 people???

Another significant barometer of SIKKIM's relative obscurity is to analyse how much airtime issues concerning SIKKIM get on News Broadcast Channels.

Generally you learn that - "NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS" and I subscribe to that perspective but only when everything is honky dory; BUT sometimes we have issues that need a little more visibility than it is afforded to it on the mainstream media.

Well it all boils down to - the hard fact of how? we are NOT that significant as far as Indian national POLITY is concerned; and the numbers are there to prove it. Hence, we are forever relying on the sympathies of someone else in DELHI to take up our causes'.

Another anomaly of the same phenemenon is that; MP's [Members of Parliamant] from Sikkim always side up with whichever party is in power at the CENTRAL Government. This must be a phenomenon unique to Sikkim. It definitely shows our politicians and "We" Sikkimese in poor light as far as political maturity is concerned; illustrating we do not have any political agenda/identity/idealogy/affiliation and principle. The politicians will call it a compulsion but the truth is that those 2 seats are so insignificant that noone takes it seriously among the 785 other seats.

Don't lose hope.. Yet!! There is a remedy to the situation; though it is sometime in the future. If we have to change this prevailing scenario then we need to find a powerful voice by-of-from Sikkim to represent us at Parliament; a voice that can lead, motivate and move the masses at the National level. That day my friend is visibility for Sikkim.

"ONE DAY OUR GENERATION - IS GONNA RULE THE POPULATION"-- John Mayer

3 comments:

SK said...

Insignificance! With our 9 - 10% GDP today, 20 or 25 paisa is something that we don't even see anymore and here we are talking about the significance of Sikkim to the Nation which is precisely 0.254%.
Ask students or working professionals in the Western, Northern or Southern parts of India, they are often called NRIs even in Government institutions. Doesn't this say a lot about visibility?
We have already started hearing the humming of our generation, and yes, it won't be too far when these humming will turn into loud voices...

TheBrit said...

Not really! Whatever our population or our representation, we still have Article 371f, which if only enforced strictly shall do justice to the reasons why it was inserted into the constitution in the first place. And the reasons were to save the Sikkimese people from exploitation from big money and unscruplous companies. In fact this issue was debated on the floor of the house and all the stringent provisions were justified. It is really our government which is apologetic about implementing the provisions. If you are interested in this topic, you may check my blog at http://emeraldnova.com/cc371

faranewagy said...

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