Democracy
is both the form of the government as well as ethics of the governance.
It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellow
countrymen. The fundamental aspect of democracy is the right of
individuals to associate freely and to organize themselves into
different sorts of nongovernmental groups. Such groups represent
different stakeholders who are free to nurture their own opinions and
ideas. In a democratic country, ideally, all such opinions and ideas
need to be taken into consideration for the decision making process.
India has successfully sustained its parliamentary democracy as the form
of government, but participation and dialogue between different
stake-holders and institutions of Indian democracy is yet to be
realized. The debate among the public institutions, pillars of democracy
and institutions which impact public opinions and produce knowledge
such as legislature, executive, judiciary, bureaucracy, film and
entertainment industries and academics, has been largely missing. Thus,
this platform (Democratic Mirror) is a unique endeavor to provide a
space to such institutions, groups, associations and individuals in
order to debate each other’s philosophical, pragmatic and potential
domains of functioning. This space is unique in the sense that it shall
not only provide opportunity to different stakeholders to generate a new
discourse of democracy, but shall also provide people a sense of trust
and confidence to strengthen Indian democracy.