This election, the crux of the debate should be on improving people’s welfare

Both BJP’s PM Kisan and Congress’s Nyay acknowledge that small and marginal farmers and bottom 20 per cent of population have not benefited from current policies. But both schemes raise further questions.

Lok Sabha Elections 2019, BJP, PM Kisan scheme, Congress Nyay scheme, poverty index india, poverty in india, india farmers, Green Revolution, famer income, indian express — No temple is a place of worship, if it does not serve continually as a sign and site for man’s on-going, never-ending search for God. (Illustration: CR Sasikumar)

It is time to celebrate the biggest spectacle of democracy on this planet. About 900 million people are eligible to exercise their right to choose their representatives to the Lok Sabha. This festival of democracy will last for about a month-and-a-half. Notwithstanding several shortcomings of democracy, it appears better than dictatorships or centralised communist regimes. China may have done better when it comes to economic growth, but can Indians accept the one-child norm that China enforced between 1981 and 2016? Can there be open dissent in China’s media about its government’s policies as we have on Indian media channels? The obvious answer is no. We can accept a lower growth rate of 7 per cent per annum, compared to China’s 9-10 per cent, but cannot compromise on our democracy, no matter how messy it is.