Public opinion crucial in parliamentary democracy: Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Kannur: In a democratic set up, dissent should not be treated as dissidence and the people have the right to subject a government to critical scrutiny, said eminent diplomat and former Governor of West Bengal and Bihar, Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

Delivering the 13th A K Kaderkutty memorial oration, on the subject ‘India today, India tomorrow’, jointly organised by Western India Plywoods Ltd (WIP) and Kannur University’s Department of Management Studies (DMS) here on Tuesday, he said the public opinion is highly crucial in a parliamentary democracy.

“We in India have to enjoy the right to dissent, but when we demand the right to dissent from the government, we have to follow some rules and dissent responsibly,” he opined.

Though ours is the largest parliamentary democracy in the world, he voiced concern over its quality mainly because of the money power in the electoral process.

“Though we conduct free and fair elections, and the number of voters increases election after election, we have to concede defeat in terms of quality in democracy,” he opined.

Though there is a limit for the money that a candidate could spend, it is always violated, and if a person spends money that he or she obtained unethically, that leads to corruption later, he pointed out adding that election churns huge money in India.

“Election expenses cast shadow on what happens after the election - that is corruption,” said Gandhi.

Raising concern over the issues like climate change in the backdrop of the recent flood in Chennai, he said we only have to be blamed for such natural calamities. Nature creates rain, but we cause flood, he said pointing towards the issues of urban planning which lacks future vision.

Raising concern over the polarization in the country that has reached an unprecedented level, Gandhi said the people never want to be polarized.

Though he supported introducing uniform civil code, Gandhi said it should not be introduced through compulsion. If the uniform civil code comes for a wrong reason, it should be opposed. At the same time, it should not be resisted for maintaining status quo, too, he opined.

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