Solutions

As I hadn't suggested any solutions in the previous post, but merely problems which all are aware of and quite obvious, I did think about how these issues can be tackled. They may or may not work, but no one can say for sure what will happen.

The government must act as protector and trustee of the resources (spectrum or minerals) and dispense them keeping the public good in mind, not how much money will come to the government itself or Swiss bank accounts of individuals.

The government must get out of most economic activities like aviation and hotel running and be involved only in essential and basic ones like defense, power and water supply, atomic energy, public transport, space etc. This is because these are absolutely essential to the country and only the government can invest massive amount of money and also engage in sectors that may not generate huge profits but are absolute necessities for the people  and serve strategic purposes too.

In certain sectors like communication, transport, education etc it can have a presence to make sure that private enterprises do not engage in unfair practices like price-fixing or predatory pricing and provide a benchmark.

The government must appoint independent regulators in all sectors ranging from education to environment protection, consisting of experts in the field to make sure no one engages in unfair practices and the interests of the people are protected. It is here that civil society and activists have a role to play, it is here that informed citizens have a part to  play and that is why we all have a role to play in a democracy as we need to keep  ourselves informed of the state of affairs in our nation and not just the state of 'affairs' among celebrities. We need to raise our voice and that does not always have to mean getting on the road and shouting slogans but just voting properly and expressing opinion.

Our local self governing bodies must make sure that government funds are utilised properly, conduct surprise inspections on their implementation whether it be road or canal construction or teaching at schools or public health centres and check whether they are not functioning, those affected by them must find out how their grievances can be redressed and that is why awareness, literacy and discussions are important- only informed citizens can make sure they get what is due to them as rights, entitlements and facilities. This coupled with legislation like the citizen's charter and strong grievance redressal mechanisms and the lokpal or lokayukta that is in the offing can create a better country for future generations.

The best cure for bad democracy is a democracy where people are well informed, politically active and demand what is due to them which will make their representatives answerable to them directly. We have even now people who ask why read the newspaper or why should I keep myself aware of what is happening in this country, they have no right to blame a government, they only come out to express their emotions and wear a gandhi cap when it is fashionable to do so. We need to first rise up from our own slumber and then make demands from our government for fair, equitable development and a clean environment in all senses for us to live in.