Six fatal mistakes of free India
Our most disastrous mistake was not to educate our burgeoning population and make them worthy of their right to vote.
Share
Updated: Jun 1, 2021, 09:29 AM IST
In an article published in Bhavan’s Journal in 1997 Nani Palkhivala had enumerated six fatal mistakes in the past fifty years which have brought the country to this sorry state:
First, our greatest initial mistake was to start with an adult franchise. No democracy has ever paid, all things considered, a heavier price from adult franchise than India. I am not aware of any great democracy which started as a republic on the basis of the adult franchise: all of them started with a more restricted system and then graduated to the adult franchise. Two of our greatest statesmen of earlier years were C Rajagopalachari and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. When the constituent Assembly was in session, both these stalwarts recommended that we should not start with the adult franchise but educate our people first to make them worthy of discharging their duties as citizens of a great democracy; but they were voted out.