Is trust a concern for the party which is ruling the government, a requirement in democracy? These days, this question is being asked often, especially, after the ruling NDA government led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has started pushing Hindutva agenda on an aggressive note.
Although, one can say that Hindus have full trust in the BJP led government and Hindus are majority religion in the country. It may be perceived that the people from other religions have a reason to feel otherwise. But in reality, even some of those born Hindus also do not accept Hindutva as part of political divide and not all Hindus support the government. And those people belongs to other faiths, like Muslim, Christian etc, are openly express their lack of trust in the NDA government. Does it mean that the democracy is at stake, is a moot question. More so, when the country is going for general elections, this pertinent question is relevant to understand the polity of this vast democracy. It is the endeavour of the party in power to have the trust of the people, though majority vote is enough to rule the country. But, it is not proper to say the India’s democracy is at its cross-roads. The issue is now being raised as lot of international research papers published on this subject claiming that the Modi government lost confidence of the people. In a bid to point out that democracy in India is at risk, most of the think-tanks are focusing on the issues of abolishing of Art. 370, bifurcation of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, etc, showing as violation of Constitutional obligation on the part of the government. Even as the government’s decision on the Art. 370 was upheld by the Apex court of this country. The intelligentsia, time and again, raises the issue of trust and points out that the Supreme Court’s verdict on Ayodhya or SEBI probe on Adani group. They also criticize the welfare schemes such as Ujjwala, Swachh Bharat etc. Most of these big-brains consider, the government must enjoy trust from minority groups, considering that the country is now divided on religious grounds. While majority Hindus are supporting Narendra Modi, on the other hand, people from other communities are expressing lack of confidence in the government. Unfortunately, the researchers showing their narrow thinking and viewing the divide in the country on religious basis. However, there are people from minority community also supporting Narendra Modi government. And they feel that there is not much done in the balancing act by the government to bridge the gap between majority and minority vote. However, there are people from minority community also supporting Narendra Modi government. It is evidently seen in the UP elections, where BJP gaining from Muslim dominated areas. And how do they look at the trust of majority vote as insufficient to run the government? It is also not considered by the research groups that India being predominately Hindu dominated nation and their vote to a particular party is seen a religiously bent vote. In fact, the people’s trust on the ruling government is must in any governance and more in democracy. The assessment of the life of a citizen is done in correlation with the rate of trust he showed towards the government. Hence, trust is vital for the democratically ruled countries and India has no exception. But in democracy, VOTE is only litmus test to claim “Trust in the elected Government”.…o0o…