At 70, our republic is gasping for a rational political cultural

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]S yet another republic Day approaches, the shadows of right-wing demagoguery looms large over political discourse across the globe. Free exchange of ideas and unadulterated exercise of rational faculty, imperative for a vital democracy, stands vitiated. The prophecy of Socrates auguring demagoguery as the Achilles heel of democracy peeks through the pages of history and stares me in the face.

The demagoguery that we witness around the globe is made possible by disrupting and distorting the field of democratic communication based on public reason in order to push through narratives that appeal to baser and relatively selfish domains of human consciousness. Public debates based on reasoning are drowned in the cacophony of fallacious logic and diversionary arguments, or even by a barrage of statements extraneous to the topics of public importance under consideration. TV debates that we see now aptly serve as a microcosm of such distortions in democratic communication. Every relevant debate is reduced to absurdity and thus democratic communication gets crippled. In such an environment, parochial narratives are pushed through with increasing force in order to secure the vote bank so essential to hold onto power.

Democracy and Public Reason

In Plato's Republic, Socrates tells Adeimantus, in a seemingly undemocratic turn of dialogue, voting is a skill and any individual not possessed of it should not be allowed to vote. In this lay deep-seated angst concerning those who may get swayed by their baser instincts, shallow desires and misplaced fears. People may prefer, he argues analogically, the logic of a sweetshop owner over that of a physician who administers bitter potion. He urged for development of a rational mind for the effective exercise of voting rights, lest people may fall prey to fallacious arguments of a demagogue. 

Whether it be Parliamentary debates, electoral contests or policy measures, democracy involves taking decisions and making choices. Decisions and choices can be made when we have adequate information on the alternatives – the course of action, the candidates or the policy options – available to us and the means to weigh these alternatives, either in our heads or by acquainting ourselves with others' analysis, or through open debates and discussions.