“These elections are about saving our democracy”

The elections that have just started, are about much more than electing the 17^th Lok Sabha.

They are about saving our democracy from being turned into something totally different from what its founders intended.

Mahatma Gandhi has famously said: “I understand democracy as something that gives the weak the same chance as the strong.”

And Babasaheb Ambedkar said, presciently, on November 25, 1949 : “It is quite possible in a country like India…there is a danger of democracy giving place to dictatorship. It is quite possible for this new born democracy to retain its form but give place to dictatorship in fact.”

The Republic of India must vote with its mind fixed on these words from two of its foremost founders.

Gopal Guru
Writer, former Professor and Editor

Gopalkrishna Gandhi
Writer, columnist and former administrator

Ambedkar Jayanti
2019

Note: This is a part of a series of articles from writers who are deeply uneasy about the future of the country. Each of them is an appeal to citizens – discussing what in their view, is at stake in this General Election.