Democracy - Who Benefits?

Society is run by a Government; this has been accepted in our system called Democracy. This blog continues its efforts to understand modern Democracy, which can be seen as a bundle of contradictory actions, resulting in incessant conflict. Here, I would like to pursue the question we raised in the previous post, viz: 'who benefits from it'?

Here are some recent news items from newspapers, along with their backgrounds:

• Indian government petitions supreme court to allow private companies to resume manufacturing the banned pesticide Endosulfan.

Background: The Indian supreme court has in 2011 banned the manufacture and sale of the toxic pesiticide Endosulfan after mounting evidence that it has killed and maimed thousands of children of farming families. The government is now asking for its re-sale.

Mind you, it is not the private toxic chemical manufacturers who are petitioning the court. It is the Indian government which is pleading on their behalf. Why? A little more research revealed another, older news item from last year: that Indian agriculture minister Sharad Pawar had lobbied for continuance of Endosulfan at an international convention in Europe which sought the global ban of this dangerous drug. Most nations were voting to ban it, but Sharad Pawar was seen lobbying on behalf of manufacturers (finally, our government was under tremendous pressure and agreed to 'phase it out' over two years).

Strange, isn't it? Not lets look at another news - this happened a month before the coal scam.

Democracy, the Equality Problem

We have a democracy problem.
I am not saying we have problems in democracy, or problems about democracy. We have a poverty problem, we have a climate change problem, we have a terrorism problem; likewise, we have a democracy problem.
Democracy is conflict. It may appear that democracy is the management of conflict, but that is not so. Democracy feeds on conflict. The energy of democracy is the energy of friction, it is the energy of opposition. You may have observed that every activity in democracy seems to have an equal and opposite activity.
There are builders and businessmen active in destroying the ecology. There are environmentalists active in trying to save it. There is a ministry for destruction of village communities and building SEZs. There is another ministry for 'rural development' and upliftment of villages.
There is a government department active in giving permits to mow down forests for timber. There is another government department active in trying to plant tree saplings in these very same forests.
Processed food companies are active in producing substandard food with toxic chemicals. NGOs like CSE are active in analysing these products and finding out all the harmful things they contain. People are active in consuming such industrial food and becoming unhealthy. Doctors and pharma companies are active in selling them medicines.