DEMOCRACY VS REPUBLIC

                                               

Many of us don't know the difference between democracy and republic.

we are celebrating republic day on 26th january every year without knowing the meaning.

Even I didn't know the difference before publishing this blog. So let us celebrate this republic day meaningfully. 

we are living in a democratic country but, we still have a republic day. A lot of confusions takes place here. You can see "REPUBLIC OF INDIA" mentioned in our passport.

let me first explain why the republic day is celebrated. After independence, a committee was set to frame the constitution for our country. Though the process was completed in 1949 we announced 26th January 1950  as republic day as it was declared as independence day by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930. Then after framing the constitution the first election was conducted in 1951.

This is the main reason for celebrating republic day.

There are two forms of government either Democracy or Republic.

Democracy is defined as government of the people, for the people and by the people.

This was ABRAHAM LINCOLN's words which are used to define democracy in simple words.

DEMOCRACY is the rule of the majority. For example, if we conduct an election for what food should we eat? (say) if vegan gets 30 votes, vegetarian gets 30 votes and non-vegetarian gets 40 votes. The majority(Non-vegetarians ) will be ruling us and everyone both the vegans and vegetarians should eat non-vegetarian foods. Here the ideologies and principles of minorities

 are killed.

NO SAFEGUARD FOR MINORITIES.

Let us ask a question to ourselves, Can the government of India force everyone to eat non-vegetarian foods?

The answer is NO.

But we have to know why that is impossible?

Our government is subjected to rule of law which is the basic principle of the republic form of a government. Everyone irrespective of their religion, caste, race,... is treated equally in the eyes of law. One has the right to follow his own religion, can speak any language, can eat any food.

India is having a DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC form of government.

It sounds like an oxymoron but it is the best form of a government.

DEMOCRACY	REPUBLIC
RULE OF MAJORITY	RULE OF LAW
NO SAFEGUARD FOR MINORITIES	ASSURES PROTECTION FOR MINORITIES
CONCERNED WITH POPULAR WILL(MAJORITY’S WILL)	CONCERNED WITH THE RIGHT OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL
SOP: IT COMES WITH UNKNOWN MOTIVES	SOP: IT COMES FROM CONSTITUTION(WHICH IS DOCUMENTED AND TO BE FOLLOWED)

RULE OF ACCOUNTABILITY

SOP: Source Of Power

The rule of accountability is common for both democracy and republic. Both forms of government are answerable to the people.

As I said before India is a democratic republic, You may think how could India follow two different policies. After elections choosing their representative behalf of them to rule makes sense that we follow democracy. After that, the elected president or prime minister should follow the constitution and they can hold power for 5 years which is framed in the constitution. Here the republic(rule of law) is entering to control the atrocities of the democratic government.

Though we follow a good form of government we neither have good politicians nor good political parties.