The events of 22nd July, 2008, have proved that we are no longer a democracy. We are only maintaining a facade of democracy. We spend so much money on electing our MPs and maintaining two houses of Parliament apart from the money we spend on electing MLAs for State Legislatures and maintaining the State legislature.

The Nation spends so much of its money and energy on maintaing the democratic structure and suddenly, power brokers come and with much less money i.e. minimum of 84 crores for bribing 28 MPs @Rs.3 crore per MP if we are to go by the display of money in the Lok Sabha on 22nd July, 2008 or maximum of 700 crores @ Rs.25 crores per MP as alleged by CPI leader, Mr. Bardhan, override what the people had decided in a previous election in 2004.

So, with much less money, power brokers can cancel all the hard work done by the Election Commission of India and lakhs of Government servants and policemen who are employed by it to ensure free and fair elections. This proves that we are spending too much money on maintaining a facade of democracy, which is proving to be white elephant for us. Are we not wasting our money in running a democracy when with far less money, we could select people through something like UPSC to rule us. Really, it is a farce of democracy.

I am reminded of Sir Winston Churchill, the war-time PM of UK's prophecy about politicians of India delivered on the eve of India's independence. Sir Churchill said, "Power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues and freebooters. All Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight among themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles."

Of course, Churchill's prophesy did not prove true immediately as there were some good freedom fighters like Sardar Patel in Nehru's cabinet who were interested in the welfare of India. However, Nehru who always nurtured an ambition to become a world leader devoted to non-alignment and peace, fell a victim to his own ambition and committed certain blunders which were detrimental to the welfare of the nation.

These were (i) referring the Kashmir issue to the UN, (ii) accepting China's suzerainty over Tibet and (iii) following USSR in implementing policy of socialism as the economic policy much against the advice of his Deputy Prime Minister, Sardar Patel.

When Indira Gandhi came to power, she wanted to become all-powerful. So, she started nationalizing various organizations like Banks, Insurance, etc. She introduced quota, permit, license raj so that all the corrupt people with fawning disposition gathered around her and since her death, the corruption as well as criminalization of the politics had spread like anything.

These days, present Ministers of the Government as well as the past Ministers are being charged with carrying out various scams and either court cases are pending against them or they are going to be started against them. Many scamsters, gangsters and ruffians have become the members of the Parliament. They are known to everybody including the Government but due to a flaw in the election system, they are allowed to remain MPS and continue to fight elections.