Department of Liberal Arts and Humanities
Organized a Debate Competition On the topic
“CHALLENGES AND ISSUES BEFORE DEMOCRACY”
On 15th September, 2023
On the Occasion of & to Celebrate
“INTERNATIONAL DAY OF DEMOCRACY”
Department of Liberal Arts and Humanities, Swami Vivekananda Subharti University has organized a Debate Competition on the occasion of “INTERNATIONAL DAY OF DEMOCRACY”, on the topic, “CHALLENGES AND ISSUES BEFORE DEMOCRACY” on 15th September, 2023. International Day of Democracy was recognized by the United Nations in 2007 and first such Day was celebrated since 2008 and with different Themes. This year the theme is, “EMPOWERING THE NEXT GENERATION”.
The Objective of this programme is to impart knowledge of Democracy and inculcate the values and ethics of Democracy in students.
Dr. Amrita chaudhary started the programme by highlighting about the democracy. Democracy word has its genesis in Greek language. It is the most popular form of government around the world. In ancient India, we have, Sabha and Samiti which works on the modern democratic principles.
Anshu Kumar elucidated that poverty, casteism and gender disparity as the main issues before Democracy. He also emphasized that Poverty is also the root cause of many other problems like illiteracy and criminal activities. He also explained about female infanticide and the feudal mind-set of certain sections of the society which plays challenges before Democracy. Varsha Raj highlighted that communalism is the biggest threat before Democracy. She also said that Polarization of votes on the basis of religion should be stopped. Youth is the future of the nation and should not indulge in it. Manjit Goswami spoke on the caste census and its implications in Democracy, he said that caste creates division in the society and by conducting census; it will fragment the society more which is not good for our social fabric. Poonam Singh spoke about various challenges like unemployment, women education etc. Manisha, Garima Pandey, Nitesh Tiwari, Harishit, Puneet Goswami, Kartikeya, Gunjan Chaudhary and Sameer also presented their viewpoints on the topic.
Among the teachers, Dr. Harish Kumar explained the Ancient Democratic system of India and its relevancy. He explained the ancient Republics likes Lichchavi, Sakyas, Mauryas and their administrative system. He said that at that time King was not despotic but accountable towards his subjects. He was controlled by the Mantri-Parishad and the scholars of the kingdom. He highlighted about Kautilya’s recruitment system, there were certain tests derived by Kautilya on the basis of which recruitment was conducted in various departments. It helps in maintaining transparency.
Dr. Rafat Khanam highlighted the duties of citizens and Unity in Diversity in Democracy. She said that we are Indians first and we should not fall in the communal politics. She quoted Md. Iqbal’s “Hindi hain hum Watan hain, Hindusitan hamara”. Dr. Durvesh Kumar spoke at length about the Accountability of citizens, voting system and their values in Democracy. He said that sometimes it seemed that Democracy is captured by the elites or wealthy and the notion of “hum Bharat ke log” lags behind. He emphasized that more literates and youth should come in politics to strengthen the Democratic system in our country.
Dr. Manas Kandi explained the recall system of democracy and said that it will take some more years for adapting fully the actual principles of Democracy in our country.
Dr. Neha Verma spoke about the issues like poverty and illiteracy and Dr. Ankit Tiwari spoke about corruption and loopholes in policy-making in Democracy. Dr. Amit Kumar and Dr. Niyati Garg have also put forth their views.
Challenges before democracy: As popularly said democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people, so in democracy people are most important, that’s the true democracy but as we are a developing country and was in the clutches of foreign powers for several centuries, we still are adapting the democratic system. We often see people fighting for their rights because of corruption. Many times we face the issue of dishonest and inefficient officials. They ask for bribe, this result in lack of trust of the citizens and affect the working of the democracy in the country very badly. The role of anti-social elements, growing economic and social inequalities among people, casteism and communalism etc. are among the challenges before democracy. Government is working on the fault lines and in future these will be resolved a large extent.
The programme was hosted & Coordinated by Dr. Amrita Chaudhary, Assistant Professor, Political Science and was assisted by Mr. Manas Kandi, Assistant Professor, Political Science.
