Democracy as a Tabula Rasa

Arguably, for the historically disempowered and outcast, democracy as an egalitarian principle should matter as a tabula rasa or a “clean slate,” on which they could write a message suggesting a progressive improvement in their total life. Their possibility of active and effective participation in democratic processes, propelled by the provision of a universal criterion such as adult suffrage, offers them with an opportunity to not only morally empower themselves to write an emancipatory message on the clean slate, but also deepen the very meaning and essence of democracy as an egalitarian principle. It is in this context of the removal of premodern criteria such as material (wealth) and social assets (caste and patriarchy) that makes democracy a tabula rasa on which an appropriately progressive message could be written.

Occupying a democratic space and holding on to it by using political power that is necessary for the realisation of the common good does make it imperative on the part of those social groups that have arrived at democracy after a long denial of such principles. Democracy, thus, is a precious space that needs to be handled with utmost care. The question that one has to raise is: Do the constant acts of defection, preferably to a political party with power, contribute to the protection of such a space? The answer to such a question is a resolute no.