How democratic are we?

blrsri, for the longest time i have been trying to get around this idea. as you know, JNNURM mandates some serious public participation. but my problem is this. urban transit, city planning, etc etc are all sciences. these are not problems to be solved exclusively at an emotional level. at that level, a streetful of traders will build shops at basements and then violently oppose all public transit arguing that the foot print of the solution eats into parking space and will reduce road space. these are real problems that people with real insights need to tackle. just like the science of medicine. public vote is mostly at an emotional level. but there is a need for hard headed scientific view of things too. such a perspective can only come from real experts. once this view is formed, then ofcourse, they can weigh it against public perception of it. that bangaladeshi kid comes to you and pesters you to vote. but do you make an informed choice or vote at an emotional level?

I hope experts in science and technology will also help in eliminating bogus votes. It seems more than 36 lakhs bogus names are now being deleted from the voters'list in Karnataka, at the behest of the Election Commission.

In our context (city going down the drain etc), I see it this way. Democracy is required more to identify and agree on the problem. Then you need transparency in deciding who will provide the solution, and science to solve the problem. Confusion results when problem and solution both get mixed up. Take Deve Gowda and Metro vs Mono debate for example. DG's mandate was to go to people and understand the problem on the ground (local public transport), and not to fuel the Metro vs Mono debate. The moment DG and the likes (read democracy) jump into the debate on solution, "popularity" (whether we like it or not, DG and likes are popular) starts winning over "science". Another example of mixing problem and solution into one is BMTC figuring out public transport solutions. Their mandate is to run the buses, and democracy is here to say whether 1) BMTC is running buses well or not, and 2) if public transport is a problem in Bangalore or not. What BMTC needs to do to provide better services is to be figured neither by the democracy nor BMTC. People + BMTC only need to transparently pick an expert to solve the problem (or assist the BMTC) of bus and public transport.

http://praja.in/bangalore/discuss/2008/09/karnataka-going-nutshomegrown-version-taliban 

I don't think so and the above topic merits discussion with a higher priority than any other topic because of it's shocking nature, nothing is more precious to a human being than freedom.