The closed fist that we got a year ago is now gone. We keep hope from every new year, but the year 2024 brought a lot of curiosity for us. Of course, it was a mathematical coincidence, but we got a year in which the fate of governments was to be decided through elections in 78 countries of the world. It was also called the 'great year of democracy.' More than half of the world's population will go to vote in the next 12 months; this thing was agitating many people.Right here, if we go back to the world of 50 or 100 years ago, then the sensation that the word 'democracy' used to give to the mind at that time, the same resonance does not arise from this word now. It was a time of hope when it seemed that sooner or later all the countries of the world would become democratic.
Violent coups would be limited to history books, and people of the whole world would adapt to the tradition of changing the government by casting votes. But not everyone was so lucky.Democracy came, spread all over the world, but not everyone got the right to give the opportunity to form the government to the leader of their choice.
Many countries are democratic today, but there are many countries where monarchy still prevails. Somewhere a dictator is in power; somewhere the reins of government are in the hands of a military ruler. Apart from this, there is China, about whose system what can be said? The problem is that the dominance of ideas is now missing from the whole world, on the basis of which we hope that all these countries will also become democratic someday. Democracy, which was once a dream, a goal, a very large part of the world has now learned to live without it.So 2024 was about those countries where democracy had come in some form or the other. Somewhere it is complete, somewhere it is half, somewhere it is incomplete, and somewhere it is what we call a flawed or failed democracy.
The situation has changed there as well. The passion of the dream and love that was there half a century ago has now turned into a routine act. Some people are afraid whether this democracy will last long or not. Many times the arbitrariness, excesses, or the habit of chasing opponents with a stick without any reason of those who have come to power leads to similar analyses.An example: The famous magazine The Economist prepares an index of democracy every year, which tells where which country stands on the scale of democracy.
After this US election, the magazine has added a new index to it—the Trump Risk Index. That is, now it will also assess what risks have increased for the world after Donald Trump became the US president. That is, the fears that were in front of us at the beginning of the year have only increased by the end of the year.The first election of the year was held in Bangladesh on 7 January. More than its results, its scams were discussed. Whatever happened after this, it was clear that the result of corrupting democracy is the departure of democracy. Anti-democratic forces are now ruling this neighboring country of India. Minorities are the first target of anti-democratic forces anywhere, so now news of attacks on minorities comes from there every day.For a long time, a fear has also been spreading that other countries can interfere in democracy through social media.
In the 2020 US election, Russia was accused of trying to influence the American election through social media. This year, the same allegations were made in countries like France, Romania, Georgia, and Moldova. Everywhere it was said that attempts were made to influence their elections. However, the allegation did not come from anywhere that the election results were overturned because of this. The way foreign interference can overturn power in other systems, it is perhaps not that easy in a democracy.When the year began, it was being heard and seen everywhere that the year 2024 would be the year of strengthening right-wing forces in democratic countries. You can also draw this conclusion from the election results of some places. But the election results of Britain and neighboring Sri Lanka say something else. When people leave their homes to cast their vote, they often do not move towards any impulse but take care of their needs and their experiences. It is important to mention one more thing right here. Almost everywhere, the psephologists who made predictions by assessing the mood of the public were proved wrong.Another special thing about this year was that the work of raising questions on the voting system was done almost everywhere. In India, America, and many other places as well. The continuous decline of consensus on the voting system is not a good sign. Everywhere people were seen raising questions on the credibility of politicians. These are all such things that, if not paid attention to, the danger can deepen. Of course, there is no external threat to democracy in most countries, but its internal erosion is telling that a lot of bad things are getting accumulated in the lap of this system. The kind of drama we saw in the Indian Parliament in the last month of the year or what happened in South Korea in the recent past, we need to learn from all this.
This year has shown that the divisions among people in democracies are not only increasing but also getting sharper. In many places, hatred is increasing or is being inflated. On the other hand, when people came out of their homes in large numbers to protest, it also became clear that people in these countries still have faith in democracy. They still consider it the right way to bring about change. This is a good sign amidst all the apprehensions.
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