Consider the following facts about a country and decide if you would call it a democracy. Give reasons to support your decision.

(a) All the citizens of the country have right to vote. Elections are held regularly.


(b) The country took loan from international agencies. One of the conditions for giving was that the government would reduce expenses on education and health.


(c) People speak more than seven languages but education is available only in one language the language spoken by 52 percent people of a country.


(d) Several organizations have given for peaceful demonstrations and national strikes in the country to oppose these policies. Government has arrested these leaders.


(e) The government owns the radio and television in the country. All the newspapers need to get permission from the government to publish any news about government’s policies and protests


(a) This is totally in the favor of democracy as in a democratic government everyone has the right to vote. Also, elections are to be held at a regular interval of time.

(b) Reduction of Education and health expenditure is against the welfare of the people. Moreover, the decision about the expenditure schematics needs to be made by the democratically elected government instead of any foreign organisations.


(c) In a democratic country, all the indigenous languages are given equal value and the state policy is neither in favor of nor against any language in particular. Education is to be provided in the mediums such that maximum number of citizens are benefited from it.


(d) In a democratic country, if the citizens are unhappy from the government policies then they have the right to make peaceful demonstrations and protests. The arrest of the leaders seems undemocratic at first but a judgement can’t be passed about in without knowing the scenario in which the arrests were made.


(e) In a democratic country like India one of the most important features of democracy is freedom that is given to media. If all the newspapers and television are being owned by government then the freedom of press and media is being violated, which is clearly an undemocratic practice.


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