As the Indian Parliament faces continuous disruptions, a leading state-run daily here has said India along with some other Asian countries was trapped by "imperfect democracy" hurting economic growth.
In just one month since this year, a number of Asian countries have witnessed social chaos due to elections, an article titled "imperfect democracy traps Asian nations" published in the state-run Global Times said.
Referring to the crippling protests in Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal by political parties opposed to each other, the article named India too, highlighting how the electoral politics dominated the discourse as it prepared for the next general election later this year.
The real problem might be that the current imperfect democratic systems that have offered room for populism, caused confrontations among different religious groups, social classes and different political parties, it said.
For countries whose social and economic conditions are far from ideal, an imperfect representative democracy has gradually created a fundamental issue that makes society split because of votes, the article said.
"When democracy turns into confrontation, elections become the battlefield. The head-on clash between two parties only brings about disorder," it said.
The article opined that as a result, democracy becomes an excuse for people taking on the streets and seeking to oppose the ruler through non-democratic means and cited disorder in Bangladesh and Thailand as examples.
