This Article “Terrorism and its impact on democracy” is written by Tempa Dorji, a student of B.A. LLB (fourth Year) at Lovely Professional University
Democracy in the simplest understanding is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation, or to choose governing officials at the parliament. The word “democracy” comes from the Greek words “demos”, meaning “citizen”, and “Kratos”, meaning “power” or “rule”. In a democratic society, all citizens have equal rights and freedom to choose their representatives or to participate in the government through the election. Since its birth, it has provided ordinary citizens the wings to fly and reach the skies of liberty.
Who in the world doesn’t like to have peace and wants a society free from any kind of threat? In the world of a peace-loving society, there had not been any kind of fear in the mind of a man like the fear terrorism has posed. Terrorism is not just killing the innocent, it is way more than that. It instills the waves of fear, and pose threat to the peace, tranquility, and harmony in the society. The inhuman activities carried out by the terrorists are the greatest threat to the basic fundamental principle and stability of Democracy. Every terrorist attack is evil. The world has been fighting against terrorism for so long and there is a vivid sign that it was indeed successful to some extent. But terrorism is a never-ending game of threat until and unless all the international communities come together, and work in mutual cooperation and understanding. The international community in particular needs to prevent any associations to carry out such activities. Only then, the world would be a safer place to live without any fear with flourishing developmental activities in all the spheres of politics, economy, and social activities.
Every living being on this planet loves peace and harmony. No one wants to get hurt or land up being killed. Every man wants to live a life of his own desires and aspirations. Nobody wants to be a victim of any such incident which costs our precious life for doing nothing wrong. In the history of mankind, there has not been any such grave fear unlike the terrorism has caused. Intelligence agencies working against terrorism are never ascertained about their target, location, and specific timings. They carry out their attacks when and where they feel necessary fits after professional planning. The people engaged in such activities act as if they do not have any feelings at all. They are not human at all because humans would never do that. They have no feelings of love and affection for their families, friends, relatives, and the whole of humanity in fact. They are indeed even not feared to risk their own life since they are deadly and suicidal. They carry out such activities on the ground of political or religious matters and they have their own motives and goals to achieve. Due to the fact of uncertainty about their target and timings, it is the ground of such fear that causes disturbance in the peace of mind of every man living across the globe.
Terrorist attacks are dangerous and disastrous to the lives of thousands of people and to their properties. People are left with such fear and anxiety with no option in their hand. The peace, tranquility, and harmony in society are being disturbed. Examples of terrorist organizations like the Islamic State of Iran and Iraq (ISIS), Boko Haram and various Al- Qaeda affiliates, and Jaiesh- E Mohammad[1] in Pakistan are some of the organizations formed on the basis of Islam religion based on Jihad. Their primary reason defending their stand behind the attacks remain on the account of the protection of their religion. There are many such instances that there is social disharmony in the society on the ground of religion. There are more than 4200[2] different religions in the world based on different beliefs and faith. People of different religion blames (Islam) and accuses each other for carrying out such devastating activities. There is also other ground of social conflict between the people in regard to politics. Some sections favor some party and some section favor the other creating an intense situation that they go to the extent of bringing violence in the society. These activities create a communal difference between different societies bringing lot of hues and cries promoting more terror activities condemning the peace and harmony in the society.
The leading democratic Countries like Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand, Finland, Australia, and Canada[3] are some of the greatest example of the successful rule of democracy. These countries are far developed in all the aspects of development in the field of economy, politics and other social domains. The fundamental principle of the democracy is such that it is based on peace and social tranquility. So, how do the terrorism affect the basis of democracy? Terrorism are of such that they carry out their activities on various places with different timings and if incase, any terror attack strikes on one of the democratic countries and if the government fails to take necessary actions condemning such activities, people may lose faith in government putting the freedom of the nation at stake. Terror attacks may happen in the global community as well as in the domestic level. Any of such kind promotes and influences such activities to carry out in the pursuit of the personal gain or to have power in the public domain. For instance, any political party may hire such terror group to impose destruction to some other party to win over the election which is being forbidden by the constitution or any law of the country. So, such instance mentioned above may cause the people to lose faith in the rule of democracy and subsequently would compel to dismiss the very idea and rule of democracy.
Where there is no peace and complete freedom in the hands of people, the society they live will never thrive, be peaceful and will always run into constant troubles and miseries. Where in a society which runs into constant troubles due to many social, political, and communal differences, what would be the fate and future of that society? Specifically, the communal dispute in the society is dangerous and more volatile to get easily influenced by the groups of terrorists. The principle features of the democracy provide the secularism which in the pretext of Indian Constitution means that all the religions are equal and there shall be no distinction on the ground of religion and all the people are allowed to worship different faiths. So, the communal disputes caused by the reason of terror attacks belonging to some particular religion would destroy the basic feature of the democracy which indeed is a greatest impact to the rule of democracy.
It is true that desires of want in human is never ending. You are already rich and wealthy but seeing some other who is much richer than you, you can feel the jealousy inside up thrusting and we tend to become much richer and superior to the other. So, to become rich you adopt many means and ways to acquire it but it is for sure that most of those means are illegal and unjust. So, the same is in the field of politics because due to the hunger of power, you will do anything to wipe away which stands in your way to become a supreme power. Some of those means and tactics would be the use of violence and terror against the rivals promoting the upliftment of more illegals and terror in the society. Just imagine where in a democratic country which allows the freewill of people to elect their representatives comes into the hand of such cunning power-hungry individual, what would be the condition of peace, harmony and wellbeing in that society? Very pathetic! These are some other impact of terrorism in the rule of democracy.
Furthermore, democracy provides the platform for the freedom of association and movement with lawful objects with limited impositions of legal restraints. This gives the hefty opportunity and makes it easier to organize terrorist groups and to plan and carry out the attacks. With the pretext of forming an association, this gives an opportunity for the political and religious extremist to come together with combination with terrorist groups and impose greater threat to the security of the people and sovereignty of the country. So, terrorism on the other side and liberal democracy on the one side is very much contradictory in nature that democracy provides ample of freedom with the intention of welfare of the public and betterment of the country but on the other side, the terrorist looking for the right moment to seize the opportunity to carry out their insane inhuman devastating activities which defy and derogate the meaning and true nature of humanity and such is the impact of the terrorism towards the democracy.
The very essence of democracy is such that it is peaceful in nature and at the best possible way forbids any kind of corruptions. There is a very interesting link between the democracy and the economic and social sphere. In the economic sphere, the mind of the people is free from threat or fear. The work efficiency and output put forward by the government officials, farmers, industrialists, traders are very inspiring and contribute in the revenue generation of the government. When there is sufficient budget with the government, with the proper utilization of the funds will boost country’s economy and will become economically stable with proper development of the necessary infrastructures. In the social sphere, democracy is such that its provisions provide every individual all kinds of human rights unless it contradicts with the law of the nation. So, losing the rule of democracy due to the loss of faith by people on the basis of terror activities would mean that someone blindly chose rocks over the diamond.
The central intelligence and security forces of every single country has been putting their endless effort in counter terrorism wiping out those organizations which administers such violent activities. There have been many such instances of terror attacks across the world and it is sad to know that despite the endless effort and sacrifices, still there is continuation of such inhuman acts. Some of such recent terror attacks occurred in 2019 are the deadliest suicide bombing in Pulwama killing more than 47 CRPF Jawans in India on 14th February by the terrorist groups of Jaiesh -E- Mohamad based in Pakistan[4] and another deadliest terror attack in New Zeeland targeted in one of the Mosque killing the innocent people who had done nothing wrong but were worshipping and offering their prayers. It is unimaginable to witness that what we have been believing in the fact that Temple, Mosque, and Churches are one of the peaceful places has turned out to be even unsafe for the people around the world. Few days back, there was another deadliest terror attack in Srilanka targeting the Church and the luxurious hotel killing more than 300 people of different nationals and several other civilians are left being seriously injured and the number of deaths is still on the verge of rising.
So, the time has really come that the world should now come together, unite and fight against the terrorism for once and for all for the better cause of humanity. Today is the right time that the root and history of terrorism should be clearly eliminated. It is always wise to remember the saying that one hand is better but little less than the combination of two. Similarly, terrorism is no longer a local or a national issue but it is an international issue and it has to be solved by the international community. International community coming together to fight against the terrorism as a common goal would crush the evil spirit of those organizations and it is important to keep in mind that your religion, nationality, caste or creed or any other sort doesn’t matter when it comes to the matter of humanity. Terrorism is destroying the faith of humanity and they are cruel and senseless. We shall make this world a safer place for the upcoming future generations. Even if we are not successful in wiping out the terrorism, at least it would saw the seed of inspiration for the future generation to continue to fight against the terrorism. The only solution to the darkness is light and the only solution to sorrow is the love. So, the only solution to terrorism would be cooperation of international community and if we don’t put off the fire when it ignites, it is impossible to put off when it starts to widespread. So, act today and today is the best day to make a wonderful day tomorrow.
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[1] Amichai Magen, “Fighting Terrorism: The Democracy advantages.”29 FT 111-25 (2018).
[2] Information Technology Act 2000, India, available at: http:// www.quora.com (last visited on 1st January, 2022).
[3] Information Technology Act 2000, India, available at: http://worldpopulationreview.com (Last visited on 1st January, 2022)
[4] Information Technology Act 2000, India, available at: http// timesofindia.indiatimes.com (Last visited on 2nd January, 2022)
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