“Have you ever heard of the elections in Switzerland?
Have you ever heard of any Swiss political party?
Do you know the name of any Swiss political leader?

They are a true democracy in this vital sense: politics does not consume their lives.

Democracy there sings the “sounds of silence.”

Indeed, when I attended the Geneva Auto Show, I made it a point to ask any Swiss citizen I met the name of their great country’s president. I am proud to report that not a single one of them – and I must have asked hundreds – knew the name of their president…

 ….Some years ago I reviewed Sumantra Bose’s great book on Kashmir; a book that reads as a thriller. Anyone who wants to know about Kashmir should read the book – and also visit the state, as I did in 2002.

During that visit I had a chance to meet the then minister of finance of the J&K government. He said that 90 per cent of his budget expenditure comes from New Delhi.

Wake up all you dunderheads!

This is not Democracy.

This is Political Clientelism. ”

More by Sauvik Chakravarti.