Is India Really A Democracy?

Is India Really A Democracy?
India often takes pride in the fact that it is the world's largest democracy. And quite clearly we are; With manpower well exceeding 1.2 Billion people. Our manpower is only second to our neighbor China, which follows a whole different political system. China has of course proven to be far more successful in terms of development, infrastructure and overall GDP growth rate. There are speculations that India will exceed China's GDP growth rate in a matter of an year or two, but that is still yet to be seen. China gains recognition from the "western" world in various fields but gets quite a bit of scrutiny regarding their political system.
India has proved to the world that it was an actual democracy. Last year's elections proved (atleast to the outside world) that India has got rid of its elitist mindset. The overthrow of the "western educated, elitist, and rather liberal Gandhi" family proved that India still retains its democratic value. In place of the Gandhi family came in the BJP party which was headed by an uneducated, Hindi speaking chaiwala. For once, India was represented by a leader who represents majority of the population. This was the first headway towards proving that India is an actual democracy.
However, even though India has made headways and has proven that it is a true democratic country it lags behind in several other areas. One of the major reasons why I feel India is a democratic country but still needs a great deal of improvement is because I feel that majority of India's population is severely repressed , the minority of India's elite population rules and reaps the benefits of this nation. Despite the rags to riches stories in India which prove to the world that India retains its democratic ideology I don't feel that India truly gives equal opportunities to all of its citizens. I have lived for nearly 2 years in the United States, and I agree that I do not fully know their culture or community well enough to talk. But in the case of education United States gives most of its citizens an equal opportunity to get a "decent" education- and to pursue higher education. I agree that there is a disparity between public and private schools in the United States; but a poor mans son can get into a reasonably well college even with scholarship and climb up the ladder from a public school. For example, once I was sitting and a girl studying in my college told me that her father was a taxi driver. This came as a shock to me. It took me a while to realize that it shocked me because I came from an elitist thinking South Asian background. I found it liberating to know, that people of all income brackets could get together and actually sit in an educational institute and not be judged by background. It was something which was foreign to me. One look at India's top educational institutes in Delhi and it's quite apparent that most of the students belong to a slightly higher income bracket or atleast middle class. Very rarely to do you see lower middle class or below that in educational institutes (there are several cases- I don't deny).
Most of the students below the age of 18 are enrolled in public schools in the United States. Those public schools I presume offer a decent level of education to the citizen of the United States at an affordable cost. Which enable the citizen to have an equal opportunity at entering college and actually doing well from there. One look inside a village school in India will leave anyone in tears. Often people blame the poor for remaining poor but the truth is they are not given equal opportunity to rise. That is where the repression starts. Village schools in India barely have enough teachers, and half of those teachers are not qualified to be teachers. There is a scarcity of appropriate textbooks for the children and the schools barely have facilities- some schools do not have even toilets for the girls. The CBSE exams, and all the other Indian board run exams are open for anyone to take- but how can you expect someone to do well when they've not been equipped properly- or to the same level as the other students. Where is the equality in that?
The other place where India lags behind is in basic law applying to everyone. A few years back, IMF head Dominique Straus Kahn was arrested for allegedly raping his maid. The law applied equally to him as it did to a regular French Citizen. In India the case is quite different. The law seems to apply to a handful of people who can pay for it- and the rest are forgotten. For example tomorrow (god forbid) I am assaulted, my perpetrator will 90% be caught and I will be given justice- whereas a poor village women who is assaulted will most likely never be given justice. If you don't believe me- a couple of months back, Sterilization camps were organized to control Indias population. Village women agreed only to be killed. Most of the sterilization camps were using inadequate tools- such as bicycle pumps and torches. If that does not prove to you how much India's government values villagers life then I don't know what will.
The whole concept of equality and equal opportunities that India tries to present to the outside world is flattering; but the reality remains something quite different. Most of the "ayahs" that the rich take into their houses are well below the age of 18- sometimes even as young as 13. Where is the equal opportunity for education for them? I see repression of the worst kind in my country. And until that repression is not eliminated India can never truly claim democracy. There will always be the rich and the poor. There will always remain income inequality, but equal rights, equal opportunities need to be prevalent for a country to claim Democracy. I have full faith in the country and its people that we will constantly strive to achieve this. We are a relatively young nation with a lot of potential. But like any other country there are flaws which need to be accepted and worked upon. There are several other reasons why India is not a full democracy but these were the two ones which I picked out.