Referendum, that's for grown-ups

As individuals who can vote directly on an issue - say, imposing a ball tax on sports that use spheres or not - Indians are idiots. They need the guiding hand, brain and other bits of their representatives to know what is good for them, what is bad. Which is why, quite rightly for a country yet to mature, never mind ready to rise, on Tuesday, the Supreme Court said that the referendum - direct vote on a proposal, law or political issue by the electorate and not through intermediaries like MPs and MLAs - is not for us. Lacking the brains, the Indian voter is liable to vote himself or herself away in a referendum.

During polls, commentators do bring up that chestnut of the 'electorate being very smart' when it comes to 'throwing out' a candidate or government. The fact of the matter is that description is to butter up the Indian voter and then let the voting roulette, thereby allowing the theatrics, smoke and mirrors of politics game the polls to throw up winners and losers. As far as issues or proposals put to the test go, the Indian voter in a referendum will be as useful as a bicycle for a fish. Whether it be on the scrapping of Article 370 or anything else, Brexit-like referenda are for grown-up democracies. For us bumpkins, parliamentary elections and decisions taken by our mai-baap in Parliament and assemblies are perfectly fine for us.