A taxing democracy

In its report published in November 2006, entitled "Economist Intelligence Unit's Index of Democracy 2006", the Economist newspaper ranked India at 35th out of 167 countries with a score of 7.68 on a maximum possible 10, and in a category called "Flawed Democracy". Of 5 headline factors, the two that brought down India's score were "Political Participation" and "Political Culture".
“Participation”, according to the newspaper, entails "...the active, freely chosen participation of citizens in public life. Democracies flourish when citizens are willing to take part in public debate, elect representatives and join political parties. Without this broad, sustaining participation, democracy begins to wither and become the preserve of small, select groups."
Governance is India is improving. Hitherto largely focused on populist measures, there is a palpable drive towards effective nation-building. As an example, today, the authorities announced the phasing out of taxis older than 25 years and autorickshaws (a 3 wheel contraption unsuitable for the faint-hearted and guranteed to convert atheists. Ride one to understand what I mean) older than 15 years, for environmental reasons. The taxi-drivers' and autorickshaw-drivers' unions promptly called a strike leading to large-scale suffering of the common office goers and general public. The strike was a self-righteous claim of potential loss of livelihood and the right to protest such a loss. For the decades that their inefficient contraptions have been at work, these drivers have received subsidized fuel at the cost of the taxpayer, many of them actually cheat the public through tampered meters, are rude, drive dangerously and often refuse an inconvenient fare, and their inefficient engines have raped the environment for years. Democracy succeeds when even such a bunch has the right to protest. “Participation”, and hence democracy, fails because the general public suffers not just years of indignation but such strikes too, in silence. India has several classes of minorities: classified by religion and sect. These have been recognized to ensure access to basic human and democratic rights and preferred access to economic rights for their upliftment. The "taxpaying employed" in India are (an unrecognized and) an unfortunate minority because of their self-imposed inability to exercise their democratic rights.