The word " democracy " is perhaps the most abused word in the world today. It has come to mean winning an election by hook or by crook, mostly by crook, which is then taken to mean absolute immunity for committing any crime that may benefit the winner. A government " of the people, by the people, for the people " is a Utopian dream, even in the country where the concept was first mentioned. In India democracy means casting a vote every 5 years after standing in the open for hours. The choice is between which political gang has promised more freebies at taxpayer expense and distributed free saris or locally brewed alcohol. Once results are announced there is snarling and snapping for ministerial posts like street dogs fighting in a garbage dump. Ministers get offices and billions of rupees with which to make merry. Others fight for the leftovers like a bigger bungalow, Z, ZZ or ZZZ class security or some social scheme which can be looted for personal pleasures. The 3 institutions namely the executive, the legislature and the judiciary are supposed to provide checks and balances but in practice the gang which controls the legislature also forms the executive and the judiciary is too loaded and expensive for the aam aadmi. The proposed Lok Pal is a curative but we desperately need a preventive, a citizen's corporation which will ask questions of the criminals. Why does the Chief Minister of Delhi need to visit Japan at taxpayer expense while increasing taxes across the board? If the answer is unsatisfactory then the politician should be forced to pay back. " By the people " is not enough. Make the criminals work " for the people".