Democracy or liberalism, which should we protect?

In 1997, Fareed Zakaria wrote an essay titled, 'The Rise of Illiberal Democracy'. He makes a distinction between democracy and liberalism. Liberalism arose in the West in the 18th century as a reaction against the power of the Church and against hereditary monarchy. It emphasizes freedom of the individual over that of a group of people and demands that government should protect and enhance those freedoms. In an interview Zakaria said, "A properly individual state is one in which individual rights are paramount." "The Bill of Rights, after all, is a list of things the government cannot do, regardless of what the majority wants." Then the question arises as to why the majority will vote for a particular government that will suppress it. Is Zakaria recommending banning all political parties so that every candidate will stand as independent, each with her own manifesto? How will any law get passed? "Congress used to be a closed hierarchical system and active buffer against the momentary whims of the majority." But, liberalism started against the hierarchical system. Liberals are not as tolerant as they think, wrote Matthew Hutson. In the US, students at Berkeley University in California, which single-handedly gave Hillary Clinton a majority in popular votes against Donald Trump, violently stopped Milo Yiannopoulos from speaking because he is editor of Breitbart, considered extremely right-wing by liberals. So what of India? Is India a democracy or is it liberal? It is both. It is a democracy, in that every few years we stand in queues to vote for a bunch of people we know nothing about and it is liberal, in that politicians have complete individual freedom to do whatever they want. Prof Deepak Nayyar finds that India is a vibrant democracy but has a dormant Parliament. MPs are highly paid, with loads of perks, and pensions for entire life but do no work. In the UK both houses of parliament meet for 150 days, in the US the Congress meets for 133 days and in Japan, the Diet meets for 150 days. In the last 5 years, the Lok Sabha sat for an average of 69 days per year, of which 20 days were lost due to rowdyism, while the Rajya Sabha sat for an average of 68 days per year of which 20 days were lost to rowdyism each year. Laws are passed without debate and citizens are not allowed to protest. The party in power uses the CBI to harass opponents, said Prashant Bhushan, and the government actively blocks the courts by filing endless appeals, at the cost of the taxpayer. Political parties run on black money and a new law will allow companies to contribute to parties without naming which one. Democracy is merely a way for the mediocre to grab power and liberalism is only for the powerful, as Narendra Modi has shown. The rest is just philosophical debate.