New Delhi, Oct. 8 -- Amid the Opposition's demand for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation, former BJP national president Murli Manohar Joshi said democracy can survive when elections are fair, governments are accountable, bureaucracy is transparent, and the Opposition is responsive and responsible.

Speaking to reporters, Joshi invoked former US President Abraham Lincoln's description of democracy and said the government "of the people, for the people and by the people" would not perish from the earth, provided certain democratic principles were upheld.

"I will say only one thing: government for the people, of the people and by the people shall not perish from the earth. Lincoln said this about 200 years ago. Now I sa...