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| Electoral reforms to cleanse politics | | |
J K Arora
The recent Mumbai terrorist attack has brought about unprecedented public reaction against Indian politicians as well as against the bureaucratic machinery both at the state and central levels. The media, particularly the TV, has played a very crucial role in generating such a reaction. Some of the TV channels continue to telecast programmes and discussions on the subject and a variety of suggestions have been thrown up to improve the Indian democratic and bureaucratic system. It is good to see that the general public has reacted very angrily about the security lapses. It is perhaps for the first time that people have forced sacking of senior political executives at the central and state levels. One hopes that it will make the political executive more responsible and accountable in our country.
We must understand that we will have to live with political parties and some form of bureaucracy in our country if we have to function in accordance with our Constitution. We must also understand that the ultimate power and responsibility of running the affairs of the government will always be with the political executive. One cannot wish them away simply because the present set of politicians are not performing their job properly. The other arms of government are controlled or manipulated, in one way or the other, by the political executive.
The Constitution provides for the supremacy of the political executive in running the affairs of the state but this is quite often misused for manipulating the government system. The manipulation assumes alarming proportions when criminals get to occupy political offices which, to a considerable extent, is happening at present. It is common knowledge that nearly one fourth of the current MPs in our Lok Sabha were facing criminal charges at the time of their election in 2004, and about half of them were facing serious criminal charges carrying punishment for five or more years of imprisonment. The role and power of such legislators assumes much greater dimensions in a coalition government, which enjoys razor thin majority where every single member counts. The criminalisation of politics, therefore, is the single most serious threat to our political system, which has eroded the credibility of Indian politicians and consequently the entire government system. Of course there are other important problems as well which also need to be addressed.
The Election Commission of India is mandated to hold free and fair elections. It undertakes massive arrangements, particularly security related arrangements, for free elections. It has also laid down a number of rules relating to limits on expenses, limited presence of outsiders in a constituency and code of conduct to be observed during elections and restrictions on government in announcing any new schemes, which may give undue advantage to the ruling parties etc., for achieving some degree of fairness in elections. It is now also mandatory for all the contesting candidates to file affidavits giving details of their wealth and any criminal charges being faced by them. This is meant to educate the electorate about the candidates. Unfortunately these details about the contesting candidates, particularly involvement of the candidates in criminal cases, is not highlighted during the election campaign by any party as such elements are fielded by almost all the political parties.
It is necessary that the electorate is informed about the details of the candidates, as disclosed by them in their affidavits, so that they could make an informed choice to elect their representatives. It is, therefore, important that this responsibility of informing the electorate about the details of the candidates, particularly about the criminal cases against the candidates, should be discharged by the Election Commission of India through the returning officers.
These measures will go a long way in conducting a fair poll by the Commission and should be introduced immediately as Parliamentary elections are due in a few months from now. These are also likely to considerably discourage political parties from fielding candidates with criminal background and even if they are fielded, the electorate is likely to reject them.
The writer, a former IAS officer, is currently the president of Policy Analysis & Action Research Centre,
Bangalore
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