published Sept 03, 2011
Anna Hazare has won the first battle for Lokpal issue. As Anna has
indicated, now the next movement would be for electoral reforms.
Emphasizing the importance of electoral reforms, Anna had said at
Ramlila Ground that the country must be ridden of corruption,
otherwise the leaders spending more than 10 crores rupees in a single
election, can never remain honest and righteous in politics. Anna has
raised two issues. First is 'right to reject' and second is 'right to
recall'. 'Right to recall' means that voters must have the right to
recall their representatives in mid term, in case they do not perform
according to the given mandate. I had raised this issue long ago in
this column. In Germany, this system is being followed and the present
government there has been elected on this basis. 'The right to reject'
would definitely maintain pressure on our elected representatives to
act honestly in the interest of the people. At present, once elected,
our representatives do not care for the people who have voted them to
power, for next five years. They are concerned only about the
dissolution of Parliament and they fear facing elections again. An
Independent MP from Jharkhand, Inder Singh Namdhari has said that the
demand for 'right to reject', is more appealing of Anna's demands.
This can put an end to the role of muscle power and black money in our
politics. Youth constitute a major part of our electorate. Today, the
youth is more aware of happenings around and is against
criminalization of the politics and wants to put an end to this
menace. This demand of Anna will ensure that only persons with clean
image gain entry into politics. Namdhari says that Jai Prakash
Narain's call to recall public representatives has already gained
acceptance in the country. It is, however, a distant and difficult
proposal. There is provision to recall the representatives in
Panchayats. But at present, in the absence of provision to this effect
in the country, it is not possible to recall our representatives. The
Congress has termed the demand for 'right to reject' as impractical,
as a large number of voters do not vote in the elections. They say
that voter today, has become more vigilant. Anna'a movement has
changed the situation. Members of Parliament are of the view that
movement for 'right to reject' or provision for an alternative to
discard the candidate at the time of polling, could be more dangerous.
They say that in case the government bow down to such a demand, it
would be quite impossible for them to conduct themselves in politics.
Arvind Kejariwal, an associate of Anna says that very soon, they will
be bringing an agenda before the public demanding electoral reforms.
They want to work for changing the electoral scenario of the country
within a year. The agenda of electoral reforms is broader than that of
Jan Lokpal's. In fact, this is a part of the transformation of the
current system. This would require mass awakening about the change,
only then political parties could be brought under an effective
pressure. Moreover, a number of Constitution amendments would be
required for effecting such a change. Team Anna has raised
expectations among people of enacting Lokpal law by 26th January.
Kejariwal does not think that government could dare create problems in
the wake of public pressure.
It would be appropriate that the electoral reform issues raised by
Anna be put to debate and this debate should be speeded up, as root
cause for corruption is the politics of elections, which is getting
costlier. The fact is that the candidates for Parliament and State
Assemblies spend lavishly on elections and after being elected, they
are driven by an urge to amass as much wealth as possible. They think
that they must have enough money to survive political exile, which may
result from loosing the next election. That is why they are after
earning maximum wealth and generally such wealth is earned through
dubious means. In fact, this is the reason which is prohibiting the
Manmohan government to take bold initiatives to curb black money. A
number of proposals are being presented to rid the electoral process
of black money. According to one of the proposals, government should
provide for election expenses. Recently, Rahul Gandhi put forward this
suggestion, but the Election Commission is not agreeable to it. It
fears that this will make the problem worse. According to the Chief
Election Commissioner, this is an unpractical suggestion, as the
candidates would be using their own resources also along with the
provision of government money to cover their election expenses. The
political parties must grasp the current situation and instead of
opposing electoral reforms, they must move forward with these reforms,
as like corruption, the common man is not going to tolerate the
dependence of polity on illegal resources any more. How can they look
after the welfare of the country, if the politics itself is not clean.
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