Bharat SainiLast Updated on June 18, 2017 by Bharat Saini
India, being the largest democracy of the world, goes through mammoth electoral exercise to elect representatives of people at central, state and municipal levels, every now and then. During elections popular sentiments are aroused and people get engaged in debates and discussions on issues that evolve and shape their destiny. Democratic process in India has come full circle since we got independence and it has set an example for other nations to emulate the practices India has followed. India has never faltered on her commitment to carry on with tradition of, “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”. However, to take pride in our Parliamentary System, we need to initiate necessary electoral reforms to do away with what have been infecting our system.
With passage of time, number of electors and candidates aspiring to play role of popular representatives have grown geometrically. Spirit of democracy remaining intact in India is indeed a historic achievement despite increase in number of voters from 6-7 million in first general elections in 1951 to around 800 million in 2014 general elections. However, some evils such communalism, casteism, money and muscle power that have crawled into our electoral process, have now assumed alarming proportions and if not countered immediately with effective measures, may undermine the very sanctity of the democratic way of life that we have all along been proud of. The saner voices concerned with protecting democracy in the country have drawn attention towards initiating electoral reforms so that glory of democracy that we have been basking under continues to keep our democratic conscience alive and help India emerge as world leader in times to come.
The criminalization of politics has emerged as an imminent threat to our democracy which may gobble down achievements of free press, freedom of expression, ethos of gentle values associated with electoral process and high parliamentary standards established through sheer grit and determination over the long period of time. Parliament of India must immediately pay its attention to this problem of criminalization of politics so that persons with the criminal past do not become our lawmakers with the intent that their new role would erase their past.
The founding fathers had envisioned an India where the democratic system would flourish on equality. They brought a system in which elements of coercion and goondaism – anathema to democracy would not enter politics, either by default or by design. Luminaries had not thought that politics which was a path to serve the nation and society would turn to be a lucrative profession whereby politicians would invent tools to build empires of wealth and business through unscrupulous means.
Most of the election funding taking place in the country is in opaque manner and there has been no concrete legislative measure to make it transparent. The unethical means used in the elections include free distribution of liquor and cash to lure poor sections to vote for the particular political party. The way money power has begun to play domineering role, threatens to deprive poor and weaker sections, their rights to take part in festival of democracy and rob the system of its participative nature. Though, some effective steps have recently been initiated on poll funding by the government to stem the tide of black money that makes its way into our electoral process, there is need to appoint an institutional watchdog to oversee the whole range of money matters associated with elections.
During elections, politicians brazenly whip up caste and communal passions to polarize voters along caste and communal lines and ruthlessly flout rules stipulated in Representation of People’s Act, to draw people to their respective parties. They may benefit from such divisive tactics and achieve success for a while but society suffers in consequence in the long run. The Election Commission of India in coordination with the government of India must come up with tough measures against caste and communal cards being played as vote catching formula in the polls.
The twin evils of nepotism and favoritism are also taking heavy toll on the heath of democracy as, on the one hand it hinders path of those who are talented and whose services as political leaders are direly needed by the nation, on the other hand it may give rise to feudalistic mindset with dynastic succession, in violation of the principle of participative democracy which we have adopted. Making politics a family affair is sowing seeds of culture of sycophancy and personality cult worship in our country. Some drastic steps are required to be taken on this front so that our system should reflect true spirit of democracy.
There is need to shorten lengthy process of announcement, notification and conduct of elections; spread over in many phases, to reduce distress and disruption to the administrative functions of the government, as development work is affected due to enforcement of elections code of conduct. To wind up, delimitation of constituencies of present Lok Sabha to 543 seats is based on the 1971 census and now time has come for seats of Lok Sabha to be increased by bringing in constitutional amendment to truly represent will of the people. All the more, women who constitute around 50% of population have abysmally low representation in our legislatures and it is high time that long overdue demand to increase representation of women in Parliament and state legislative assemblies is fulfilled by passing women reservation bill.
