Elections - Jokers choosing Jokers!
What does it take to fool the people into electing some kings into the parliament in the world's largest democracy? The Electoral system is archaic and have to be redesigned from scratch. We need some immediate drastic changes in our electoral system to keep this world's largest democracy shining.
What does it take to fool the people into electing some kings into the parliament in the world's largest democracy? Well, turns out just some freebie promises, few hundred rupees and some sentimental propaganda. People's votes are so cheap that they can be purchased for a Rupee a day. Voters blame the politicians for not living up to their expectations while reality blames the people for selling their votes so cheap. Those who got elected become the kings and Queens for the next 5 years with the level of power that can put the super-humans to shame.
Are the voters the only ones to blame? When you have a bag of apples to choose but every one of them is rotten, what will you do? Choose the best among the worst. That's what has been happening here. When there is no good choice, choose the best of the available choices. And take whatever little benefit you can derive out of it. Something is better than nothing, isn't it?
That exposes all the loop holes in the system that have never been plugged since independence. The Electoral system is archaic and have to be redesigned from scratch. It was designed assuming a perfect world where the candidates are service minded and the voters are honest and forward-looking. However the reality is very different and the rules of 1947 no more applies to the world of 21st century. We need some immediate drastic changes in our electoral system to keep this world's largest democracy shining.
Let's get to the basics. Do we have a qualification defined for the candidates? Even if you want a job as an office bearer a.k.a peon, you have to satisfy some basic qualifications, say a minimum of 10th std education, some experience doing similar stuff etc. Do we have qualifications defined for the electoral candidates? The answer is NO. The Constitution defines the eligibility as having 18 years of age and being a Citizen of India. Which would mean anyone can stand in an election, win and go to the assembly to make laws that they have no idea about.
While it may be every Citizen's fundamental right to rule if elected by the people and though it had worked before, we have had exemplary leaders despite them being uneducated, those days are long gone. That scenario is nowhere relevant in today's fast changing world. Now, the Citizen needs to earn their place if they wish to enter the Parliament, prove they are capable enough to bring out laws for the larger population. It's high time we amend the Constitution to bring some minimum level of education as a criteria.
The other eligibility will be for the candidate to not have any criminal or civil cases pending on them, nor convicted of any criminal or civil proceedings. We have lived with criminals ruling us for far too long and this has to stop. People who will have the authority to rule the population will need to be leading by example. A thief cannot tell others not to steal, a criminal cannot make laws. Such candidates should be banned from contesting any election for life. Mr. T.N.Seshan tried to bring this while he was the Election Commissioner but the filthy politics removed him from his post. This is the top priority for the kind of growth we are trying to achieve.
The next big problem is the candidates switching parties after election. People vote candidates sometimes on their value, sometimes on their party's value and sometimes for neither of those reasons but only because they are independent. Such candidate joining or switching parties after the election is just deceiving the voters and throwing their trust to trash. This should be banned. We should amend the Constitution such that if the candidate joins/switches to another party their candidature should become invalid and they lose the seat won in that particular election. Not just that, they should also be banned for next 5 years from contesting any election since they deceived the voters.
The next is to ban the parties from announcing freebie schemes to campaign for elections. Any party thus announcing any such scheme should be banned from contesting the election. These schemes are akin to bribery and Government itself should not indulge in or encourage bribery. If the ruler is corrupt what can you expect of the people? How can you impose laws on people when the ruling class does not follow them? Also, all these freebie schemes are not given from party funds but from people's tax money. These parties use people's tax money for their benefit to win elections. Nowhere in the world does this joke happen but in India. This needs to stop.
The next needed change is to ban all parties that are based on a specific caste, community or religion. These are the reasons that we still have castes and discrimination prevailing in the society even after 75 years of independence. Also relevant is to remove all birth based reservations and bring reservations based on economic and social status. Currently the reservation system is highly misused and only benefits the undeserved while the deserved are devoid of the benefits. This is no more relevant in the 21st century and I would say the initial system has more than achieved its goals and need to be abolished ASAP as suggested by Dr. Ambedkar.
Another major change we need is to restrict candidates from contesting elections more than thrice, whether they win or lose. And if they win, they cannot hold office for more than two terms (which would mean they cannot contest a third term if they win two terms). That would prevent from dynasties ruling forever and bring fresh minds into the polity so they can think, innovate and make policies for the betterment of the country.
Last but not the least, we need a way to take back our votes and invalidate the ruling party if they did not perform up to their expectations. Currently, only the Governor decides this but the control needs to be in people's hands as they are the ones who vote their representatives. People should be able to request this through, say, the Government portal, upon which the Governor can take action.
Most of the suggested amendments are radical changes and quite detrimental to the interests of the political parties. Given that they have been enjoying their royal lives for the past 75 years, they would be least interested in implementing any of the above changes. But as people of the country, it's our fundamental right to have a system that works for us, if we were to boast ourselves as the world's largest democracy, we also need that as a functioning democracy in its spirit that is for the people, by the people and of the people. We as people should come together to make this happen. After all, it's our fundamental right as a Citizen of this great nation.
