“Fairness to play : Introducing electoral reforms to reduce the

influence of money and muscle power in politics”

Elections today have become a great spectacle and the

electoral arena a big market......

Out of 543 new MPs, 162 (30%) have pending criminal cases against them.

The number of MPs with pending criminal cases has increased from 128 in Lok Sabha 2004 to 162 in Lok Sabha 2009

The cost of general elections in India is also set to more than double this year from about Rs.4500 crores and would be the highest in the history of the country.

Average asset for a MP in the country is Rs. 4.5 crores. For calculating this average assets of three MPs having assets more than hundred crores have been excluded.

In the 7 years between 2004 and 2011, the congress received over Rs.2004 crores from donors;the BJP got about Rs. 994 crore. These amounts were declared by the parties. However the source of over 85% of the donations is not known.

Out of 543 MPs, 84 have not

declared their PAN details.

Around 300 present MPs are

known to be Crorepatis,

giving rise to the feeling that

in near future, being a

millionaire might become a

pre-requisite for the job

“ With great power comes great responsibility”

• Elections are the biggest source

of corruption in the country,

says the Ex Chief Election

Commissioner of India, S.Y.

Quraishi who urged the voters,

especially in the urban belt, to

use their voting rights to

choose the better ones.

• Quraishi says polls have turned

out to be the greatest sources of

corruption because a candidate

spending 5 crore to 10 crore

for getting elected obviously

looks forward in gaining what

he has spent.

• In parties like the SP, a candidate with a clean record has an 18% chance of winning, his chances go up to 31% if he has a criminal record. In the BJP, the chances of being elected with a clean record is 28%, while with a criminal record, chances go up to 40%.

• "While the average assets of 62,847 candidates, stood at Rs 1.37 crore, those of MPs and MLAs stood at Rs 3.83 crore," said Trilochan Shastry, one of the founding members of ADR.

While the

average

assets of

62,847

candidates,

stood at Rs

1.37 crore,

those of

MPs and

MLAs

stood at Rs

3.83 crore

Money power in elections is one of the biggest

sources of corruption in the country and although

there is a legal limit to expenditure, we know

anecdotally that much above the limit is often spent.

Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most

people vote against somebody rather than for somebody.

The intensity of influence of money power in electoral arena

today begs deeper analysis……

• Allowing voters to reject all of the candidates on the ballot by selecting a “none of the above” option.

• There could be a provision, If a certain % of the vote is negative/neutral, then the election results could be nullified and a new election conducted.

Neutral /negative

voting

• Educated and efficient lawyers should remain active. Their participation will help many folds

• The number of quality law institutions in India should be increased . Cloud campus system can also be incorporated.

Education

• Every participating front should be answerable to the Election Commission og India for the donations received during election, number of donors and the affidavit of expenses done.

• This will ensure transparency in the system.

Campaign expenses

Indian Elections are full of last minute entrants…

The massive size of the Indian electorate makes general

elections an enormous and daunting exercise!

-Two Front System, The Debug Option!!! Consider an example. There are 6

candidates fighting in the election,

A,B,C,D,E,F. After the counting ,the

total votes come out to be 700 which , as

per each candidate got , were-

A-200

B-190

C-100

D-50

E-120

F-40

Clearly A wins. But this is not the

majority’s will. We call it a majority

when ,for one party, more than half,

favours. A better system would be a two

party system wherein the public decides

,through its more than 50% votes, the

elected leader.

1.Law implementation will be better quicker. 2.Lesser national chaos. 3.Lesser conflicts. 4. Greater Transparency

Parties should maintain their accounts,

which should be freely accessible to

people every time .

Right to recall- a proposed law in India that would allow voters to

recall their candidates before their term ends and request Election

Commission for fresh elections.

Remedy (1)

elections should be held in every 15 years with right to recall in every 2.5 years.

Its impact

If a front does good work – no need of contesting election every 5 years.

Its broad scope

* Leads to less expense

*The party in rule will deliver its services efficiently.

Remedy (2)

If any criminal case is pending or even filed against the person, his candidature will be null till given clean chit.

Its impact

No waste of time and money because he wont have to stand in election again.if found guilty- out of power

Its broad scope

Politicians themselves will strive to make the judiciary tight.

Remedy (3)

A parallel court governing criminalisati-on of candidate.

Its impact

Cases will get solved at better rate.

Its broad scope

Judgement making for the voters will become easy.

Awareness programs and measures to spread awareness should be strictly taken

into account for it is a powerful proposed right of the people!

• Granting Right to Reject is a balanced option . It is

safer and would not lead to constant political

upheaval. Parties would be forced to give ticket to a

candidate with clean and good past record. Good

representatives can actually be expected to keep up

their performance for next five years.

• Right to recall would make India a democracy in

the true sense. No need to tolerate a corrupt or

incompetent person for a full 5 year term.

Good performance of the chosen representative

would be ensured by Right to Recall because they

can be removed from position due to non-

performance.

• Rejection of RIGHT TO RECALL IS NOT A

WELCOMING TREND where the ultimate right

or decision rests with the polity in a true democracy.

Let the political parties include the

RIGHT TO RECALL AS AN AGENDA in their

election manifesto!

The Worst case scenario , But The Revolution of

tomorrow- “DEMOCRATIC MONARCHY”

Election

• Right to reject is a proposed voting option in India that would allow voters who support none of the candidates available to them to register an official vote of "none of the above"

• If first time the public(more than 40%) uses the right to reject then……

Re -election

• If 40% population still does the same then by default, the district magistrate should be given charge with his accountability towards the governor, till the next Right to recall.

• Activeness shall tend to increase. Now there will be a threat of not coming to power again. Till next Right to recall, what shall happen is…..

Democratic monarchy

• For that tentative period of time a backup body shall rule, within the constitutional boundaries.

• This shall attempt to ignite the course of service back into the fronts’ candidates.

The Ifs and BUTs…..

Undue Fear: The representative would be in constant pressure to work the way

people want him. Constant fear will deter him from taking tough

decisions (e.g. permission to demolish/displace a temple or a Mosque

for expansion of road to facilitate the free movement of traffic.)

No certainty: There is uncertainty of the time period he would be serving the

public. This uncertainty would make it hard to make plans/policies

which yield substantial results in long term. To fulfill public

expectations, he will be forced to implement plans and decisions

yielding instant results!

Increased

Politics :

Political rivals would make issue out of smallest of the mistake of

the representative and demand a recall election! This gives rise to

unnecessary political games!!

Corruption : Political opponents might bribe a group of people and prompt them

to demand the elections under Right to recall against present

candidate.

More

expenditure:

Recall election would imply more expenditure of tax payer’s money

to organize re-elections time and again.

We need to bite the bullet now…..

Vast sections of rural and semi-urban voters are accustomed to receiving cash,

liquor or other goodies in exchange for their votes.

This not only leads to corruption, but also keeps out honest and capable individuals

from fighting elections.

For our democracy to enter the next level of maturity, we need to usher in a new

generation of Electoral Reforms.

The problem of the criminalization of politics needs to be tackled head on

The solution is to vote for better candidates and ensure higher turnouts.

Increased voter turnout will only have an impact if there is a wide choice of good

candidates and detailed information about their performance is available.

…. Satyamev Jayate

References:

www.timesofindia.com

http://thediplimat.com

www.thehindu.com

http://newindianexpress.com

www.indianexpress.com/news

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/poll-expense-

hiked-but-mps-want-more