Towards
a Continuously Evolving Democracy
Right to
reject having become a reality with the introduction of NOTA – toothless though
– Right to recall and Referendum are to be addressed still.
Mr. P.V.Narasimha
Rao, after getting elected professing to pursue the policies of Congress party
and carrying on the party’s legacy, betrayed the people by his somersault in
1991 by introducing ‘LPG (Liberalization, Privatization, Globalization) regime’
la ‘crony capitalism’ – an ‘economic suicide – harakiri’. Though many elites
are singing the glory of PVN, the aam adhmi – common people – could see through
his design. They threw his government out and the congress party in to oblivion
at the earliest opportunity in 1996. Again in 2004 also for the same reason
people threw out BJP. Thus ‘Manmohonomics’ was thrown out twice by that
electorate. Thank fully those were not 2016 (TN assembly elections). The
elections were still basically and largely fair. But the damage had been done in
the 5 years then and been continuing till date. If we have had a ‘right to
recall’, this disaster could have been averted. A referendum too could have
come in handy.
AIADMK
government raised the price of milk, electricity tariff and bus fair steeply
all within a short period and not only continued for 4 years but got back to
power, as people of Tamil Nadu have short memory. The average Indian voter
remembered for 4 years and voted out PVN but not the voters of TN. Whether the
election results announced is the verdict of the people or doctored/ pre
programmed is a different issue. A right to recall and referendum could
definitely have averted the disaster.
But ‘Right
to recall’ and ‘Referendum’ are not as easy as adding another button as for NOTA. Given the size of electorate/ population,
these are basically not practicable in a direct form, though very much
desirable.
Let us consider
this option:
Conduct
elections to Lok Sabha and Assemblies for 20% of the vacancies every year like
that for Rajya Sabha (1/3rd replaced every 2 years). For this, for
example for Lok Sabha, the 540 odd constituencies should be grouped in to 110
groups of 5 (some only 4) contiguous constituencies and election held for one
constituency from each group every year. The mood (approval/ disapproval) of
the people will be reflected in the 20% going for election every year. This
will give a quick enough feedback to the elected rulers who betray the voters
as also for those who actually serve the people.
This
amendment will serve the purpose of ‘Right to recall’ and ‘Referendum’ rolled
in to one. The yearly election will virtually become a right to recall unruly
governments (not individuals right away) as well as serve the purpose of
referendum for the proposed policies of the parties. PVN and congress could
have been packed off in 1992 and ADMK in 2012 itself. Babri Masjith demolition
or Gujrath riots, the perpetrators could not have escaped the axe for long.
The EC
will have more even load of work and expenses and they can have their own staff
to man the whole exercise of elections including police force. They don’t have
to depend on state government staff for anything – even for enumeration. Only
the polling booths may have to be located at some state government premises.
Some
changes to the concepts of ‘code of conduct’ period ban on governments from
declaring welfare policies/ measures etc. will have to be worked out though, as
yearly elections will put a break on governance too often.
This
change will revolutionize the way we are governed. Along with introduction of a
combination of first past post and proportional representation, the above
phased out elections will almost be a Sakala Roga Nivarani – a Cure All – for
most of, if not all the ills of the electoral system.
