Political Diary

New Delhi, 18 October 2008

Enough Is Enough  

SACK THE BAD, VOTE IN GOOD 

By Poonam I Kaushish

Come elections one suddenly wakes up to everything that is wrong with India. While the polity brags of their achievements, the aam admi holds his head and broods. Why is it only on the eve of the polls that it becomes fashionable to highlight everything wrong with the way the country is being run, of terrorists having a free run and the economy being in a big mess. What to speak of a threat from the fundamentalists. Forgetting that communalism spreads because politicians are not true practitioners of secularism, who conveniently turn a Nelson’s eye on political forces wedded to religious bigotry, social obscurantism, economic exploitation and violence.

Why does the nexus between smugglers, bootleggers, land grabbers, anti-social elements and bureaucrats continue to thrive? And, what about the law-breakers becoming the law-makers? We crib, crib and crib more. Post poll the cribbing cacophony gets shriller and louder. But what do we do about it? Zilch. Afflicted by the ki farak painda hai attitude. Forgetting that the people get the Government they deserve.

Can something be done by the voters to mend matters and prevent the country from going over the brink? Happily, even dark clouds have a silver lining. Citizens are no longer angry. They are awake and aroused. Having strong feelings and views on what is right and what is wrong. Political accountability is paramount. But at the same time, they have to acknowledge two basic truths: People get the government they deserve. They need to realize their own responsibility and learn from past experience. After all, eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Much of the trouble has arisen because good people have largely shunned politics over the past four decades. “Politics is slimy, terribly dirty”, has been the patent excuse. Even persons who are public-spirited and those who can spare time for politics have stayed away on the familiar plea: “there is no place in it for good, honest people.” Not only that. Most of those who have had a good innings and are back in the pavilion seldom think of giving back to the country even a little of what the country has given to them over the years.

Many are now beginning to realize that politics is dirty and is certain to become dirtier so long as good persons do not actively participate in national affairs. Though we are celebrating 61 years of India’s Independence, we have not developed the democratic temper of a free society that goes with it. In fact, we have become more feudal. The erstwhile Maharajas have given way to the new MPs’ and MLAs who suffer from the Orwellian complex of being more equal than others!

Time was when following Independence Nehru inducted men of acknowledged ability and character into the Congress with a view to improving the quality of public life. None was an untouchable. His first Cabinet included Shyama Prasad Mukherji, then a leader of the Jana Sangh. But things greatly changed after the first decade. The professional politician took over and today some 10,000 men and women comprising India’s new feudal lords are holding the country to ransom and playing ducks and drakes with its life, like the Pindaris of yester centuries.

With elections to five State Assemblies beginning next month followed by the General elections early next year, it is high time we look afresh at our electoral system and make a new beginning. Where? How? And, who should cast the first stone? Needless to say the aam aadmi collectively needs to evolve a programme to secure good, clean and truly democratic representation in Parliament. Three ideas have been put forward by some concerned nationalists. One, negative voting system. Two, setting up of voters’ councils and, three, boycott of elections.

The concept of negative voting is indeed novel and does not entail any extra effort by the voter. Simply put, it suggests that a voter should vote for a candidate of his or her choice and simultaneously negate a candidate not acceptable to him or her. This, in other words, means that the number of negative votes polled by a particular candidate would be reduced from his tally at the counting time. Thus, the most acceptable person in the constituency will finally be elected.

The idea of a Voter’s Council was first mooted in 1979 at a seminar of leading intellectuals in New Delhi. To be set up in all constituencies, these Councils would consist of persons of democratic convictions, who do not belong or owe allegiance to any political party and will not run for office. They would principally seek to strengthen democracy and oppose all authoritarian forces and parties and extra-constitutional tendencies.

The Voters’ Councils will have important functions to perform. Before and during the poll, it would do the following: help eligible voters to enroll; call upon the people to return persons of moral integrity who would place public interest above private advantage; defeat defectors and others guilty of betraying the people’s trust or of unethical conduct; ensure that persons with criminal record and inclinations do not succeed; assist voters to exercise their franchise nationally; without yielding to considerations of caste, religion or community; help secure free and fair elections; and prepare, circulate and monitor a code of conduct and secure pledges for further action.

After the poll, the Voters’ Councils could function as a standing organization to maintain a two-way contact between the voters and their elected representatives and the Government.

The third option of a boycott is an extreme measure and should be exercised only when all else has failed. Choice of a candidate is very subjective and relative. A candidate may be Robinhood to some and a goonda to others.

In the final analysis, the timing of the poll is immaterial. What is important, indeed crucial, is for India’s masses to recognize that they are not powerless. They are their own masters and have the ultimate power to vote a good government back in to office or to sack a bad one. They exercised this right decisively in 1977 and in subsequent elections. It is for them to be alert and alive to the issues and prepare themselves afresh for exercising the right judiciously. They must start drawing up their own balance-sheet of the promises and performances of each party in the poll fray.

Equally, the voters must come to their own conclusions in regard to the effective functioning of our democratic system and its key institutions: Parliament, Judiciary and the Executive. Have these institutions been strengthened or have their powers been eroded?

The people must also decide on who stands for national unity, integrity and stability and who does not. They must not allow themselves to be taken for granted. Let 2008-2009 be the year of the voter. Or else not bemoan our fate. And, like George Burns asserts: Too bad, the only people who know how to run the country are busy driving cabs and cutting hair. --INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)