What a relief from all the baloney Goans was made to endure, as part of the political rhetoric that was dished out, in the run up to the recent elections. However, amidst all the noise, there were two sensible statements that came out from politicians, one made by the Chief Minister of Delhi and later followed by the Defence Minister of India. Both suggested in places where voter greed was widespread, that it was alright to take money for votes from other parties, but when it comes to real voting to please vote for their own respective parties.
The Election Commission (EC) was quick to pull them up and let them off the hook later with just a warning, appeared more like theater for gullible Goan consumption, rather than tackling the money for vote problem head on. Actually now that the EC will have some free time on its hand, it should contemplate that these statements might actually be practical and not a bad idea to be made as policy by the EC itself, especially because it has failed to stop money for votes in a state like Goa, where candidates have to deal with few number of voters that are easily bought for a dime.
For the EC to pretend that everything is hunky dory about the work they do might not be a sincere approach, as it is yet to put in place a mechanism to punish the politician or the voter involved in this give and take. Therefore it is imperative the EC bites the bullet and starts advising voters to take cash, but not to remain faithful to the benefactor. At least it levels the playing field for a wannabe politician to enter this field, but is put off due to shortage of funds to bribe the voters. It will also put an element of doubt on the politician shelling out the money, as there is will be no guarantee on voter loyalty. Yes it will be humiliating, for the EC to openly admit it’s shortcoming, but this option is much better than to allow its system be abused, every time all the time.
Nevertheless, if the EC wants to spare itself from this humiliation, here is some food for thought that could work to make the election process more meaningful, capable of capturing the real mandate of the Goans. Everybody knows the regular voters that accept money. If the EC does not have a list by now, it means their intelligence gathering is much to be desired. Anyway it is never too late, as it can engage people that were part of the process of distributing cash for votes. Names of these cash distributors can be easily obtained from the rival candidates, by using the carrot and stick policy, especially the ones that have lost the elections due to voter bribe.
Once the EC gets hold of the cash distributors, by using the stick they should be able to lead them to the actual voters that accept cash for votes. Once that list is ready, during the election process, these voters should be made to answer one simple question orally and that would be if they have taken any money from any politician. Some hardcore greedy will get away by openly lying, but many will fall in the trap and not able to give a convincing answer. You still allow everybody to vote, but the indelible ink mark should be on the middle finger. Sounds funny but imagine roaming with this mark on the wrong finger even if it is for a few days. On the other hand those voters that come with their PAN card should get a different color mark on their forefinger as a small gesture of acknowledgement for shouldering the financial burden of the country.
Unfortunately Goa is too tiny for the EC to do some innovative thinking as most of their time is consumed by large states like Uttar Pradesh, which have their own dynamics therefore rules designed for one state might look silly in the other. Voter bribing is rampant in Goa because of the small size of the constituency, may not be true in bigger states. Similarly interviewing a voter during election is doable in Goa, can’t think of replicating this in UP. EC should therefore keep an open mind and come to terms that one size cannot fit all and the need of the hour is to stay flexible, plug the loopholes in its rule book that are most vulnerable and try and avoid as much as possible a top down approach to policy decisions.
Problem with top down decisions are they almost always have adverse effects in a diverse country like India, for example banning exit polls and even delaying the actual poll results for more than a month, gives rise to speculation. Gagging the media because it will influence voters in far off Uttar Pradesh, has not only encouraged motivated gossip, but scuttled media houses their chance to prove how accurate their scientific polls are. If media houses get it wrong they take it on the chin and their reputation takes a beating, while in case of gossip mongers they hardly have any reputation to protect.
In this election many Goans voted with a changed mindset, thanks to the new party of servants, many Goans got a chance to vote with their heads high and without accepting bribes for votes. If only the EC had adopted some out of the box solutions to reward the honest and punish the greedy voter, it would be setting a great precedent. Of course does not mean you let the politicians, split personalities and supporters get away for making a quick buck. Actually they can come easily into the EC’s net by simply following their money trail after the elections are over.
Better late than never, if at all there is a fractured result and another election has to be announced in quick succession to break the impasse, it will give the EC a chance a try out some new techniques so as to correct Goa’s unique election process evils. If we continue the same way than it would be detrimental to democracy and history might judge the EC as someone with great powers, but squandered the opportunity and allowed crooks to get the better of them.
(The author is a business consultant)
