In a chilly December afternoon, our Parliament passed the “Electoral Reforms Bill” without discussions. Honestly, (I can’t actually remember a single important Bill in recent times passed with fruitful discussions, in the House, though), but I’m really sorry that, it turned out virtually just a puny one “voluntary” requirement, linking the Aadhaar with the Voter id.
I thought I’ll share some of my thoughts on “Electoral Reforms” we actually desperately need, and I recall a speech by Mahavir Tyagi, in the Constituent Assembly in November 1946, (the winding up speeches) and he says (in Hindi), “…we need to be careful of the Legislatures of future, of people who would seek Offices of MPs or MLAs or Ministers simply as their profession of winning elections, not as any service to the Nation…”.
Before I proceed further, let’s look into data filed by Political Parties with the Election Commission (EC). In 2009, 30% of our Lok Sabha election-winners had declared criminal cases, in 2014 this figure swelled to 34%, in 2019 it stands at 43%. There were “serious criminal cases” against 14% (in 2009), 21% (in 2014) and increasing to 29% now, don’t miss the unbridled increase! In terms of productivity of the House, (Percentage of Scheduled time worked) 87% in 2009 has dropped to just 22% in the last monsoon session!
What are the Key Issues then, what all needs corrections?
Our Electoral Laws both in Part XV of the Constitution as well as the Representation of People Act have played remarkable roles in their times, do they now need thorough revamp to suit the change? Yes, but then; who will do it and why? the Legislature cannot be asked to “correct itself”, so, a second body is necessary, by the judiciary, for the job, to suit the India of tomorrow! (I may add, there have been several “committees” already, results known better)!
I think, the first big change to recognize is the replacement of “Ideologies” with “Winnabilities”. Everything works - as long as WE can WIN!
From the electors’ eyes – what do I get out of him, a job? a continuance of a dole? a license etc? a laptop?.. In my view, if there’s a rot that’s set in into the system – the responsibility must be shared by electors as well – they are the ones who voted!
My Prescriptions:
1) De-criminalisation of political representation. About 2 years back the Supreme Court ruled that Political Parties must declare crime details of Candidates with Criminal Records in public media. Nobody took it seriously! I suggest; a person be debarred from contest if any court of law has framed a charge-sheet against him.
2) Transparency in Funding Elections: Why should elections need thousands of crores of non-governmental expenditure? (Just one party’s election expenses declared is Rs 1352 crores!) If a party has done well, people shall elect them, nobody wants to lose their doles or daily jobs. If the party was not in power, it’s the responsibility of the candidate to prove his credibility. If he can, he’ll win. Why Money?
In India, unlike in other large democracies in the world, Political Parties’ incomes are tax exempted. For this, their audited accounts would have to be submitted by 31st October each year. With a few minor exceptions I have hardly ever come across a single Financial, filed in time. A big party, for an order of the magnitude, has an income of Rs 3600 crores (of which about Rs 370 crores come from Electoral Trusts “donating” money received from anonymous donors, (some even in the form of further-anonymous Electoral Bonds) in a year. It’s supreme tax-free opacity. Why should Companies and Business Houses “Donate” money to a Political Party, the final policy maker? It’s clear conflict of interest! Further – India is the ONLY large democracy where even these “donations” are tax-free for these super-rich corporates. In UK there are provisions for partial funding of parties each year on the basis of their representation, in Germany and Australia and most other large democracies, there are provisions for varying degrees of State funding of polls.
I think election expenses should be transparent, preferably by representation-proportionate funding through the Union Budget, CAG audited and brought under the RTI. No tax exemptions either way.
3) Reporting of expenditure: Candidates today, can spend upto Rs 70 lakhs in a Lok Sabha election, but mysteriously there are no limits on leaders’ travel and pompous “Yatra” shows and gala pandemic super-spreader stage-shows.
The reporting should be comprehensive and should apply for a block of 5 years.
4) Governance: I think, manifestoes should be uniformalised by the EC and along with the annual accounts an audited action-taken-report on the manifesto should be filed. Second, what could be the logic of candidates standing for elections from two constituencies simultaneously, but voting from only one? Doesn’t it amount to crass flouting of the spirit of Universal Franchise Suffrage? Third: The speaker is the boss inside the legislature. Why should he just sit on cases of defections indefinitely and wait for the house to end its term, isn’t it ridiculing the law itself? Fourth, shouldn’t a defector be debarred from re-contesting in the following term – for reasons of sanitisation of intents. The last question is why should elected legislators sit on Boards of Public Corporations? Is that their job? They should either frame laws or frame policies in the executive – that’s all!
And in Conclusion, I don’t see gains in scratching the surface; thorough reforms are the only way! Citizens deserve a better electoral process for clean governance and unfortunately there are no short-cuts to it, let’s remember our Founding-Fathers and the spirit of the Laws they made!
(Binayak Datta is a Finance professional)