The most important democratic process of electing representatives by the citizens has now been completed in India with the Election 2019. The Election Commission of India – ECI must be congratulated for completing this mammoth task freely and fairly with the EVMs and VVPATs. This time VVPATs have been used totally in integration with each EVM and checked without any discrepancies with sample checking as per the statistical measures as well as the order of the Supreme Court of India. The whole process has been in perfect tandem with reliability, validity and generalisability of the people’s choice as reflected after counting process of EVMs.
So it can be concluded that the future election process at the national level for Lok Sabha and state level for Vidhan Sabhas have been well established to reflect the mandate under the supervision of EC. But what would be the case for the lowest and grassroots levels of the democratic polity of India? As we have three-tier system of representative democratic forms operating through the length and breadth of India, we go through three types of elections: national, regional/state and local self-governmental elections.
But the whole election process has been divided into two constitutional setup: one by the EC for conducting national and state elections, and the other state-level State Election Commissions for conducting panchayat/municipal elections in states. The moot question is: why the whole election process couldn’t be unified and integrated at all levels of Indian polity? Don’t we, the citizens, constitute the basic units of representative democracy to elect our representatives in an unified way?
Let us discuss the issues of unified reforms in electoral process in India.
As we, the people and the citizens, constitute the real bottom line of our democracy, we have been the real ‘sovereigns’ of our Sovereign State. The real spirit of sovereignty and democracy of Union of India that is Bharat lie with her ‘Citizens', not with the ‘States' or the ‘Parliament’ or the ‘Judiciary’. So the democratic norms have to be institutionalised in right spirit right from the bottom upwards. That is why the institutions of Gram Panchayats and Nagar Panchayats have rightly been institutionalised through the Constitutional Amendments.
But the perceptions regarding these grassroots democratic formalisations have been so negative as if democracy at grassroots is less important compared to state level and national level democratic polity. This is the most dangerous and fallacious reality in a functional democracy like India which is going through different centrifugal and centripetal forces operating in nation-building process.
So the following reforms in electoral process seem to be necessary in Indian polity.
Firstly, Abolition of State Election Commissions. We must abolish state election commissions by repealing Art. 243K and 243ZA of the Constitution of India and the whole election process should be entrusted with the single command of the Election Commission of India.
Secondly, National Selection Commission. Through appropriate amendments a National Selection Commission should be created comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition or the largest opposition party, and the Chief Justice of India to select the Chief Election Commissioner, other Election Commissioners, the CAG, and other top constitutional and statutory functionaries like that of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, the Director of CBI etc. It is necessary to ensure the whole process of appointments for the constitutional and statutory posts free, fair and equitable commensurate with democratic spirits and norms.
Thirdly, Permanent Electoral Cadre. At present the EC has no permanent staffing system and solely dependent on requisition of required staff from different governments of both the Union and State governments to conduct different levels of elections throughout India. But through appropriate Constitutional amendments and changes in the Representation of the Peoples Act, a separate Electoral cadre should be created for at least state and district levels permanent electoral cadres to conduct all levels of election from local to state to national elections freely, fairly and unbiasedly.
Fourthly, National Electoral Fund. To make a level playing field for all eligible and recognised parties for contesting elections there must be created a National Electoral Fund (NEF) under the supervision and control of the Election Commission by imposing an appropriate cess on citizens. The parties should get funds for electoral expenses at proportional rates through a rational and justified mechanism to curb exorbitant expenses by the parties in election times.
Fifthly, National Register of Citizens. India must complete her own updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) without further delay by the Home Ministry. And this NRC should be used by the EC to prepare the Electoral Roll for all types of elections in India. Of course, the identification of citizens must be established by the authority with due legal sanctions and digital identification through Aadhaar mechanism.
Sixthly, Party-less Election at Local level. At present each and every state followed it’s own system in local elections by enacting relevant Acts through its Legislature as per the mandate of the Constitutional provisions. But the moot question: is it relevant to follow party-based elections in local level governments? Is it necessary to make local elections so much partisan to vitiate the ground level body-politic? Presently there has been no party-based election system in local governments in Bihar. Through Constitutional amendments, party-less local governments can be ensured to operate at the ground level without colouring local governance following the true spirit of age-old autonomy and unbiasedness of Panchayati system of Bharat.
Seventhly, Common Poll. It is one of the most burning issues concerning electoral process in India. It is a fact that India has now always been in an election mode either in national or state or in local level. Time, money and labour have been wasted enormously, and developmental process gets a nosedive due to different levels of elections. The relevant question: is it possible to conduct both national and state elections simultaneously? And, further is the question: whether all levels of elections can be conducted simultaneously? National consensus would probably be elusive. But we can evolve a National Policy on Elections of ‘One Nation, Three Elections' in that national, state and local elections must be held in a manner so that not less than two years and not more than three years gap would be allowed between the three levels of elections to be conducted by the EC. Other issues on tenures of the Houses should be mitigated appropriately through amendments. This scheme may be put in perspective after the new delimitations of 2026.
So, a comprehensive and unified electoral reform become a necessity to further democratisation process at the grassroots levels and then upwardly to the national level for a ‘New India' during the 75th anniversary of our Independence in 2022.
@ Sujit Roy
25.06.2019
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