Daily Post 2990
HOW WE FAIL ELECTIONS?
Is the conduct of elections a shared or joint responsibility of all stakeholders? Are all stakeholders on the same page? Or is it a tug of war, where no holds barred winnability is the only concern? Somebody else conducts and you are at the receiving end or the gaining end depending on how you are positioned, depending on a variety of non-democratic factors. The agency conducting the polls should as per our imagination should be enforcers, intelligence gatherers, investigators, conducting experts and a referee all rolled into one. Even increasing the numbers reaching the polling booth is also the responsibility of the ECI.
So, but for the ECI, everyone can be an errant at will, some get caught and others manage unscathed. In the history of elections in this county it was only during the term of TN Seshan as ECI’s head, people reposed complete faith in the institution and political parties started a helter skelter running for cover. Till that time, the ECI and its head were broadly known to the candidates taking the General Studies paper. It can be called a watershed period and today where we have reached is left to anyone’s imagination. Prior to Seshan, money, muscle power and outright violence was experienced in large pockets.
Let’s start for where it all started. The Supreme Court verdict on the selection of election commissioners was overturned by the legislative mandate. That apart, in the actual process, undeniably, the common denominator, is religion, caste, creed etc., which is talked of blatantly and votes asked for on that count. The electoral arithmetic is calculated accordingly. This is unconstitutional. The precursor to the fair, transparent and sane election process for the nation would entail the same action within political parties. Is that the case? Intra-party election at all levels. Then the way the candidates are selected by the parties leaves the voters only with a dictated choice. Some weird winnability formula is worked out which no sane person can understand in this world. Can anyone tell us why voting percentages are not 99% or above? Then what does universal adult franchise mean in the first place?
The actual expenditure incurred and that informed to the ECI can be as wide as you can stretch your imagination. The election regulator becomes a police force during elections. The political parties are ready to indulge in criminal acts or acts against the model code as long as they can get away with it or with little damage. It is a different story that they can manage even after getting caught. The ECI is the electoral court as well. The timing of the election remains suspect most of the time, not to talk of EVMs, electoral rolls and presumably its direct impact on the results. Post elections, how many times the legislature party is able to decide its leader, even when a single party gets the majority. In a coalition the less said the better. Breaking and making governments can happen at the fall of hat and CMs can go packing as if they had nothing to do with the elections or the will of the majority in the legislature party. Has it ever happened that CM has been changed after a free and fair voting in the legislature party.
DEMOCRACY IS LIMITED TO ALLOWING THE CITIZENS TO VOTE, AT TIME THAT TOO TRUNCATED.
Sanjay Sahay