Though democracy means self-governance by direct participation of the citizens, we have had to adopt a representative system since we are in large numbers and that all of us cannot participate all the time. Especially at that time. The Representatives are expected to transmit and to translate the will and wishes of the people into rules, regulations and laws as an indirect way of self-governance. Though they are never to be the rulers like the Sultans and Maharajahs, many common people are expecting them to behave like the previous princes and kings. Since we have been a society that admires and adores human and super-human heroes and since we have a cultural propensity towards political obedience to those who come to Power, be it foreign or local invaders, for generations, many of us, particularly from the rural areas still would like to be ruled by generous and favourable leaders.
Thereupon, a political culture has emerged in our country in which the leaders are expected to promise many free things and to perform miracles to the voters. This is in addition to the gifts, money and liquor distributed at the time of the elections as a kind of quid pro quo. However, since there is competition in it, the people, in their sovereign discretion, often keep changing the disappointing leaders, in favour of candidates who make better promises. In order to continue and sustain these ‘election melas’ and to occupy the coveted some five thousand posts of MLAs, MLCs and MPs in the country, a new class of aspiring politicians has emerged in the society. They are recruited, trained and launched by the political parties, which were deliberately ignored in our Constitution.
In spite of it, happily, our democracy is still sustained by the
fact that some good traditions are being upheld by some exceptionally right
people, here and there, who have a concern for long term development and
general welfare of the entire country. On the whole, we have become a
consenting democracy, where the voters choose among the nominees and symbols
proposed by the political parties, which have no internal democracy. The
personal worth, merit and the services rendered by the candidate became
secondary and hence, independent local candidates are disappearing from the polls.
The reins of Power are monopolised by the winning party machinery. Such a trend
in China resulted in not only the Party capturing the state machinery but also
trying to infiltrate the society. Overnight, a chief minister can be replaced
and new one can be parachuted. The established media with institutional
interest has been busily occupied in reporting the politics of these ‘powerful’
people.
What can we the Concerned Citizens do under these political
conditions?
The main mission of governance is to establish better relations among the human beings living together. How can we promote more emotional integration of our diversified society that is being divided more and more by politics? Day by day, we find more and more people who hate each other rather than those who love each other. We are still a country where Human Development Indicators are very low, and we would remain so, so long as we are obsessed with political power as the sole means for peace and development. While there is no single remedy to this political malady, the immediate approach to be adopted is that the concerned citizens should interfere in all matters of political governance. Hence, we need more civil society leaders who can inspire joy of living through values of freedom, tolerance, persuasion, camaraderie, solidarity, fraternity, equality and cooperation for building humane and harmonious human relations in a globalised society. Further, we need many other soft powers and many other heroes in economic, social, scientific and cultural spheres, where people interact with each other directly in order to transform our society. People should be encouraged to become self-reliant and take their leaders as their 'leading companions’ or ‘team leaders’ rather than as benefactors. Our way of living, both while learning and earning as well as after retirement should involve positive participation in societal matters. This can be achieved by forming and joining any number of civil society organisations and professional associations in the neighbourhood. But, not of castes, religions and regions! In short, ‘Let Us Participate, Since We Can’ as several means of information and communication technologies are in our hands, as never before. Among other things, adopt Social Media.
Some Proposals that Should Reach the Decision Makers
Suggestions from Subash Chandra Agarwal RTI Activist
1. Supreme Court should intervene to
stop the lust for turning government-bungalows into memorials.
It continues even after the Supreme Court verdict followed by a cabinet-note
in 2000. Media reports
that a bust of late Ram Vilas Paswan has been installed at
government-bungalow 12 Janpath in New Delhi by family-members of the
deceased political leader, as the extended date for vacating the bungalow
comes nearer. The Directorate of Estate (GoI) should immediately
remove the statue before it becomes a political liability for GoI to
bow to demand to retain the bungalow for life-time by family-members of
the deceased politicians. There were earlier efforts of late Ajit Singh to
turn 12 Tuglaq Rd. in ND as Choudhary Charan Singh
memorial. Likewise, there is a demand to turn 3 South
Avenue in ND as memorial for former
PM Chandrashekhar. Since political compulsions may not
allow Central government to take harsh steps, the Supreme
Court should be made to intervene.
2. Security and Exchange Board of
India (SEBI) should direct putting complete notings on selection of
Public-Interest-Directors (PIDs) of all companies on their respective websites
apart from putting them on SEBI website. Such
notings are already provided in case of Central
Information Commissioners. It is
claimed under the provisions of Section 8(1)(j) of RTI
Act that it is personal in nature. On the contrary, as there
are ‘Public-Interest-Directors’, it is in the larger public
interest to put all details on website. Since the Supreme Court
allowed making inspection-reports of banks public under RTI Act, the
Companies also should do the same, since huge amounts of public-money is
invested in them.
3. Liquor and
Petrolium products should have common and uniform rate
throughout the country to prevent
inter-state smuggling and to promote national integration.
4. Arbitrators appointed by the Courts
should be regulated. It
is said that retired judges of higher courts are appointed as arbitrators by
courts, thereby giving them much more income than they were earning while being
judges. Even if all the concerned parties mutually agree, arbitrators still
insist on giving adjournments. The Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 should
be amended to make the procedures more simple. Complete details of arbitration
should be put on websites of the courts. Reasonable amounts should be
recommended for a case and also the maximum time-limit for withholding arbitration-award
after completion of hearing, say, less than one year.
5. Announcement of freebies like free
water,
free electricity, etc. are ultimately a burden on
honest middle-income tax-payers and must not be allowed by Supreme Court and
Election Commission. It
refers to pre-poll announcement about free electricity, cancellation of
all pending electricity bills and free electricity for agriculture in
U.P., Delhi and in some other states by the ruling political parties.
The Election Commission should take all such pre-poll
announcements as unfair practices to lure
voters. Since GoI may not be able to stop such freebies by state
governments for political reasons, it is for Supreme Court to stop such
freebies.
6. All MLAs on the floor of House
rather than the partyhigh-commands that should elect
the Chief Ministers. The
latest example is the infighting in Punjab Congress leading to humiliating
resignation of Captain Amrinder Singh. It has become a usual practice
in almost all states where dissidence within the ruling party is more crucial
than threat posed by the opposition party for the governments.
Hence, the Chief Minister along with Speaker and Deputy Speaker should be
elected simultaneously through secret and compulsory vote of all MLAs.
7. Change the British legacy. Make the
Calendar Year as Financial Year. Expert-Committee chaired by LK Jha had suggested systematic
calendar-year of January-December to replace current system of April-March.
8. The Wisdom of the Dept. of Coin and
Currency in Union Finance Ministry is indeed questionable when they
introduced yet another new two-rupee coin approximately of the present
one-rupee coin size. Now there are two-rupee coins in three sizes in
circulation.
9. Dept. of Consumer Affairs should make it
compulsory to pack all commodities in true metric-spirit in units of 1, 2,
5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 gms or mltrs or ltrs or kgs or units only, so that
consumer may judge comparative prices of a commodity marketed by different
companies. The metric-system of packaging may be applicable on medicines also.
Many drug-manufacturers have started packing medicine in strips of 15 rather
than 10 simply to shoot up sale.
10. RTI fees and other government-fee
requiring to be paid through postal-orders should be revised to Rs. 50/- to
prevent heavy loss in handling postal-orders. It was only after revelation through RTI application that
the Dept. of Posts has discontinued postal-orders in outdated
denominations like rupees 1, 2, 5 and 7 which were sold in extremely small
quantities at high handling cost. Separate RTI stamps can be printed as
recommended by the Central Information Commission.
11. Outdated Income Tax Act 1961 with so
many amendments should be replaced by an altogether new and simplified
Act as repeatedly promised
by the Union Finance Ministry. The Income Tax Dept. should minimise
tax-exemptions and exemptions to exemptions, such as, those given to
contributions made to or received by political parties, which are rich enough
to spend heavily on all types of ethical and unethical political purposes which
regrettably include costly super-luxury stay of MLAs kept like hostages or
bonded persons in costly five-starred resorts and hotels.
12. The Chief Justice of India advocates
50-perecent women-reservation in judiciary. But it may not be practically possible till reservation for
women is started at root level in the legislature. Many political parties
cry for reservation on man-made aspects like religion and caste evidently for
vote-bank politics, but oppose reservation to women. At a time when women-quota
in panchayats and local bodies is being increased to
50-percent from earlier 33-percent, it is meaningless to resist 33-percent
reservation to women in legislature. The present members of Parliament are
responsible for this anomaly.
Subhash Chandra
Agrawal, (Guinness Record Holder & RTI Consultant), 1775
Kucha Lattushah, Dariba, Chandni Chowk Delhi-110006. Mobile 9810033711email:
subhashchandraagrawal@gmail.com
13. Though secrecy of
voting is one of the principles of the Election
Commission, unfortunately in practice every political party has the opportunity to
identify which area, which caste
and which religious groups have voted to which party and so on. Hence the Election Commission should ensure a
mechanism where political parties cannot identify the voting pattern, area
wise or booth wise.
14. The Election Commission should
facilitate online voting so that all the sections of the society can exercise their franchise
without any hesitation and reservation. The present day’s technologies have all
the possibilities to ensure full proof mechanism of online voting. With the
adoption of online voting facility additionally, the voting percentage can go
beyond 90-95%. With this facilitation, the political parties exploiting the vulnerable sections will have a lesser impact on the electoral results and the educated and well informed communities could have more impact on
governance policies.
From
Sri. P.Sathyanarayana
Reddy, #280, Ramakrishna Extension, Srinivasapura 563135, Kolar District,
Karnataka. 9448136790.email:info@rors.in
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