Ajit Singh Nagra
The Right to vote in Indias’ Democracy and its reforms for political panacea.
”The nations are born in the hearts of its poets and philosophers, they bloom out of fragrance in their hands but they get divided in the hands of its politicians and vanish away.”Dr. Muhhamad Iqbal
There is chaos and confusion prevailing in every walk of our public life due to lack of awareness or consciousness. The world is resting upon a dormant volcano that is imminent to erupt at any time to swallow this living world. Ignorance is an irrevocable curse, an anthema and a bugbear. That is heading us towards an unpredictable disaster slowly and steadily.The existence of human culture hangs in jeopardy as we failed in all our efforts to cultivate the sense of time,sense of accountability and sense of belongingness. Due to our lack of awareness and social taboos and blindfaith, we refused to undergo family planning and it led to population exploision .Our religious bigotry disturbed the communal harmony, emotional integration and social cohesion of the country by fanning the fire of hatred and riots. The power-hungry politicians exploited the gullible, simple and poverty-stricken people of the country mercilessly to get themselves entrenched perpetually in power.
Lack of political awareness and education made our democracy a mockery, a hoax and a mock show to play foul with our sentiments. This ignorance proved to be the major cause of all our troubles. Our country became independent on 15th. August 1947 after undergoing the ordeal of Partition and our constitution came into existence on 26th. Jan.1950 declaring India a secular, socialist, democratic Republic.While treading a long path of vicissitudes, our nation had to face many challenges both external[Indo-China war of 1962] Indo-Pak warsof 1947, 1965 and1971]and internal disturbances like natural calamities, militancy, communal riots and scandals and scams. Many trivial issues raise their ugly heads daily in any part of the country. So far fourteen Prime Ministers [Heads of Govt.] and [eighteen Presidents] have governed the country.
They were men of impeccable integrity,high caliber, far-sightedness statesmanship and patriotic nationalists par excellence. But it is quite sad that they could not eradicate the crippling stigma of ignorance from the country.Elections are the souls of democracy and political parties are the crutches on which the democratic institutions hinge. It is necessary for the healthy growth of democracy that its citizens should be vigilant and educated to know the value of their votes so that the clever, callous and corrupt leaders may not dupe and deceive them with his slippery -tongue, rosy promises and cat-mouse tactics our leaders never endevoured to strengthen the secular forces by achieving a classless society. They spared no pains to widen the existing gulf to fish out of the troubled waters to gain their ends by fair and foul means.
In stead of achieving a classless society, our wrong policies have damaged the country beyond repair as we have provided reservation to all backward sections and nothing is left to divide now.
The country has already suffered badly due to this division as many young people had suffered self-immolation to protest against Mandal Commission during the times of Prime Minister V.P, Singh. But we learnt no lesson from blunders. It has led to many troubles and it has made our future bleak. There is need to purify the political system of the country to vie with the advanced nations of the world. Our scrutiny into the annals of history stands a testimony to the fact that lust for power in our leaders unleashed the communal forces that brewed separatism and ended into the partition of this subcontinent and after wading through the unprecedented blood bath and exodus. We have paid a very heavy price of our blunder and our posterity shall have to suffer in future unabated.The multiple-party system has made confusion worse confounded as it breeds regionalism, casteism and political pugnacity. Our system encourages rigging. Booth -capturing and impersonation results into casteism, communalism and corruption,
During the times of The Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great, there was the system of Mansabdari. There was a law of under which all the property of a deceased Mansab was confiscated by Govt. and his son had to begin his own career.
It was a noble act to do away with corruption. Similarly the huge assets of these leaders should be confiscated by the Govt. for the welfare of the public.
It will also curb the tendency of dynastic rule and hereditary leadership. A qualification must be fixed for members of the Parliament , Legislative assemblies and local bodies to contest any type of election. It will help in purging the political system of its deep rooted defects .
As there is age limit for all Govt. servants , there should be age limits of 65 or 70 years for these grey-headed politicians to retire from the public scene. Like U.S.A. where the President can serve two terms of four years, we should make a law of two terms for all and sundry. The foreign leaders seem young , energetic and healthy and they frisk away like young colts out of vigour and vitality while our leaders limp sluggishly due to age ache and ails.
The elections are held after 5years in India both for M.Ps and M.L.As. but in Jammu and Kashmir the tenure of the assembly is 6 years which is undesirable. It should be reduced to 5 years to ensure political uniformity in the country and to assuage the pains of the groaning public.
It is very sad and bad that in the beginning the voting age was fixed at 21 years and it was reduced to 18 years to invite maximum participation of the public in elections.
A large amount of money, time and energy is spent to prepare vote cards, election cards and registration papers.On every election occasion, the election cards should be issued once and it should remain in possession of its owner till his death like the Pan card that is issued once for all. Sometime a voter is allowed to cast the vote as his name is found deleted or deceased or wrongly entered or his wife is shown as his mother etc..
Right to vote should be made compulsory for all as a constitutional duty and he who fails to comply should be penalized.
In case of a Govt.servant he should be deprived of promotion or increment.Any body failing to cast the vote should be legally punished.The right way to reform the system is that only a graduate should enjoy the right to vote because he or she knows the value of vote.
The voter should have the power to recall the elected representative if he fails to satisfy the public with his work . During election compaign, there should be strict code of conduct that none should indulge in personal vituperation, slandering and mud-throwing. Every both Govt. and public should work sincerely to make democracy a agency success to translate the dream of our forefathers into reality.
(The author is a former Principal)
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