DEMOCRACY AND ITS PROTECTION IN INDIA

Pritis C Majumdar

Introduction: 

The father of our Indian Constitution was too wise and very ideal personality. His view about the normal Indian people was much high in respect of honesty, patriotism, love for motherland, character, duty and right to the nation etc..He could not think or it was beyond his imagination that criminally branded people would once be MLA, MP and minister who would also be leader of states (Chief Minister) of our great Country. That was why father of our Indian Constitution did not provide any strict laws to restrict such political leaders having nexus with criminals or criminals themselves from election as MLA, MP, and Minister. Now, time has come to provide some hard rules and laws in our constitution to keep away those anti-socials, criminals or criminally offenced people from Legislature and Parliament. Let us do some brain-storming on a few points of suggestions in this context

1. Any person filing nomination for election to be a member of Government Body like Panchayet, Zila Parishad, Municipality, Corporation, Legislative Assembly, parliament etc. must be free from all involvements with any anti-social activity, criminal or any other criminal activity directly or indirectly under the jurisdiction of Union Government of India or any other countries.

2. Any person willing to contest election for the above Government Institutions must be free from any kind of police (criminal offence) case (with or without Charge sheet) under the above said jurisdiction.

3.Any person willing to contest election as said above, must be free from any kind of financial offence like Income Tax, Sales Tax , Disproportionate of income and holding assets thereof etc. as per laws of our country .

4. The candidate for the above elections must submit his declaration in the form of court affidavit for his movable and immovable assets, income, bank balance  etc and his monthly expenditure to maintain his family ( as per laws of the country ) along with proportionate income tax clearance certificate (current one ).

5. There should be two (one pair) elected members for each constituency i.e. one (first) will be regular and confirmed member and the other one (2nd one) shall be as an additional member. The addl. member (2nd member) will be kept for stand-by member. The 2nd member's election shall be conducted along with 1st member's election i.e. in electronic voting machine (EVM) single button shall indicate the same result of voting for both the candidates. He will not be given any power or allowance. Similarly, his nomination application will be filed without any deposit of fees. His importance will become effective as a regular and confirmed member only in absence of confirmed member under any one of the following reasons:

PART.II.

5.a.While filing nomination application form duly filled in, both the candidates  must write their plan of activities or programmes/projects or assurances for the people of their constituency in the nomination application and in case of failure to fulfill or implement or complete those programmes of assured works/projects ( assured before the public and  election held) , the membership of any of the above govt. institution will be ceased and the 2nd elected member will be given chance to act as a regular and confirmed member replacing the failed member/representative of Panchayet, Zila Parishad, Municipality,  Legislative Assembly and Parliament etc. This issue shall be decided by the Prime Minister. In Russian Constitution there is a clear provision of election of two Deputies (here member/representative) for one constituency. This will generate a spirit or motivation to work sincerely to fulfill his assurances given before election to the public.

5. b.During the session of the house, if any member gets involved in any corruption or any allegation comes on floor with prima facie proof or logically alleged for any anti-social activity, involvement with criminal or criminal activity, fraudulent case or any other anti-people interest of society, state and country, he will have to relinquish his posts/membership from the concerned house as an example of highly responsible morally and administratively obligation. The Prime Minister shall decide this matter.

5. c. In case of death or long sickness of 1st (acting) member, the 2nd member will be appointed to replace the existing member. The speaker will decide this issue.

6. Performance of any such member, minister or any port folio holder will only be the yardstick of his efficiency to continue his office during the tenure of membership. This Performance Report(PR) will be prepared by one High Powered Statutory Autonomous Body (HPSAB). This constitutionally (Statutory) autonomous body shall be like Chief Election Commission of India, and submit the PR to the Prime Minister/ Chief Minister as the case may be for further necessary action. This PR should be treated as an officially open report i.e. should be briefed to press conference. Their decision will be constitutionally binding and effective and can not be challenged in the court of law. Only Parliament can do amendment or any other decision over that body.

7. Any government run either by a single party or any group of parties which may be called coalition or alliance can not be allowed constitutionally to form government for the 2nd term of office, unless  the 1st term government's progress is  achieved practically upto the target as per the assurances given by the party members to the common people/citizens before election in the field of finance, agriculture, education, health, investment, creation of jobs, infrastructure, laws and orders and GDP of either state or nation, even, the same party/parties wins/win the election with majority number of seats.

PART.III.

    A natural question may arise in the minds of people of our nation whether High Powered Statutory Autonomous Body (HPSAB) monitoring the performances of the government and deciding government's performance is more powerful than voting power of the people of our nation. No, HPSAB can never be so. But, these special powers of HPSAB are required to emphasise and create a better tradition of government's performance and check & balance for holding a free and fair election to the maximum extent. It has been experienced from the past all the elections that winning party/parties' members are not elected by the process of fearless, free and fair election.

8. No 3rd term to form the government either of state or nation by the same party/parties as said above will be allowed constitutionally, unless targets of performance are achieved, even in the case of winning the election with a majority number of seats. In such situation, Opposition major party or any alliance of parties should be given a chance to form the government. This is applicable also after 1st term of government.

9. No leader can do any propaganda of his own party's assurance/assurances or his assurance/assurances which have not been done/implemented practically. Assurance for programme of work which can surely be implemented can only be given to the public only by the elected member or candidate for election. Otherwise he or she will be under the allegation of breach of trust or cheating case.

Method of Voting:

Now, the next vital point comes how best method of voting can be implemented replacing the existing one.

The main drawback of the present voting system is that it can not be done freely avoiding rigging, booth-jam and intimidation to the honest & genuine voters not to appear to vote in voting booth, so that rigging of votes can be done smoothly. Sometimes, to make the voting environment panicky, a few anti-party supports are physically assaulted and sometimes murdered also. This untoward incident is very common in Bihar, West Bengal, Tripura, Jharkhand and other few states. As a result, true picture of voters' fearless, free and frank opinion can not be known through existing system of voting. The ruling party/parties make a network of making a forced vote in favor of them by the anti-social elements, goonda bahini, cadres of ruling party/parties armed with all fire arms with the direct and indirect full support of administration of ruling government. This state of affairs have already been witnessed by the Election Commission's Observers during the last elections (2004) at all levels i.e. parliament, State Assembly, Municipality and Panchayet elections. It is very difficult job to innovate an ideal method of voting and avoid those anti-voting activities. However, there is nothing wrong to offer some new proposals of secret voting so that the above said drawbacks can be avoided and to the maximum extent a flawless and peaceful method of secret voting system can be evaluated for the interest of democracy of the largest democratic country of the world. Let us have an honest attempt to find out a probable better system of voting for the above said elections.

PART.IV.

1. Ministry along with Houses(Parliament and Assembly )  of the concerned government (State or Central Government) should be dissolved before three months from the date of election and President Rule will be promulgated and continue till the new government is formed.

2. To ensure that all anti-social elements, criminals, rowdies and other doubtful anti-social persons are arrested before fifteen days and kept under jail custody till the new government is formed.

3. Military or Para-military personnel will check the voters with authorized photo ID and address ID just before reaching the voting machine for ensuring the genuine voters.

4. 144 should be clamped down ins and outs of each booth with necessary full powers of controlling the mob by the In charge of the booth at any cost for fearless, free and fair election.

5. Election duties during voting days should be withdrawn from the local (state) govt. administration and the same must be conducted by the military or paramilitary personnel under the full control of President of India.

6. Election Commission will be fully authorized to conduct all types of elections implementing the above modifications and recommendations for fearless, free and fair election to protect the purity and spirit of the democracy of our nation at any cost.

Value Added Politics(VAP):

It is assumed that the above recommendations will certainly check the socially and legally bad people to take part in the house of representatives at different level of governments  and thus help creation of healthy atmosphere to establish a VALUE  ADDED  POLITICS (VAP) in India to protect the largest institution of Democracy in the world from all types of criminals and their activities.

Election of two representatives from a single constituency will save a considerable amount of money, time and administrative activities in the case of re-election and also generate a competitive attitude amongst the elected members in respect of their performances.