A Note for the First Time Voters of India – About our Democracy.

 

The term is derived from the Greek dēmokratia, which was coined from dēmos (“people”) and kratos (“rule”) in the middle of the 5th century bce to denote the political systems then existing in some Greek city-states, notably Athens. Over the many centuries since then, the most important form of governance across the world in most of the countries have been some form of democratic government. Largely, the monarchy system and colonial system across the world were the forms of governance about 300 to 400 years back. Which have given way to formation of democratic system of governance across most part of the world.

India has been independent and democratic republic for over 74 years, and over the years our democratic systems have weathered a lot of up and downs, but has remained a fairly stable democracy despite it diversities in so many ways, which is quite unique only to India.

As Karnataka goes into polls today, there will be several lakhs of new voters, who will be voting for the first time. I am prompted to write this article to give a sense to the young voters and the first-time voters in doing what is their right as eligible citizen of Indian republic.

It is estimated, by 2024, the young Indian population will be approximately 175 million (between 18 to 25 years). This diverse group will form a vast untapped class of voters, many of whom would have spent most of their adolescent years under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime. In 2019, 45 million people became eligible to vote. This, some estimates showed, expanded the voters’ list by 5% compared to 2014. A larger increase is expected in 2024.

In India, a MP represents about 10 Lakh people of his/her constituency. It is humanly impossible to cater to the needs of such large number of people’s wishes and aspirations and needs.

There are few laws and systems in India, which were meant for stabilizing the Democracy are killing the democracy at an individual leader level, who are the true representatives of the people. 

The Anti-Defection Law: And its negative effects on democracy

The anti-defection law punishes individual Members of Parliament (MPs)/MLAs for leaving one party for another.

Parliament added it to the Constitution as the Tenth Schedule in 1985. Its purpose was to bring stability to governments by discouraging legislators from changing parties.

It sets the provisions for disqualification of elected members on the grounds of defection to another political party.

It was a response to the toppling of multiple state governments by party-hopping MLAs after the general elections of 1967.

However, it allows a group of MP/MLAs to join (i.e., merge with) another political party without inviting the penalty for defection. And it does not penalize political parties for encouraging or accepting defecting legislators.

As per the 1985 Act, a 'defection' by one-third of the elected members of a political party was considered a 'merger'.

But the 91st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003, changed this and now at least two-thirds of the members of a party must be in Favour of a "merger" for it to have validity in the eyes of the law.

The members disqualified under the law can stand for elections from any political party for a seat in the same House.

The decision on questions as to disqualification on ground of defection are referred to the Chairman or the Speaker of such House, which is subject to ‘Judicial review’.

However, the law does not provide a timeframe within which the presiding officer has to decide a defection case.

Recently, the Vice-President has said that the time has come to amend the anti-defection legislation in the country to plug existing loopholes.

The problem arises from the attempt to find a legal solution to what is essentially a political problem.

If stability of government is an issue due to people defecting from their parties, the answer is for parties to strengthen their internal systems.

There is an ardent need for legislation that governs political parties in India. Such a law should bring political parties under Right to Information (RTI), strengthen intra-party democracy, etc.

In order to shield the detrimental effect of the anti-defection law on representative democracy, the scope of the law can be restricted to only those laws, where the defeat of government can lead to loss of confidence.

A few parliamentary democratic nations such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have enacted laws that prohibit floor crossing or switching parties after the election. Under these laws, elected representatives will lose their seat in the parliament if they go against their party in votes.

In the UK parliament, a member is free to cross over to a different party. In Canada and Australia, there are no restraints on legislators switching sides. In New Zealand, waka-jumping legislation provides that MPs who switch parties or are expelled from their party may be expelled from Parliament at the request of their former party's leader.

Party Whip

In India, the concept of the whip was inherited from colonial British rule. Every major political party appoints a whip who is responsible for the party's discipline and behaviours on the floor of the house. Usually, they direct the party members to stick to the party's stand on certain issues and directs them to vote as per the direction of senior party members. However, there are some cases such as Indian Presidential elections where whips cannot direct a Member of Parliament (MP) or Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) on whom to vote. Should a whip's order be violated by a member of the same party, then the whip can recommend immediate dismissal of that member from the house due to indiscipline and the Speaker of the respective house can decide on the matter (without time limit). Should the whip choose not follow up on the violation his/her official whip order by own party member due to any reason, then any member of house can do so to the Speaker.

Constant Election Mode

In India the Local Body, State and National elections happens at different times. So, the political leaders and Parties are in constant mode of elections at someplace or the other, either for their own election or for someone else in the party/position. This means they are left with very little time to really do the work for which they have been elected in the first place. Most of the governance is left to the bureaucrats, who follow the instructions of their political masters of the present times. So, the peoples will is at the least priority in our democracy in the current form of governance.

Political parties are the Maibaap of our Democracy

You would agree that the individual MPs and MLAs or any other elected members of any positions are just numbers, at an individual level, they don’t have a lot of power to do for their own constituency at freewill in a constructive manner. Whatever the individual MPs and MLAs do are as per the party or government’s directives, & policies.

At the internal governance level, there is not much to talk about in terms of internal democracy of the parties. All the parties are driven top down. Many of the local and national level parties encourage family members or dynastic politics at an individual level as well as at the party level. In the process meritocracy is sacrificed over dynasty.

Minority Percentage of Votes form majority governments

In 2019, BJP got only 37.4% of votes and won 303 seats. In 2014, they won 31% of the votes and got 282 seats. This means that in 2019, about 62% of votes were given to other parties/candidates. And in 2014, about 69% of votes were given to other parties/candidates. So, how this segment of voters are being represented in the Parliament?

There are no easy answers but, I guess our youth of India will find these answers through a refined democratic process in years to come.

Happy Voting!!!