CHAPTER XXVII Epilogue (vi) MY SUGGESTIONS FOR THE REFORMATION IN INDIAN DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM

CHAPTER XXVII

Epilogue (vi)

My Suggestions for the Reformation in Indian Democratic System

As a citizen of India, I feel  our Constitution needs several amendments, particularly:

a)       Primary health, primary education for all, and basic employment  be included as

            fundamental rights.

b)      National Language - Sanskrit be made the National Language making it simpler by adopting it in three tenses - past, present and  future; two numbers (singular and plural) and three genders (masculine, feminine and neutral). It will be much more acceptable by almost all Indians  and is most computer-friendly, and will be simpler than even presently used Hindi. It will be easier to learn, speak, teach and document without mistakes.

c)     All sorts of reservations be scrapped after a stipulated period which in no case be extended further for the true uplifting of the so-called down-trodden people. Reservation mars the talent improvement or acquisition of skills and therefore free India could not produce any person of the stature of Ambedkar in any field despite the reservations in various sectors.

In the field of the political system, I feel:

a)      The national parties should not fight State and lower level elections and similarly State/regional parties should not fight national election, to have a true national or regional angle on the national or regional problems, all of which are equally important.

b)      The election from the specified sections e.g. teachers, graduates, etc. should be strictly held without any interference from the political parties.

c)      In the Parliament and Assemblies, there should be seats on the basis of elections for the professional groups like doctors, engineers, artists, journalists, teachers, etc.

         It will be better that the Rajya Sabha’s 50 per cent seats be allocated to such groups on the basis of election on non-party basis. The Presidential nomination for few such seats though had these groups provisioned by our Constitution-makers but these are very few in numbers and that too had been abused in many cases.

         Reorganisation of the Indian States should be done on the basis of area and or population(as proposed in this book).50 per cent seats of the Rajya Sabha should be evenly allocated to such  States and ratification on the important  federal issues should be a  must by the Rajya Sabha.

d)      Legislative Councils existing only in few States, viz. Bihar, J. &  K., Karnataka, Maharashtra and U.P. should be scrapped.

e)      The post of the Governors should also be abolished, as it has not served any meaningful purpose so far except in giving refuse to some defeated politicians or some influential officers who might have favoured in the past the persons of the ruling regime. The Union Home Minister may be directly responsible for the affairs of the States, particularly at the critical constitutional junctures like administration during President’s rule, etc.

Further in the field of electoral reforms, I feel:

i)       The election from the Panchayats to the post of President should be held with a fixed tenure of four or maybe even three years but there should be no mid-term elections.

ii)      Defection of any type (say by the merger of parties or any other loophole remained in the new act of 2003) should be dealt with by the annulment of the seats. Even independents should not be allowed to join any group, particularly if the group is claiming for a new government formation.

iii)     In the events of elections at the Central or State level, the President’s rule should be imposed —the Chief justice may run the Govt. for the interim period to avoid misuse of power by the ruling party.

iv)     For election to any post more than 50 per cent votes should be necessary (by the preferential voting system).

v)      In the event of not obtaining a clear majority at the Central level, the next round of election between the two or more parties obtaining highest or equally high seats should be held on the issue of the formation of the Govt. i.e. without disturbing the elected representatives. For the passing of any bill other than no-confidence motion preferential voting should be done.

vi)     In the event of no-confidence motion at the Central level, the Parliament should elect some other leader without mid-term election.

         In case of State Legislatures the parliamentarians elected from the State should take over the function of the state legislators and choose a leader to form a cabinet to run the State for the remaining period, till the next election. They may not be allowed to form new laws without the ratification by the Parliament.

 vii)   The method of making anyone the leader or a member of the ministry should be continued but the bar of six months period for his/her election should be removed as it is a mockery—never  a minister or Chief Minister has probably lost any such election.

         Prime Minister or a Chief Minister elected as such by the members of the Parliament or Legislative Assemblies may, in fact, be a better representative of the people, as they will not have the bias of serving their own particular constituency.

viii)   The political parties should refrain from putting any criminal or corrupt persons in the electoral fray. The guidelines of the Election Commission or the ordinance debarring a person on the ground of cases or charges framed have no relevance in the era of filing and or managing false cases (as in my own case, I could not think of contesting 1996 Parliamentary election from Madhubani or Darbhanga when Dr. Viren Doshi phoned me from Gujarat that he would ask Narendra Modi, the then General Secretary, BJP for giving me a ticket but I told Viren not to pursue).

ix)     The use of money and or muscle power in the politics can only be minimized by the political parties who should have higher moral behaviour and instead of choosing a person who can win; they should choose and try for one who should win an election. The present day scenario of the parties on the basis of castes compounds such things.

x)      The bar on the Govt. servants in entering the electoral fray is ridiculous. It dilutes the quality of the contesting persons, that too, when each and every civil servant has some political angle in a democracy. They may be given lien for contesting the elections and if elected, till they are on the elected post.

In general:

The weekly holiday on Sunday is not secular, in India, which was started in 1843 by the then British Indian Govt.  It should be on Thursday as India became independent on the 00 hour of August 15, 1947 which was a Thursday night, as the day ends with the next sunrise as per Indian tradition. Moreover, the week starts on Sunday and the first day should not be logically a holiday. Nepal   has weekly holiday on Saturday.

          In any case, by the God’s grace, if our partitioned country becomes united again, (which is the only solution for reducing very high expenditure on defence, so that developmental plans like Ganga -Cauvery link, health and education for all, etc.  may be given top priority) then too it will be Thursday for the whole of the United India as the day of Independence (August 14, 00.00 hour, the day Pakistan was declared independent, too may be considered a Thursday as the day changes after the moon is seen as per the Islamic tradition). Bangladesh was also liberated on the 16th December 1971, which was also a Thursday.