Political parties and
the current system of
representative democracy must undergo reforms
Pankaj Sharma
9
February 2015, New Delhi
It is
evident that the political system in our country faces a number of challenges.
Political parties have weakened their ideological orientation and commitment to
the welfare of the masses. Recent electoral campaigns in different states have
shown that power is concentrated within the hands of a few in some parties.
As a result, many are not hesitant about promoting factionalism within
their own parties. Many leaders, across the political spectrum, are affected by
communalism, caste, community or religious biases, besides possessing close
links to criminal elements.
Changing
one’s party is endemic to almost all the political organisations. Even those
leaders, who’ve benefitted immensely from a certain party, are willing to
defect at the drop of a hat. Parties make and break political alliances to
maintain their influence within the party and government, with the sole aim of
keeping rivals out. Most factional groups posses no ideology and have no vision
for the greater good of the people.
Most
parties face organisational issues, especially those related to maintenance of
discipline, defections, elections within parties, and factions. Raising
adequate funds for political parties by legitimate means and their appropriate
and effective utilisation during non-election and election season is a
perennial concern. Criminalisation of politics and the maintenance of
public ethics is another area of concern with respect to party functioning.
Some
areas of reform in the political system should be of immediate concern.
Institutionalisation of political parties is one such area. There is a need for
a comprehensive legislation to regulate party activities. Less focus on
structural and organisational reforms in various parties at national, state and
local levels has already done a lot of harm to Indian political system. We must
now understand the need for regular inner-party elections, recruitment of party
cadres, socialisation, development and training, research and policy planning
activities within parties to strengthen intra-party democracy. Problems’
surrounding funding to political parties is also a serious area of concern and
it needs strong legislation. Maintenance of regular accounts and auditing
should not be a mere formality.
Unless
these audited accounts are available for public scrutiny, we will not be able
to live up to our reputation as the world’s largest democracy.
Are
democratically elected governments the real representatives of our people? Most
often, they’re not. Our electoral system has produced a government at the
Centre with a clear majority after a quarter of a century, despite the fact
that more than two-thirds of India’s voters rejected the ruling party. Isn’t it
the time that we gave serious thought about electoral reforms, since they could
pave the way for the establishment of a true representative democracy? Do we
need to change the system of single member constituencies to a mixed system or
proportional method of representation, along with the simple majority system?
There
is a strong need to check the criminalisation of political parties and take
steps to curb the role of caste and religion. There is also the need to address
the problem of the proliferation of independent candidates and strengthen
anti-defection measures. Restoration of values and morality in public life is
another area that requires remedy. A number of academic and research
institutions, political observers and analysts, committees and commissions
appointed by the Government of India from time to time have made many proposals
to reform the political party system in India. Despite these suggestions, very
little progress has been made.
Some
proposals, given from time to time, have suggested that our democracy adopt the
German model of preferential voting to insure proportionate representation of
parties in Parliament. Since most political parties work in tandem with
unscrupulous business lobbies and criminal elements or use state power to
determine poll outcomes, another proposal has been to check these trends for better
governance. Political parties should have bare minimum principles for forming a
coalition government rather than forge alliances only to be in government.
Unprincipled political alignments should be discouraged by law, urging
political parties to be more homogenous in their endeavour of running a
coalition government. Support to any government from the “outside” should be
legally barred. Only a party that possesses at least 25 per cent of seats
in the Lower House of Parliament or Assembly should have a chance at forming
the government.
Some
proposals have also suggested that no government should be removed from office,
if those involved in toppling it fail to come out with a clear alternative
arrangement. The kind of coalition arrangements that parties make should be
clear before they form the government. Developments so far show that the
big parties themselves prefer to play second fiddle to regional and smaller
parties, whose immediate interests are determined by ‘regional and parochial’
issues rather than long term national interests. Parties need to strengthen
their managerial and crisis management capacity. If party organisations
are better managed and democratised, their efficiency would increase.
More autonomy to all layers and greater inner-party democracy would help
circulate leaders on the basis of their qualities. The criterion of
achievement rather than ascription should be accepted by all parties.
Unless these parties are broad based in accommodating all segments of
society, they will continue to be status-quoist, exclusivist, regional and
sectarian.
It is
true that we live in a world, where politics has replaced philosophy. Ignoring
the underlying philosophy of politics, however, might take India to a direction
that might prove disastrous. We still have time to collectively give these
issues the required focus.
Author
is editor and CEO of News Views India
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment