Introduction:

The Political parties for the sake of power introduce welfare programmes that make the people lethargic as they lose their perspective and depend entirely on these welfare schemes.

In the present times, the aspiring voter expects genuine transparency in governance, openness in the administration and accountability among politicians. In any state, a responsible opposition is also the need of the hour.

The people should sustain themselves and become independent to generate their resources as Mahatma Gandhi was particular about cottage, small scale and household industries. Every village should be self-sufficient and one village in the Nizamabad district of the Telangana region is self-sufficient in all aspects and such a model should be implemented in other villages as well.

Fate of the Ministers:

When leaders or Ministers lose their political clout, may face corruption charges or end up in the CBI net. It’s saddening that many cases are still pending against the MPs and Ministers in the court of law. Few of them have been convicted and are serving jail terms. The general voters will remember such Leaders, but over a period of time, tend to forget and once again blindly follow them during the elections. I need to quote that, people will forget what you did, people will forget what you said, but will never forget how you made them feel.

Hike in MP’s Salaries-Justifiable:

If we dream of a corrupt-free society, our elected representatives should stop worrying about their personal welfare. They must be free from the responsibilities to sustain their families and the financial burden so that they can devote themselves to public issues effectively.

A three-fold hike in the salaries is justifiable and the central government took the right decision.

Accountability of the Governments:

Most of the parties’ reach out with many repetitive and couple of new promises to the voters during the election campaign. They promise impossible things to woo the voters with false hope and once they gain power, they forget or deny the same. There has to be some mechanism to curb such politicians who make fake promises and must stand accountable to the people. Even the promises printed in each party's manifesto must be pondered upon, for the welfare of the people.

The most important fact is that the Chief minister should be held accountable during his five-year tenure. He should ensure that the government funds are judiciously spent and the balance sheet should be fair enough with income and expenditure. They have to present invariants such that they will be checked by the CAG. If a leader is found guilty of laundering or causes indirect laundering of funds, he must be held responsible and ordered to pay the penalty. The concerned Minister should pay the amount from his pocket.

During the five-year term of any Chief minister, the income and expenditure may not balance. They leave with many debts on the other parties who gain power or they try to retain five more years to enjoy the privileges and cover the budget. In the long run, if an honest leader is not ruling the state, then the entire state will be in debt and will hamper most of the welfare schemes.

Voter has a right to question the Elected Representatives: We need welfare programmes as well as developmental plans, the leader whosoever maybe should not neglect these and try to strike a balance between the welfare programmes and developmental schemes.

Voters should have the privilege to question the elected representative if they are unable to keep up with their promises. It is the need of the hour that we better our constitution giving special powers to the constituency to dismiss their representative from power if his performance is dismal. 

The idea of "One Nation, One Poll" is laudable as stated by Sri Narendra Modi. We need to study the pros and cons of its implementation as most of the political leaders are busy every quarter with one election or the other. The development certainly may be a hindrance and the expenditure to sort a separate voter list for each State for municipal, legislative and parliamentary elections is a burden and difficult task. We need to change our mindset for better prospects for the country.

The think-tank and eminent subject experts should debate positively and suggest the government to justify its stand. Let's hope that we surge ahead with pragmatic and simplified ideals towards the 21st century. 

Political Gatherings should be banned: We need to ban large political gatherings and roadshows during the elections as the spread of covid-19 pandemic situation seems to haunt us. We must be careful about such large gatherings which can affect the health of many people, educate them about the spread and issue new guidelines to protect themselves. They create hype and create inconvenience to the commuters and the traffic and we need to approach the voters through the print and electronic media.

The political parties should realize this fact and must arrive at a sensible consensus. The role of the EC at the National and State level should be independent and unbiased towards any political party. We remember, CEC, Mr TN Sheshan and many others who were strict taskmasters in conducting the elections efficiently.

The fact is that the innocent masses are towed and bought, for such large gatherings.

Democracy at Stake: As the general elections are fast approaching all the political parties at state and central government are elected democratically and they wish to follow undemocratic policies. As a common man we do wonder what kind of the government we are seeing at regional level and national level. Every party wants to retain power for which they don’t want to list the other side of the coin and they want to praise their governments even if they are at fault. There is no freedom of speech and most of the channels are hired by the political parties. If any channel is really working and genuinely representing socio-political and economic issues, they will put in lots of hardships and they will file false allegations against them.

The common man issues are not gaining importance in political circles. Every political party in power is targeting the other parties and wish to dominate their existence by hook or crook.

We never heard raids before and it was impartial but nowadays ruling parties are targeting only the opposition parties aiming only to weaken them and on other hand they are targeting their party sympathizers and those who are their backbone of their economic strength.

It looks like the police and the ruling government are working hand in glove. We wish to have the Governments which are really working for the welfare of the people but we are seeing the reverse picture of it. The common man will certainly have questions like what democracy means, we are living in an emergency and we need to appreciate praise if the government does wrong to the society also. We have learnt in school days we need to question if something is wrong but now the government says we need not question them.

We are living in democratic setup and we need strong opposition as well to check the functioning of the governments. To our surprise they want to rule even though they don't have the cadre and are trying their best by all means. The present state and central parties enjoyed their two terms and they wish to continue one more term and they try to manipulate things in their favour by using their present government machinery. These parties are missing the logic that anti-incumbency votes will decide the prospects of the parties.

The removal of Mr Rahul Gandhi from the MP membership without any hesitation has been approved and they wish to tarnish the image of the Congress.

We have respect towards the judiciary and the political system and the democracy of our country and we need to uphold our democracy and should set an example to other countries. Let’s hope it may happen in due course of time when younger generations participate in politics actively. Let's hope the best we will get good governance both at regional level and at the Centre in next parliamentary and assembly elections.

Unity among the Regional Parties:

Surprisingly all the regional parties stood against this move and wanted to give tough fight to the present BJP government and looks like they will succeed in their attempts. Every party speaks about democracy in their own perspective. The common man and the voter are observing these government's and wish to teach a befitting lesson to the political parties.

All Political Parties should come under the Right to Information Act.

The Supreme Court has been aware of the growing corruption and use of black money by political parties. “The political parties in their quest for power spend more than one thousand crores in the General Elections (Parliament alone), yet nobody accounts for the bulk of the money spent and there is no accountability. Nobody discloses the source of income. There are neither proper accounts nor audits. The huge inflow of money and its source, remains a mystery? In a democracy where the rule of law prevails, this naked display of black money, by violating the mandatory provisions of law, cannot be permitted.”

There is a need to bring into light the internal functioning of the political parties and make them more accountable to the citizens of the country. This can happen only if political parties are declared as public authorities and the information is provided to the public through the Right to Information Act.

Suggestions:

• Money should not be given to politicians as it creates a nexus between the funders and the political parties, thus affecting policy formulation in the country. Instead, a National Election Fund should be created for receiving donations from the people and corporations. The money received should be used for conducting elections.
• Eliminating the root cause of the requirement of money i.e. banning election rallies and roadshows, but a direct connection with people needs to be ensured. Replacing them with live T.V debates and interviews is a better option.

Electoral Reforms related Recommendations: A law for regulating political parties is required.

Following reforms need to be implemented immediately:

1. The 'First Past the Post System', in which a person with the highest votes (even with one extra vote) is declared the winner, should be changed. Rather, a minimum percentage of total votes polled, should be fixed for declaring a candidate winner.
2. The person contested with highest votes, if he happens to resign for several reasons the second person who has secured may be given preference to continue the rest of the period by avoiding the elections and elections expenditure. In reality no one gets absolute majority but they are ruling and the votes secured by opposition together is much higher than the person elected. One has to think and advise the best method of choosing the Candidates/Winner.
3. Preventing criminals and law-breakers from contesting elections.
4. Flow of black money into the election process needs to be taken care of.
5. There needs to be scrutiny of the manifestos issued by political parties. Also, the manifestos should be issued earlier so that the people can understand and discuss ideas and plans mentioned in them.
6. The Electoral system needs to be such that a sitting MLA or a MP has to resign from the current seat before filing nomination for the other seat. This will help in saving expenditure on by-polls.
7. Even in the case of simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, a system is needed to tackle the dissolution of assemblies and vacancies that can occur during a ruling period.
8. The Prime Minister should be elected through the secret and compulsory vote of all the members of the lower house on nomination signed by at least 34% members. In the same way, no-confidence motion, carrying the name of an alternative leader, should be passed, unseat an incumbent person and fill the seat immediately.
9. Since political parties seem less interested in electoral reforms, the Supreme Court can take an action in this regard. Currently, electoral reforms are work-in-progress. An initiative from the public is needed to make them happen fast.

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Reference:

• "A New Political Ethos: panacea for Robust Societies" published in 2021, ISBN 978-93-90720-79-8- KanagiriSNPrasad, Pages 153-159, Publications-Sankalp Publications, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh-495001.
• https://adrindia.org/sites/default/files/