Lessons from the American Presidential elections & the urgent need for political reforms in India - Part II

Politics in India needs reforms very urgently in order to gear up to meet the challenges of the ever changing socio-economic-cultural dynamics of the modern era. These reforms should manifest the changing mental & material dimensions of the people of India & the way we interact & transact with the world around us. The reforms required should broadly address the following issues:

1. Free information dissemination to the public at the grassroots level.
2. Accountability of politicians to their actions & decisions.
3. Establish compulsory minimum education level of at least a Bachelor's Degree to participate in the parliamentary democratic process as an elected representative.
4. Establish an electoral process to recall an elected representative in the event of non performance, criminal offence, etc.
5. Strengthen the parliamentary democracy system by mandating the compulsory completion of a Government's term.
6. Elected representatives compulsorily spending at least 25% time of their elected term in their respective constituencies overseeing development work & progress.
7. Establish strong code of conduct & ethical standards for the elected representatives both inside the House & also in public.
8. Mandate compulsory debate at length on the floor of the House with the assistance of qualified experts on all the issues of National importance.
9. Compulsory study of the fundamental structure and philosophy of the Indian Constitution & the Federal democratic system in India upto graduation level.
10. Make it a criminal offence punishable under law if religion, caste, creed, language, color, or any other diversity in society is used as an electoral platform.
11. Make education a subject of the State & legislate free education for all upto 10th or 12th class.
12. Abolish the "whip system" from the Parliamentary system.
13. Expedite all criminal charges against elected representatives by setting up special fast track courts & / or Benches in various courts.

Now, you may be thinking why the heck we need so many reforms when the system in place seems to be functioning quite well. Let me try to reason why we need all the above & more reforms to bring in transparency & accountability in our Parliamentary Democracy System in India. I will try to reason on these points in multiple blogs as each issue needs to be addressed at different depths, some needing much greater reasoning based on facts & others needing lesser reasoning.

Firstly, & most importantly, we have to admit that our elected representatives after coming to power totally seem to forget that they are "elected" & ignore that they are "representatives". This naturally attracts the questions - elected by who, what for, on whose behalf, & where to? The answer to this is - ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE, TO REPRESENT THE PEOPLE & THEIR INTERESTS, ON BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE, IN THE ASSEMBLY OR THE PARLIAMENT. But, once coming to power, these elected representatives forget that they have been bestowed with a job responsibility to address socio-economic-cultural issues in their constituencies and promote progress & development. All that they indulge in are - petty politicking, hip-hopping from one political party to the other, corruption, promoting their own selfish agenda, and dereliction of duties, with utter disregard for the principles & values of the Parliamentary Democracy system. These elected representatives take power bestowed in their hands by the electorate to be absolute without an iota of accountability. Thanks to the Right To Information (RTI) Act, the electorate can now obtain information pertaining to any department of the Government except some of the strategic issues concerning National security, Defence, Foreign relations, etc., & question the elected representatives. However, as much empowerment RTI can bring about in the civil society, it is yet to catch up in a big way. I doubt if even 1% of the educated community (including myself) exercises the RTI to obtain details pertaining to public services. This does not mean failure of the RTI or the system. It is a lack of interest among us in the Parliamentary system & the "chalta hain" attitude towards everything. I am of the opinion that, judicious use of the RTI has the potential to bring down the corruption level in our system drastically, which we so often keep complaining about. For this, the Government also has to do lot more than just enact RTI. It has to open RTI Kiosks at the Graam & Zilla Panchaayat level, & educate the local leaders to use the RTI weapon to get things done in their area. RTI Kiosks can be opened at different places - post office, municipality, banks, & other public places. For every district, there should be a Nodal RTI Office / Center to which all other RTI Kiosks should report in that district. This way, we can hope to disseminate information at the grassroots level. This strategy addresses many issues such as - informed public, reduced corruption, better transparency, accountability, documentation of all public records, better governance, etc. Use of e-governance can accelerate the pace of resolution of all the issues & information can be disseminated to the grassroots at a lesser cost. I think, if this can be achieved, we will see a far greater, mature, & informed exercise of the electoral franchise, resulting in a highly dynamic & robust Parliamentary system.

I will discuss the next point(s) in my following blog...Until then, take care of yourself & enjoy life...