The Hindu Business Line : Recall provision — People's leash, short and tight

It will be a folly for the political class to assume that its sovereign masters, the people, will put up indefinitely with oppression and hardship. A safety valve is needed, perhaps in the form of the right of recall of elected representatives, says B. S. Raghavan.

A QUIP on India doing the rounds parodies the famous quote on democracy from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg speech thus: Government off the people, buy the people and far from the people! "Functioning anarchy" was the label the former US Ambassador, Prof. J. K. Galbraith, attached to India's democracy 40 years ago.

Both definitions presume that India's democracy still has some life left in it. Certainly, the shell as envisaged by the Constitution is intact. Institutions — Parliament, the courts of law, the bureaucracy, the police, the military, the bourses, the media — propping it up are all nominally in place.

Citizens are guaranteed basic rights. Economic fundamentals are sound. Even if there be occasional social discord because of caste-community rivalries, there is a quick restoration of a state of equilibrium. Elections to the central and state legislatures and local bodies are held at prescribed time intervals. To all intents and purposes, India is marching ahead, albeit ponderously like an elephant, as a pluralist, secular polity and a potential player in the big league.

"Gigantic scam"

Let us take stock of the features of the Indian brand of democracy in stark and dark contrast to these undoubtedly encouraging features. Corruption is all pervading. The ordinary citizen is subject to hassles beggaring description at every turn, because of the insensitivity, of the bureaucracy and the police.

Courts are finding themselves powerless to enforce their own orders. Elections are becoming a farce, with persons accused of murder, rape, kidnapping and plunder of public exchequer entering legislatures and appointed as Ministers.

What the present Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Mr Somnath Chatterji, when he was a member, had castigated as `rowdyism' has begun to characterise the behaviour of elected representatives. More than 25 per cent of the time of Parliament is lost in disorderly scenes, wasting crores of rupees of the tax payers' money. On July 22, Mr Chatterji, now the Speaker, expressed anguish at the way some members were conducting themselves in the House. He told them that "you don't even allow the Chair to speak" and that they seemed to behave as if the Chair was "totally irrelevant".

On the same day, the Karnataka Governor, Mr T. N. Chaturvedi, had this to say: "It is sad to observe that the public respect for legislators and the political system is on the decline. There is some kind of cynicism which ... .would lead to disenchantment with the political system and it is dangerous for democracy." The first charge on elected Assemblies is not the people, but the members' self-interest. "We are all partners in this gigantic scam," a senior MP is quoted in the media as saying. "The bottomline for me is how to retain the ministerial bungalow allotted to me when I was a minister. I have got used to it along with the other trappings of power."

Besides housing, an MP can make one lakh free telephone calls annually, virtually enjoy free electricity and water (25,000 units and 2,000 kilolitres per year) and medical expenses for him and his family. He is entitled to one first class AC railway travel for himself and his "companion", 28 free single air journeys anywhere in the country, 15 telephone connections and 100 gas connections per year.

With a salary of Rs 4,000 per month, a daily allowance of Rs 400 and a constituency allowance of Rs 3,000 per month, the bonanzas roughly add up to a staggering figure of about Rs 1 lakh per month. (These are the figures that are readily available, but it should not be surprising if they have been jacked up without our knowledge.)

Safety valve

Reportedly, the MPs now also want the allowance for secretarial service increased to Rs 4,000 per month, 30 air journeys (with a companion or the spouse) a year, and AC first-class rail journey for the companion also, not to mention a full pension for a term irrespective of its duration.

As a recent article in a daily poignantly asks: "Is all this justifiable when MPs hardly take their basic responsibilities seriously, when demands for grants are guillotined en masse, the Constitution amended without any serious discussion and Parliament adjourned at the drop of a hat?

It is time we gave serious thought to rectifying the flaws in our democratic system and to urgently working for a change. The MPs need to honestly search their souls. Are they fit to lead? For how long can we continue to subsidise mediocrity? For how long can we afford to foot the bill?"

And how long are the people going to be reduced to the doormats of politicians? Already, signs of the turning of the worm are appearing here and there in the form of spontaneous agitations against MLAs/MPs. It will be utter folly of the political class to assume that their sovereign masters, "We, the people" would put up indefinitely with the myriad kinds of oppression and hardships inflicted upon them. Unless a safety valve is provided while there is still time, there is every possibility that at some stage in the future, India will become a dysfunctional anarchy, and bloody upheavals will become the order of the day in the county.

One such safety valve is the recall of elected officials by the voters of the constituencies concerned. Such a provision exists in the Constitutions of countries such as those of Switzerland and Venezuela, and of 18 states of the US. (Recall of local officials at the county level officials, akin to India's local bodies, exist in 36 states).

Deterrent instruments

Along with the devices of referendum and citizens' initiative, it is regarded as one of the deterrent instruments of `direct democracy'. What more appropriate remedy for deficiencies of democracy can there be except more effective and more direct democracy?

The power of recall is based on the maxim that elected members of representative bodies should be continuously held on a short and tight leash by the people whose servants and agents they are, and answerable to them throughout their term of office for the manner in which they exercise their responsibilities.

If, in the opinion of those who had elected them, they do not measure up, or are found to be incompetent, corrupt or indifferent to their duties, the voters can demand their recall before the expiry of their term by presenting a petition to the designated electoral authority containing valid and verified signatures of a prescribed proportion of the electorate of constituencies from which they had been elected.

Once the electoral officer has convinced himself of the genuineness of the petition and the fulfilment of the required pre-conditions on the percentage and authenticity of the signatures, he notifies a date for the recall election.

The ballot may give the voters either the only option of voting for or against recall of the particular person, or the additional option of voting for or against a duly nominated successor.

It can, of course, be argued that the threat of recall may prevent the elected officials from functioning in an independent fashion, forcing them to weigh every action of theirs in the scales of popular approval and also lend itself to misuse by well-financed vested interests or political opponents.

A further complication in India is the gargantuan size of the electorate: The constituency of an MLA/MP may have voters upward of 2 lakhs and 10 lakhs respectively, and even if the minimum number of signatories prescribed for a recall petition is as low as, say, 10 per cent, it translates into 20,000 and one lakh respectively for an MLA/MP. Even assuming that it would be possible to organise the collection of that many signatures, their verification may turn out to be a Herculean task, giving rise to disputes and challenges.

JP's prescription

But these apparent constraints can be overcome if there is a will. The fast eroding confidence in India's representative bodies makes it imperative to amend the Constitution incorporating the salutary provision for recall of elected representatives. Such a course was forcefully but in vain urged by Jayaprakash Narayan, in several sessions of the All-Party Committee on Political Defections (of which he was a member) in the mid-1960s.

The actions of a sizeable section of elected representatives has reached such insufferable proportions that drastic remedies have become inevitable without putting too fine a point on them.

In fact, the time has come for civil society organisations to take the lead in mobilising public opinion and collect a minimum of 20 per cent of voters' signatures in each constituency in favour of inclusion of a Constitutional provision for recall and present a people's petition to the President and Parliament for follow-up action.

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