It is generally accepted that as a result of the recent elections the Central Government has become weaker. In such a situation, in the mature democracies of western Europe, the government would have fallen. A new coalition would have been cobbled together or fresh elections would have been ordered. In India, such sacrifice is unknown. It is widely accepted that our government will continue by swallowing its pride and even good sense.

Even if fresh elections were held, for three reasons, the situation may not change meaningfully. One, although elections are held scrupulously, many of the politicians who contest have evil reputations for serious crimes such as murder, rape and the like. Two, the electoral process has become very corrupt, black money rules. Three, in western democracies, elections are fought on the basis of economic policy; in India, caste-based politics is the rule.

As a result of the power of black money and as a result the power of criminal elements, and due to absence of economic debate, elections do not change policies. Therefore, the country needs reforms, and needs them badly. I suggest four of them: one, proper salaries for politicians; two, occupational responsibility for legislators; three, internal democracy for political parties; and four, a reform of the electoral process.

UNDERPAID LEGISLATORS

First, the problem is economic. By misunderstanding Gandhiji, we pay too little to our politicians. The Rs 500 a month he said should be the upper limit would have fetched at that time over 300 gm of gold — worth around Rs 8 lakh a month now.

Gandhiji did not object even when Nehru fixed his own salary several times higher. Suppose we take Gandhiji's exhortation at its true value and make our top salaries Rs 8 lakh a month or even take Nehru's example and make it several times higher. With such high salaries our masters will have less temptation to hanker after illicit money.

The objection will be raised that politicians will take the higher salary and still remain corrupt. Some of them would, but most will become honest, the way officials of the British Government in India did when their salaries were raised to generous levels. The time has come for us to give up our pseudo-socialism, and pay our legislators well.

Hence, the first reform I suggest is generous salaries, linked to purchasing power parity, for our politicians, judges and the like. Better still, I suggest that the salary of a legislator be linked to tax collections in his or her constituency in such a manner that the average is on Gandhiji's lines. That will induce them to pay more attention to economic development.

Legislators like to wield power, but not every one of them can become a minister. However, it is a fact that our bureaucratic system is obtuse and causes much distress to ordinary people.

At present, citizens have nowhere to go. Hence, why not make legislators the jawabdars to whom any of their constituents can complain and get redress? If the person with the second highest vote is also given that authority and paid reasonably well for the effort, there will be useful competition, which is totally lacking at present.

Hence, authorising legislators and their runners-up to take up complaints from the citizens is my second suggestion.

INTERNAL DEMOCRACY

Third, almost all our parties are owned by a family or the other. Candidates who like to contest elections have to cow down to the owners of an established party or their henchmen before they can get selected. For that reason, serving their masters is all that is required to succeed in Indian politics. That anachronistic feudal system has to go. Hence, I suggest that a law be enacted to make our system on par with western democracies: all candidates should be selected by the constituency groups and the winning candidates, in turn, should select their leader.

I suggest that our country will improve when and only when all political parties diligently practise internal democracy.

My final suggestion requires some explanation but is the most crucial. Most western democracies have been blessed with a two-party system. Their system emerged gradually and got adult franchise only recently. In contrast, in India, adult franchise was imposed without preparation. As ours is a complex country with many cultures, and because there is no internal democracy in our political parties, every warlord has a party of his or her own. According to the Chief Election Commissioner, there are over 1,200 recognised parties. Thus, every constituency has a number of candidates, but the voter has one vote only. That is why many legislators win with a small fraction of the votes cast.

More than one vote

This problem will be remedied when every voter has the freedom to express his or her approval or disapproval of each and every candidate. Then, let us assume that, at present, most parties are dependent on some caste or other. At the same time, there could be others who propose various economic reforms. At present, voters have only one choice.

So, they are tempted to vote for their own caste. At the same time, it is a fact — brought out again and again by the media — that what most voters want is good economic development. If they can vote for more than one candidate, they may cast their additional votes to parties that offer economic policies of their choice. For that reason, parties with economic platforms are likely to perform better than they are at present, and parties based on strict caste lines are likely to fare worse. Thus, we will move closer to western democracies.

India needs change. The suggestions made here — with perhaps the addition of State funding of elections — will make our country truly democratic.

The author is a former Director, IIT, Madras. Responses to >indiresan@gmail.com and >blfeedback@thehindu.co.in )

This is 325th in the Vision 2020 series. The last article appeared on March 10.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW