Despite underlining the need for electoral reforms, particularly to prevent candidates with criminal records from contesting polls, Chief Election Commissioner of India S Y Quraishi on Monday said anti-graft campaigner Anna Hazare’s suggestion to include a ‘ right to reject’ voting provision was not feasible or practical. “If all voters exercise their voting rights judiciously the need of implementation of this provision will not arise,” Quraishi said.
Delivering the convocation address at the Himachal Pradesh university here, the chief election officer said there were lakhs of people lodged in jails and facing trials. “If their liberties have been curtailed, then why should not people having tainted and criminal backgrounds be restrained from entering politics. After all, the right to contest polls is not a fundamental right like the right to vote,” he said.
Quraishi was of the view that if the people which criminal backgrounds are not allowed to contest elections, it would not in any manner infringe their rights. We need to have election reforms to debar such persons from entering the politics, he added.
The election body chief referred to the honorary degree that was awarded to Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajeev Shukla and said: “ I feel the Himachal Pradesh university has done a wonderful job in conferring you (Shukla) this honour so that you play an important role in pushing for electoral reforms”.
Quraishi further said that efforts were being made to ensure more transparency during elections and provide more rights to voters. In his convocation address, the chief election commissioner said the election body had opened a special cell to prevent black money from being used in the polls. “The use of black money could only be stopped if people also participate and help out the Commission in keeping a watch,’’ he said.
Around 141 Phds and 114 medals were conferred on meritorious achievers during the convocation. Mritunjaya Sharma was conferred D Lit in music. Phd degrees (Honoris Causa) were also conferred upon Rajeev Shukla, Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Padamshree Pratapsingh Ganpat Rao Jadhan, Alkshendra Singh in Social Sciences and Mahesh Verma for Dental Sciences.
Governor and Chancellor of the University, Urmila Singh also spoke on the occasion. She expressed happiness that women were outnumbering the men in different achievements and said that it was a positive sign of women empowerment.
BJP slams Baba Ramdev's remark against lawmakers
By ANI | ANI – 18 hours ago
New Delhi, May 2 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday condemned yoga guru Baba Ramdev's remark that murderers, looters and illiterate people are sitting in parliament.
"Insulting parliament and parliamentarians is not a good thing. Any saint or someone else cannot insult democracy," BJP leaderYashwant Sinha told the media outside parliament.
"By doing so, democracy will become weak. I would appeal to everyone to stay away from such talks," he added.
BJP leader Kirti Azad said Baba Ramdev should not give such statements about MPs.
"It's a strange thing that Baba Ramdev said anything like this. Everybody should think before commenting anything, as it affects the people's mind," he added.
"People in parliament are elected by the people of India. Hence, good words should be use for parliamentarians," said BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain.
"We have made people who are demons in disguise to sit in parliament but they do not deserve to hold these prestigious positions and be in power. But the system is still functioning and we have also accepted these 543 people will run the country," Baba Ramdev told media in Raipur.
" However, there a few people who are good and we respect them from the core of our heart. But parliament also consists of goons, corrupt, murderers, illiterates, and we have to protect our parliament from these dishonest people," he added.
Baba Ramdev further said: "Earlier we raised the issue of black money and corruption. We made our countrymen aware about their strengths and told them that there is lot of wealth in form of natural resources."
"This time our campaign would focus on the procedure to get back the black money, steps that need to be taken to eradicate corruption and the measures that need to be initiated to prevent the illegal exploitation of natural resources," he added.
Earlier, Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal had also made similar comments against parliamentarians, which led to the letter sending him a privilege notice. (ANI)
Criminals flourish in Indian elections
DIBAI, India — In India’s democracy, crime really can pay.
In the past month, voters in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, home to 200 million people, have been lining up in huge numbers to cast votes in state elections.
And many of them will win.
“They are popular with voters,” lamented Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi. “I call it the Robin Hood syndrome. They take care to use their corrupt money, money that they get through illegal means, to give to the poor.”
It is a similar picture nationally: 162 of the 545 members of India’s lower house of Parliament are facing criminal charges, compared with 128 in the previous Parliament.
Democracy is the glue that has held India together — and kept it largely peaceful — since independence from Britain in 1947. The power of free speech and free elections has helped this huge, diverse country emerge as a global power in the 21st century. But democracy here is still a “work in progress,” said Anil Bairwal of the Association for Democratic Reforms.
Although many Americans complain about the role of big business in funding political campaigns in the United States, the roots of the corruption and criminalization of Indian politics, ironically, lie in the outlawing of corporate contributions by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1967, in an attempt to cripple a right-wing opposition movement by depriving it of funds.
At the constituency level, the only alternative was to establish a network of patronage and favor-swapping from individual donors that soon became entrenched.
At the national level, Jha argued, the ruling Congress party was soon demanding massive kickbacks from business deals, mostly defense and infrastructure contracts, to fund its central command. It is the road that led inexorably to the corruption scandals of the past few years.
A typical Indian constituency might have 1,000 villages, and the cost of campaigning is enormous.
Unrealistically low campaign-finance limits also forced candidates to raise “unaccounted” funds, said M.R. Madhavan at PRS Legislative Research.
“Who has access to unaccounted funds? Criminal elements,” he said. “This forces you into bed with criminal elements.”
Criminals and wealthy politicians regularly dole out cash in return for votes. Quraishi said his agents seized more than $12 million in cash during elections last year in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, including one haul of $1 million in cash hidden in sacks on the roof of a bus.
38% 'declared criminals' contesting elections: Report
Binay Singh, TNN Feb 8, 2012, 02.17AM IST
VARANASI: Ravikant Singh of Quami Ekta Dal, contesting from Varanasi North constituency, has the highest number of serious charges (6). He is closely followed by Abdul Samad Anasari of Samajwadi Party, also contesting from Varanasi North constituency, with five serious charges and Chandra Kumar Mishra of Bahujan Samaj Party from Varanasi Cantt constituency with four serious charges.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Uttar Pradesh Election Watch (UPEW) has released their reports with analysis of criminal, financial and other details of candidates contesting from different constituencies of Varanasi and other districts going to poll in the third phase of UP assembly elections. Releasing the report on Tuesday, Jagdeep Chhokar and Lenin Raghuvanshi said the UPEW analyzed 48 out of 149 candidates contesting the elections in Varanasi district. Out of the 48 candidates analyzed, 26 (54%) have declared criminal cases in their affidavits submitted to the Election Commission of India at the time of filing their nomination. Out of the 26 candidates, 13 candidates declared that they faced serious criminal charges like murder, attempt to murder, theft and extortion.
Proposed election reforms to curb crime, corruption'
Published On: October 29, 2011 | Duration: 25 min, 34 sec
UPA has lost all momentum, progress unlikely: Moody’s
New Delhi: The Congress’ first family has come under criticism by Moody’s Analytics for failing to restart the legislative process for reforms, accusing it of
blowing their chance in the recent state elections including UP.
“The real power behind the government, the Gandhi family, blew their chance to restart the legislative process at the recent state elections in which family scion Rahul Gandhi invested countless hours and money touring the rural
backwaters of Uttar Pradesh,” Moody’s Analytics Senior Economist Glenn Levine said.
He noted that the Congress party was drubbed by Mulayam Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and “Gandhi has barely been heard from since then”.
The remarks preceded its contentions that the UPA government, weighed down by corruption and funding scandals, has passed no notable bills.
“The government has lost all momentum and progress is unlikely on existing bills covering pressing issues such as land reform, fuel subsidies, labour rights, and the much-discussed supermarket reforms between now and the next
national election in 2014″, the report said.
It pointed out that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led the Congress party to victory in 2009, giving it a strong mandate to accelerate the economic reforms begun in his first term. The report termed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as an ”ageing technocrat who now appears tired of the rough and tumble of Indian politics”, and added that the UPA didn’t have the numbers or the leaders to push through tough-minded reforms needed to drive the next wave of growth.
Moody’s Analytics is a division of Moody’s Corporation that provides expertise in economic and consumer credit analysis, credit research and risk measurement, enterprise risk management and structured analytics and valuation.
2012 marks 60 years since the first Indian general election.
In this time, the Election Commission of India has come a long way in ensuring the conduct of free and fair elections at various levels, -thus cementing its reputation as one of the most respected constitutional bodies in recent times. Inspite of its reputation, elections have become perhaps the biggest source of corruption in the country. Inevitably, the proceeds of corruption worms its way into funding election campaigns. So much so, that the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, 2001 noted that “electoral compulsions for funds become the foundation of the whole superstructure of corruption”.
In more recent developments, surprisingly, none of the various Lokpal bills address the issue of electoral corruption. While the apparent silence of the politicians on this issue is understood, one can only speculate as to why Team Anna and various other non-governmental bodies pitching for a strong Lokpal have remained silent on this issue. Reforms, if any, have come from the judiciary and the Election Commission. Two such measures stand out: firstly, the 2003 Order of the Supreme Court of India in “PUCL v. Union of India” mandating that all electoral candidates submit an affidavit disclosing their assets, liabilities and criminal records, and, secondly, the usage of electronic voting machines (EVM’s) that have greatly helped in tackling vote rigging.
However, mere directives and enforcement by the Election Commission and Supreme Court are insufficient. In about 2008, pursuant an order of the Chief Information Commission declaring political parties as ‘public authorities’, the parties submitted detailed balance sheets indicating the availability of funds, income and expenditure incurred by them. The results reveal that national parties like the Congress and BJP had incomes of Rs240 and 220 Crore respectively in the year 2010. This figure is measly when compared to the fact that the Election Commission itself estimated that over Rs.3500 Crores ($750 million) was paid in bribes during the elections in five Indian states in April and May 2011.
Some analysts believe that one of the means for tackling corruption would be to stifle the ends that corruption money seeks to serve, i.e. the thriving use of financial resources by those who wish to stay in power. Various Government, Non-Governmental bodies and individuals have suggested proposals in this direction. However, considering the greed of those hungry for power, these proposals may meet the same fate as that of the Lokpal and the Women’s Reservation Bill. Three such proposals, however, ought to be highlighted.
Firstly,
an argument for state funded elections. In 1998, the Indrajit Gupta Committee on State Funding of Elections backed the idea of state funded elections stating that it saw “full justification, constitutional, legal as well as on grounds of public interest, for a grant of state subvention to political parties so as to establish such conditions where even the parties with the modest financial resources may be able to compete with those who have superior financial resources“. Such recommendations, in some form or the other, were later also approved by the Law Commission of India in 1999, National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution in 2001 and the Second Administrative Reforms Commission in 2008. In fact, Mr. Salman Khurshid, the Union Minister for Law and Justice, informed the Lok Sabha on Nov. 28, 2011 that a ‘Group of Ministers’(GOM) had been constituted by the central government to look into the introduction of state funding of elections. The Chairperson of the UPA, Smt. Sonia Gandhi also outlined such a proposal in her speeches.
Such proposals would involve the Election Commission or any other state body giving each party requisite funds to run day-to-day services and election campaigns in the country. Across the world, such measures were first introduced by West Germany in 1959 and today over 75 countries, including more than 90% of the European Union have provisions for state funded elections. The introduction of such measures may not have been extremely successful in these countries, but few would deny that, at the least, these measures enabled the respective election commissions to conduct proper audits as to the use of election money and better help in identifying the sources of black money used in election campaigns. According to the Election Commission in India, however, such a proposal may be futile, as to address the real issues, radical changes are required in the laws regarding receipts of funds by political parties and the manner in which they spend such funds.
Secondly, an argument for regulation and close monitoring of corporate financing of elections and political parties. Currently, the Companies Act, 1956 allows for companies to donate as much as 5% of their net profit to political parties. Such donations also enjoy tax exemptions. In order to ensure a degree of transparency in such funding, the Representation of People Act, 1951 states that political parties are required to submit details of contributions received in excess of Rs 20,000 from any individual, group or company. Nevertheless, by the admission of the Election Commission itself, such measures haven’t been adequate in addressing corporate corruption and financing of political parties. Despite the presence of strong corporate laws, Companies still manage to squeeze out crores in bribes. What is required are elaborate laws that can effectively monitor corporate donations, bribes and black money paid by corporates to political parties- unlawful actions that companies manage to undertake with ease under the current laws. It may be noted that the non-addressal of this issue was also used as a trump card by Mr. Sitaram Yechury of the CPI in the Rajya Sabha for preventing the passage of the Lokpal and Lok Ayuktas Bill, 2011.
It is also quite ironic that on the one side the ruling government has formed committees and vehemently argued for state funded elections, while on the other hand, in December 2011, the Government introduced the Companies Bill, 2011, which in one of its provisions has suggests increasing corporate funding to political parties from 5% to 7.5% of the net profit earned by a company.
The third proposal would involve the maintenance of accounts by the candidate and the political party. Currently, the spending limits by a candidate include Rs 40 lakh for campaigning for a Lok Sabha seat and Rs 16 lakh for a state election. However, the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, 2001 noted that “the campaign expenditure by candidates is in the range of about 20 to 30 times the legal limits”.The flaw in the current law is that while under Section 77 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951, a candidate is to maintain a correct account of all expenditures relating to the election, the explanation to the section excludes the expenditure incurred by his/her political party on this account. Thus, candidates contesting elections are easily able to show that they are within the prescribed limit while the political party has incurred massive expenditures for the same purpose.
Inclusion of expenditures by political parties under the Act would not by itself be enough. The Chief Election Commissioner, Dr. SY Qureshi, in a televised interview, stated that the problem faced under the current law is the lack of permanent auditing agencies to scrutinize the accounts filed by candidates. Placing political parties under the ambit of the law would require even greater numbers of administrative personnel to monitor and audit the accounts.
It is not that each of the above proposals are mutually exclusive of each other. Reforms to tackle corruption related to electoral funding would require thorough deliberation of each of the proposals and the extent to which they may be applicable in the Indian socio-political system. These reforms will have to come from the legislative branch of Government- the same people the law will be applicable to. Given the current milieu with the Lokpal, however, electoral reforms on the part of the legislature seem a distant reality. This leaves a great void, and one which a proactive judiciary will have to fill in. It was the effort of the Supreme Court and the Election Commission in 2003 that led to candidates declaring their assets and criminal backgrounds. A further fillip to checking electoral corruption has come in the form of the Supreme Court recently asking the Centre as to why persons charge sheeted as per law should not be barred from contesting elections.
That said, 2012 will witness the Election Commission organizing elections in five states in the country. Despite the current powers and limitations of the Commission, these elections would see a massive deployment of resources. Income tax officers will be monitoring expenditures by candidates with each candidate being asked to open separate bank accounts for election expenses. With the legislature not doing anything to improve the situation at present, perhaps the Court would again step-in to introduce reforms.
to be a parliamentarian these days is enough of an insult in itself. Gone are the days when literarians, scholars, educationists, eminent lawyers, social workers dignified the occupancy in the temple of democracy. Today the temple has been seized by criminals, goondas, law breakers, rapists, dacoits and looters of national wealth. It is not BABA, ANNA or KEJRIWAL who say this but it is every common man in this country who says so........ If they have the courage and the might why do not they bring in a privilege motion against every common man in this country ?
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