Reforms in the political process that will make the ‘desirable’ people also ‘electable’ will help clean up the system and improve governance, felt Jayaprakash Narayan, Founder-President, Lok Satta Party.
The first-past-the-post approach to electing the legislators has brought to centre-stage money power and fringe issues as just a few percentage of votes become a decisive factor in coming to power. “The good are marginalised in politics” and the “best and brightest individuals are unelectable” in this system that fosters corruption. One option to counter this issue is proportional representation to the legislature, he felt.
At a lecture on electoral reforms and money power in electoral politics and campaign spending organised by The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, he said money power in elections may not guarantee victory but lack of it ‘ensures defeat.’
Legislators spend up to Rs 2-5 crore for an Assembly Constituency and up to Rs 10 crore for a Parliamentary Constituency in leading states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Money power and ‘reckless populism’ to stay in power are happening at the cost of nation building. Proportional representation will encourage people to “vote for what is right rather than what is might,” he said.
N. Ravi, Member of the Board of Management of The Hindu Centre, said in his introductory remarks that there has been an alarming rise in the influence of money on elections. It gives rise to the question, “if it is at all possible to fight elections innocently – that is, staying within the four corners of the law.”
(This article was published on August 25, 2013)
Source : The Hindu Business Line, CHENNAI, August 25, 2013.
[https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/politics/people-should-be-able-to-vote-for-what-is-right-not-might/article5058413.ece].
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