The electoral system of India has flaws and there is an 'anti-democratic conspiracy of silence' to hide it, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Mr. Salman Khurshid said during a talk on 'Has the Indian Electoral System Failed?' organized by the ORF Mumbai chapter of Observer Research Foundation on January 24,
The electoral system of India has flaws and there is an 'anti-democratic conspiracy of silence' to hide it, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Mr. Salman Khurshid said during a talk on 'Has the Indian Electoral System Failed?' organized by the ORF Mumbai chapter of Observer Research Foundation on January 24, 2005.
Addressing a gathering of of academicians, serving officers of the Indian armed forces, mediapersons and students, Mr. Khurshid said the government had the power to stop an individual from using his car for campaigning, but can do nothing if political parties marshall trucks to 'hire' people in the name of mobilisation. Stressing the point on a lighter tone, he said, "On the day of the election all the licensed gun-holders will submit their weapons at the police stations. But what happens is that all the unlicensed guns get out on that day."
Elaborating on 'anti-democratic conspiracy of silence', he contended that the use of the technology in the electoral process was a ruse to hide the flaws in the system. He said the Electronic Voting Machines were thought of as a step forward in the election process as they did not recognise caste, religion or language but only the press of the button.
Asking why other countries like the US have not used EVMs if they were so good, he said that EVMs could not preserve the evidence of wrongdoing. He said that one could find out evidence of wrongdoing from ballot papers by seeing the way they are folded, shoved into box and so forth, but EVMs just register a number. Elaborating further on the superficial use of technology, he said that instead of voter identity cards people should be given smart cards, which should be compatible with the EVMs.
Saying that it had taken him three elections to understand how names are added and deleted from the voting list, Mr. Khurshid said any genuine voter whose name is deleted is akin to democracy negated.
Detailing his solution, Mr. Khurshid said, "The system I am proposing is working in 124 countries of the world; South Africa being the latest addition, as also in Germany. It will take us away from crime, money, caste, religion and regionalism. A truly integrated nationalised system, it is called the Proportional Representative System or the List System."
He said that each party in India could announce a list of 544 candidates, which is the strength of the Indian parliament. The respective parties, according to their importance and seniority, will order these candidates.
"Suppose if a party gets 30% votes then that much percentage of the candidates from the party's list get elected. Thus competition is not at an individual level and all candidates represent their party at the national level. It destroys the salesmanship of caste and religion," he added.
Concluding on a positive note, he said, "Cosmopolitan politics is the answer to India's democracy. This is not outlandish speculative proposal. Hundred and twenty-four countries are doing it. This will take care of all our present day election-ills."
Noted social commentator Mr. Asghar Ali Engineer and AGNI trustee Mr. Gerson Da Cunha also put forward their views.Both Mr. Engineer and Mr. Da Cunha agreed with Mr. Khurshid's idea. Mr. Engineer referred to the Gujarat riots and its use in the political arena to buttress his point that parties do not hesitate to use religion for electoral purposes. Mr. Da Cunha, while agreeing with Mr. Khurshid perspective, said that a list system could work only if each party genuinely followed the principles of democracy internally.
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