A half-baked electoral reform

 

A half-baked electoral reform

The Indian Parliamentary democracy is getting a serious thrashing under the present regime.  The manner in which the Bills are introduced and rushed through using the brute majority in Parliament, and without scrutiny by the Parliamentary Standing Committees, and not accommodating the opposition points of view, is a matter of grave concern. The Winter Session of Parliament, started on November 29, with abruptly repealing the farm laws without any discussion and debate, and then suspending 12 opposition members of Rajya Sabha, on the very first day, for alleged misconduct in the previous monsoon session, has ended, on the morning of December 22, without transacting any business-a day ahead of schedule- in the midst of an uproar by the opposition.  It is a mockery of Parliamentary democracy.

 

Some 11 Bills were passed without scrutiny and discussion in the Winter session. It looks the Speaker and the Chairman of Lok Sabha   and Rajya Sabha are either under pressure from the treasury benches or not competent enough to conduct the proceedings independently and impartially in a non-partisan manner.  The Sessions of both the Houses were adjourned sine die.  This is the fifth time in a row when a Parliament session was adjourned sine die ahead of schedule.  The first one was the 2020 budget session that was wrapped up 13 days ahead of schedule. The winter session of 2020 and this year’s budget as well as monsoon sessions also faced early closure. This has become a pattern to silence the voice of the opposition in the temple of democracy. It also amply demonstrates the failure of the Presiding Officers to conduct the proceedings.  It is ridiculous to expect the opposition to accept the diktats of the treasury benches. In a Parliamentary democracy, it is the duty of the Presiding Officers and the treasury benches to manage the disruption, as the opposition has a legitimate role to raise the people’s issues and criticise the government for its various acts of commission and omission.  

 

There is some truth in what the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, said: “The government hatched a conspiracy. They wanted to pass all bills and avoid facing crucial issues of national importance, be it inflation, unemployment, GDP slide, farmers’ protest, Lakhimpur Kheri, resignation of Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra...their intention was to let the House remain disrupted, so that they don’t ‘need to answer question on these issues.”  The opposition has 120 members in Rajya Sabha, as against the NDA membership of 118. The government didn’t have the numbers and by suspending 12 opposition members in the Upper House for the entire session- an unprecedented move-by flouting all the established procedures, the government managed to ‘manufacture a majority’ in the House.

 

The Election Laws (Amendment)Bill, 2021, linking the electoral rolls to Aadhar, was passed by the Parliament by a voice vote in a great haste, in a matter of moment. Members of the Parliament were not given copies of the Bill and enough time to study and understand the implications of the Bill. The Bill was not even part of the government's legislative agenda that it announced at the beginning of the winter session. It suddenly introduced the Bill in Lok Sabha on December 20, got it passed, and then in Rajya Sabha the next day and got it passed in the din. It is disgraceful that such an important amendment to election laws was passed amidst unruly scene, disruption and walkout by the opposition. The Bill should have been  referred  to a Standing Committee for scrutiny. It is imperative to discuss, debate and examine in detail every important legislation and ensure that all points of view are considered before a Bill is passed and becomes a law. The objectives of the Bill, as explained by the government, is to help identify duplicate voters, purge the electoral rolls of multiple enrolments, and help put an end to the practice of fraudulent voting.

 

The Bill is ill-conceived.  It is not likely to achieve its objectives. First, Aadhar is not a citizenship proof, but only a digital identity for residents. Any person with a residence of 180 days is eligible for Aadhaar, whereas citizenship requires residence for a certain number of years, depending on the nature of citizenship- birth, descent, registration, and naturalization. So, there is a possibility of non-citizens becoming citizens and vice versa.  Second, Aadhar is meant to be an identity proof, and not an address proof. Further, the enrolment processes for voters list and Aadhaar are totally different, voters enrolment involving physical verification by house visits by enumerators appointed by registration officers. The burden of proof is reversed. Instead of the government ensuring registration on electoral rolls through house-to-house verification to achieve universal adult franchise, the burden now shifts to individuals who may be unable or unwilling to link their Aadhaar cards to justify retention of their names in electoral rolls, leading to disenfranchisement of legitimate voters.

 

Finally, demographic details likely to result in political profiling of voters. By linking voter ID cards with Aadhaar numbers, it is much easier for the government to track which voters have accessed welfare subsidies and benefits using their Aadhaar. This can be used by political parties to selectively target specific voters, using information that is not in public domain. In many states, the Aadhaar cards outnumber the voters ID cards. Since the Election Commission has no control on enrolment or duplication of Aadhar cards, linking them to voter ID cards may enable the government to have a direct method of influencing and manipulating voters.

 

The attempt to create a common electoral roll for elections to Lok Sabha, state Legislatures, Municipal and Panchayat Institutions, through the present amendment to the Representation of People Act.,1951, is a half-baked electoral reform. Electoral Reforms with regard to misusing of government machinery; invoking religion and religious symbols to polarize people for electoral gain; carrying massive publicity blitz ,through print and electronic media; making government events as instruments of political propaganda on the eve of elections; preventing misuse of central agencies- ED,CBI, IT,NIA etc.- to conduct raids against opposition leaders and critics, just prior to elections; and  ensuring political neutrality and impartiality of  bureaucracy … these are more serious issues requiring immediate reforms to cleanse the electoral process from the stranglehold of  money and muscle power, and subverted by  corrupt and unethical practices.  

It is important to eliminate the menace of paid news. As per the Law Commission of India Report on Electoral Reforms, March 2015, "the paid news ,both generally and during election campaigns, is a widespread and pervasive phenomenon...it is  a fact that news driven by consideration or advertisements thinly disguised in the form of news, have grown exponentially in the arena of electoral politics."  A free and fair election is the cornerstone of a democracy. While free elections are determined by the absence of intimidation and coercion, a functioning secret ballot, and an enforceable right of universal adult suffrage, democracies the world over have recognized that fairness requires a level playing field, that is mitigating the influence of money in corrupting the electoral process.

As the former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi says, “The time has come for the government to consider the 40 -plus pending proposals, instead of selectively going for politically motivated reforms…”