Prime
Minister Mr. Narendra Modi recently suggested that elections to the Lok Sabha,
Vidhan Sabha and local bodies should be held simultaneously has brought to
centre stage an issue that has been raised intermittently, for years. Leaders
of several parties also raised the issue, leading to a Parliament committee
examining it.
Why the issue has resurfaced again?
The reasons that
have prompted the proposal are
·
Frequent
elections bring to a standstill normal functioning of the government and life
of the citizens and bring a heavy recurring cost.
ü It is true that normal work comes to a standstill to a
considerable extent.
ü Typically, elections to the Lok Sabha are spread over
two and a half months.
ü As soon as the Election Commission announces the poll
dates, the model code of conduct (MCC) comes into operation.
ü This means that the government cannot announce any new
schemes, make any new appointments, transfers or postings without EC approval.
ü Ministers get busy in the election campaign, the
district administration machinery gets totally focused on elections.
·
The cost of election,
which is a major issue
ü The costs of election have gone up enormously.
ü It has two components, the cost of management to the
EC/ government. And the cost to candidates and political parties.
ü Though there are no exact estimates, one guesstimate
puts it at Rs 4,500 crore.
ü The bigger problem is the havoc played by the money
power of political parties and contestants.
ü Though the law prescribes a ceiling on the expenditure
of candidates, the fact is that it is violated with impunity.
·
Another
consequence of frequent elections is the aggravation of vices like communalism,
casteism, corruption (vote-buying and fund-raising) and crony capitalism. If
the country is perpetually in election mode, there is no respite from these
evils.
Is there any benefit from frequent elections?
Frequent
elections have some benefits too:
·
Politicians, who
tend to forget voters after the elections for five years have to return to
them. This enhances accountability, keeps them on their toes.
·
Elections give a
boost to the economy at the grassroots level, creating work opportunities for
lakhs of people.
·
There are some
environmental benefits also that flow out of the rigorous enforcement of public
discipline like non-defacement of private and public property, noise and air
pollution, ban on plastics, etc.
An issue that needs attention if the elections are
held simultaneously:
Voting for the
same party:
·
It is a widely
held belief among political observers and politicians that the Indian voter is
astute and distinguishes between voting for her State government vis-a-vis the
national government.
·
As with most such
electoral narratives, this too is devoid of any evidence.
·
The analysis
shows that on average, there is a 77 per cent chance that the Indian voter will
vote for the same party for both the State and Centre when elections are held
simultaneously.
·
This trend of
choosing the same party has gone from 68 per cent in 1999 to 77 per cent in
2004 to 76 per cent in 2009 and 86 per cent in 2014.
Contrary to the popular notion that the average
voter is acutely discerning of the difference between voting for her State
representative and national, there is very little actual evidence of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment