M A I N   N E W S

RV advocates two-party system, suggests control on poll expenses
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 6 — Mr R Venkataraman, a former President, today advocated for a two-party system, making compulsory voting for the state and union lower houses besides stressing the need for a free, fair and equitable poll failing which, he cautioned, the democratic system would collapse.

He was speaking on “Electoral reforms” at the 119th anniversary celebrations of The Tribune here.

Eminent citizens, jurists, bureaucrats, technocrats, academicians and intellectuals attended the function. Mr R.S. Talwar, a Trustee of The Tribune Trust, presided over the function in the absence of Mr B.K. Nehru, who is indisposed.

Mr Venkataraman held that if the present Constitution had to function satisfactorily, then a two-party system had to be adopted either by statute or by an amendment to the Constitution.

“I shall proceed to unfold the modus operandi for achieving a bipolar parliament for India. It may be prescribed statutorily that all political parties which secure less than 10 % of the votes cast in the next general election to the Lok Sabha shall be derecognised by the Election Commission. Thereafter the parties which get the lowest number of votes in every succeeding general election shall be derecognised until the number of recognised parties is reduced to two.

Thus a two party system can be achieved in the course of two or three general elections. The scheme is not violative of the Fundamental Freedom of the Association as the right to formation of political parties or groups is not taken away from the citizens,” he said cautioning that “it may not ensure the stability of the government.

“It is still possible for a chunk of ruling party members to defeat the government by defecting to the Opposition. It is a routine feature of our polity. This may be deterred by a more stringent anti-defection law.”

Mr Venkataraman also suggested a Political parties registration and regulation Act for a regulatory check on them, so that the political parties are under a statutory obligation to file a return of income tax in respect of each assessment year in accordance with the provisions of the Income Tax Act.

Suggesting various controls on poll expenses, Mr Venkataraman said the corporate funding of political parties should be regulated by the Company Law. Such funding should be separately approved by the shareholders at an annual general meeting. Besides, no funds should be provided to any party that has been derecognised by the Election Commission.

Opposing state funding of candidates and parties, he felt that the ground reality in the country was that such funding would only serve to augment the resources of the affluent candidates.

With a view to preventing criminals and bad characters from entering the legislatures, he wants that it may be made obligatory for every candidate to disclose his assets and liabilities in an affidavit.

Advocating that the Election Commission should be independent, he wants that the appointments to the commission should be made by the President on the recommendation of a panel nominated by the union government of three members consisting of the Chief Justice of India, a senior retired civil servant and an elder statesman with experience of facing elections. The commission should have the exclusive jurisdiction over the registration, regulation, recognition, derecognition, disciplinary action and on such other matters entrusted to it in respect of all political parties and the conduct of all stages of elections.

Most of the electoral reforms would be unnecessary if the voters shun the criminal, the corrupt, the political grasshopper, or would not be deceived by false promises of free food, clothing, free electricity, and so on but realise that they were electing a government for themselves and not exercising a patronage in favour of their kith and kin, their neighbour or members of their caste or religious fraternity,” he said, maintaining that a mature electorate was the only guarantee for a real democracy.

The “electoral reforms”, Mr Venkataraman said: “are of utmost importance to our governance as there has been widespread discussion on the subject and that the Law Commission has submitted a very valuable report on it. But there is no consensus so far on many issues.

“Dictators have always been returned with an overwhelming majority of fake votes until they were thrown out by popular agitation. Likewise an electoral system which enables a person getting a minority of the votes cast to be elected a representative of the constituency, cannot be accepted as a democratic process. Nor can a House constituted by minority of votes polled in the general election be called representative of the country.,” he said.

“An analysis of elections to the Lok Sabha from 1952 shows that at no time did our Lok Sabha or the union government represented the majority of votes cast at a general election. In the election of the first Lok Sabha, the Congress party secured 364 seats with 44.9 % of the votes cast. When Rajiv Gandhi secured a massive 415 seats in the Lok Sabha in 1984, the Congress polled 48.1 % of the votes cast. When the Janata party won 297 seats in the Lok Sabha in 1977, it polled 43 % of the votes polled. Thus the nation has been ruled during the entire period of 50 years since the inauguration of the Republic by a government which secured a minority of votes cast. Such an aberration does not occur in a two-party system where one or the other party necessarily wins a majority.

“To remedy the hiatus between the votes polled and the seats secured,” the former Presient said: “The Law Commission has suggested adoption of the German electoral system which provides for 50 per cent seats to be filled by territorial constituencies and the other half by proportional representation according to the votes polled in the general election.

The commission has suggested that the Lok Sabha be enlarged by 25 % of its present strength and 25% be filled by proportional representation according to votes polled. Apart from the scheme being too complicated, I am not sure that 25% seats filled by proportional representation will correct the distortion caused by 75 per cent of seats elected on the principle of first past the post. Secondly, a person chosen from the list by proportional representation may be undesirable, criminal or corrupt. The citizen has no right or opportunity to vote him down.”

Mr Venkataraman maintained that a vote was the symbol of the political affinity of the citizen and “it is not a chattel to be transferred with or without its consent,” he said while talking about transfer of votes as suggested by the Law Commission.

Not agreeing with yet another suggestion of the commission that non-party candidates should be debarred from contesting elections, Mr Venkataraman said that this would be violative of the Fundamental Rights of the citizen.

“In any event it will have absolutely no support from any political party or the people. I am not aware of the frivolous candidates cluttering up the ballot paper and causing confusion to the voters. I had earlier suggested that in order to meet the situation it may be provided that the minimum votes for saving deposit be raised to 20 per cent of the votes polled and the candidate who forfeits deposit in an election to the legislature of the Centre and the states be debarred from seeking election to any statutory body from the panchayat to the President for a period of six years.

“The elaborate recommendations of the Law Commission based on German model appear to me to be unnecessary. For over a decade I have been suggesting that in order to ensure that the member represents the majority in a constituency, we may adopt the system of a second vote,” he said holding that the “second vote is like a repoll in certain constituencies in the same polling booths with the same original set-up with no revision of electoral rolls and no fresh nominations it should not cause a delay of more than a week.

Secondly though initially i.e. till the candidates understand the system there may be a large number of constituencies where there may be a second vote, this will correct itself as the candidates will soon realise that they can no longer get elected with a minority vote,” he said agreeing that the second vote would cause extra expenditure as there could be no bargain between democracy and a cheaper form of government.

Mr R.S. Talwar in his presidential address that The Tribune had always been and continues to be judicious besides being sensitive to injustices. Talking about the challenges the institution had faced in the past and the new challenges ahead, Mr Talwar said: “We will modernise ourselves through technology and mature with experience.”

The Tribune publications were deeply concerned about tackling the people’s problems speedily, apart from ensuring the quality of governance for just and fair order , remarked Mr Hari Jaisingh, Editor of The Tribune.

“There is something seriously wrong in the work-culture and the atmosphere we have created. More than the much-talked of the socio-economic reforms, we need to create a conducive atmosphere so that the talented persons can flourish without being caught in red tapism. I personally feel that this is the biggest challenge facing the nation.

“We in The Tribune have been voicing concern about the system and its functioning from the grassroots upwards with a view to educating the people and helping the persons at the helm to generate the right atmosphere to make this country efficient, competitive and dynamic. We are a people’s paper and we act as a watch dog of the people’s and the national interests,” Mr Hari Jaisingh said.

Earlier in his address of welcome, Mr S.D. Bhambri, General Manager, The Tribune, not only traced the history of the institution but also maintained that The Tribune publications were not only readable but were read everyday.

Later a cake was cut to celebrate 120th birthday of the institution.