S.Y. Quraishi, who took charge as the 17th Chief Election Commissioner of India has said that due priority, will be given to enhancing voter participation and restricting the role of money power. It was about time that the Election Commission of India stepped in to help in the process of cleansing our muddied election process. The new CEC should give all his personal attention to ensure that checks and controls are strengthened so as to revamp the system. As publicly stated the ECI should keep its word and come out with the proposed guidelines to tighten procedures over role of money in polls and also on deregistration of political parties. On the mushrooming of political parties, according to the ECI at present there are about 1100 odd parties out of which seven are national parties and 40 are regional parties. More than half from among the registered parties therefore appear to have doubtful credentials. This is another area which needs proper regulation and some strict guidelines. Then the other equally worrying problem that has emerged is on the so called ‘paid news’ syndrome. In a bid to check the phenomenon of paid news, the Press Council of India has recommended among other things, amendment to election laws and to declare any payment for publication of news as a corrupt practice since this undermines free and fair elections. The Press Council has asked the Election Commission of India to set up a special cell to receive complaints about ‘paid news’ and initiate a process through which expeditious action could be taken on the basis of such complaints. All these points will require the ECI to take the necessary follow-up measures without keeping them in the backburner.
It is a fact that despite speaking about it in seminars or public forums the so called electoral reform process has been stalled. Even the political parties make tall assurances on this issue but they are unable to come to any firm decision on introducing these reforms, vital to the cleansing of our politics. It is public knowledge that black money and muscle power plays a big role in elections. No headway has been made on this score simply because politicians and the political parties they represent just cannot do away with the source (money & muscle power) of strength that propels them to power in the first place. The ECI should push the government of the day to expedite the reform process. The problem is that there are too many powerful interests who stand to gain in the status-quo and therefore reforms will become a theme only in the run up to elections. Knowing fully well that any reform cannot be pushed through in such short period of time (at the dawn of an election) at the end of the day talking about such reforms is merely a public relation exercise for politicians. If enough time is invested on the issue and similar interest generated by the concerned authorities, particularly the election commission and political parties, only then can there be a productive outcome towards taking real measures to reform the system. With the next General Election still some years away, this is the right time to start the discourse on poll reforms so that by the time the next elections come, at least some of the corrective measures would have been put into place. The need of the hour for politics in India is electoral reforms.
