Shiban Khaibri
Not only the speedy economic reforms but prospective political reforms in our country are gaining much ascendency due to various pressing reasons. In fact, most of the politicians, with many exceptions of course, are fixated on elections and votes which have virtually become the be all and the end all of all the political activities which could also be called by them as “Jan Sewa” in disguised form, if not in the absolute literary parlance as nom -de – plume. For achieving any progress and development in any field, it is a prerequisite to strive for some measure of departure from obsolete conventions and procedures. Opposing such pragmatic approach is tantamount to believing in and practicing dormancy. Unfortunately in our country, critically appraising, we have been grossly misinterpreting democracy as pursuing unbridled spree of opposing, most of the time dictated by narrow and short term political gains. A leader of conviction in a country, believing in taking risks associated with treading a new, modern, scientific and much required path in the larger interests of the country, must brave all humps and barriers of unhealthy opposition to bid adieu to worn out conventions. Prime Minister Narindra Modi has floated the idea of holding elections to the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies simultaneously and has listed out various grounds for and gains from such an idea. In democracy, debates, discussions and suggestions must aim at clearing doubts and apprehensions with intent to bring about changes, economic, political and social; holding simultaneous elections, therefore, cannot be an exception.
It is not very recently that the idea under reference was floated by the PM but a few months back, he convincingly argued that very frequent elections in the country effected the functioning of the bureaucracy. Ex- President Pranab Mukherjee also known as a soft but positive “hard liner” in politics when he was active, had fully supported the view and had desired to seek the views of the citizens, Members of Parliament, members of Legislative assemblies and councils, constitutional and academic experts and all other interested people on the sensitive but an important issue. Simultaneous polls, it is firmly believed, was going to provide sufficient time to incumbent governments to formulate policies and design programmes for the welfare of the people, for developmental activities continuously for a longer time without interruptions, without diversion of precious attention to cycle of elections and without moral code of conduct coming in the way towards a continuous process of administrative and governmental obligations towards the people.
Let the idea mooted be analyzed on cost factor. It is a fact to be seen also in the perspective of the expenses incurred. For example, in 2014 general elections the cost incurred was as much as three times more compared to the year 2009. The politicians of our country are expected to spend around Rs.100 crore, only on their campaigns in 2019 elections reckoning on the trends of the 2014 elections, making the exercise most expensive next to the US Presidential elections. Add to it the cost of EVMs, deputing nearly a crore of employees including teachers on polling booths. During that period, the education system, in particular, gets affected in a major way. A huge number of our security forces too have got to be involved in the electoral process in the shape of proving security, maintaining law and order while their requirement in other sensitive areas critical for internal and external security of the country comes under strain. Then, again the Cost of their mobility and deputing too is phenomenal. Other ancillary expenses like on printing – advertisements- cost of hiring aircraft and air tickets etc too are to be taken into account. It is to be believed, as per reports, that in 2014 general elections the cost of air travel and hiring of aircraft by two star campaigners of two political parties just for 15 days for an average of 8 hours amounted to a whooping Rs. 64 crore. The total cost involving each component of the process and listing out detailed item wise expenses is beyond the scope of these lines. The fact needs, however, to be reiterated that the same stands expectedly at unimaginable levels which though this country somehow can afford but only at the cost of other more important developmental measures. Holding simultaneous elections could provide enough scope for its avoidance to the extent of getting it reduced significantly. However, one time investment is needed to upgrade the electronic voting system and ancillary mechanism by the Election Commission.
Let it be now analyzed as to how it could be made feasible and workable as well. The Election Commission needs to be given sufficiently reasonable time to make necessary arrangements. An estimated 84 lac EVMs including Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines need to be readied for the elections. Two sets of such machines are required, one for the Lok Sabha and the other for the Assembly polls. We being a “vibrant” democracy, it is imperative that all “stake holders” mainly political parties are brought on board. A broader consensus has got to be evolved to bring about required amendments in the constitution and changes in the Representation of the Peoples Act. Since an apparent declension in the level of politicking in the country is unfortunately seen which shows no signs of recovery for some quality improvement, the idea is unlikely to have a smooth sail. We have been shockingly observing it over the last few years in our country. The fate of Land Acquisition Bill, the much desired economic reform like demonetization, the Goods and Services Tax regime, linking of Aadhar card with various financial entities, all are leading to a sort of bewilderment as to whether opposing almost every move and very often dragging some, up to the judiciary aimed at grounds other than genuine for opposing . Even social reforms like the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017 or The Tripple Talaq Bill as it is popularly called, was stalled in the Rajya Sabha by Congress led opposition.
It is not that the idea is not without certain drawbacks of affordable nature but the same are of short term duration. They could be improved upon or successfully resolved by political parties in an atmosphere of mutual trust and healthy refined political debates without any scope to aim at its aborting ab initio. It is high time our Law makers felt that people were, day in and day out, getting sick of political maneuverings and playing caste, region and language politics by most of the politicians. People wanted less of too many intermittent elections, less of red-tape(ism), less of obsolete laws and procedures but instead wanted economic development; better health , education, housing, infrastructural facilities, employment and improved standard of living. The less privileged and marginalized sections had more expectations, hence just like demonetization, even though bringing in its wake certain short term pains, generally welcomed the decision, they would equally have the same approach towards holding of simultaneous polls in the country so that both politicians as well as the voters get a respite of full five years in between two elections.
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