1. All political parties give tickets to candidates having criminal backgrounds, despite all of them highlighting good and corruption-free governance in their election manifestos. The irony is that the top leadership of almost all political parties may intend to deliver at least some semblance of good governance, if only to not alienate their target electorate and so be able to win the next elections. However, the criminal candidates do not care about alienating the electorate, as after every election, they freely switch to the winning party. Due to the vagaries of the India political system where elections are being continually held in some part of the country or the other, the top leaders of the political parties need enormous amounts of unaccounted money and muscle power to contest elections. So, even if they want, they are unable to shake off the wantonly criminal elements in their respective parties. So, in a way, the criminal candidates among the political parties exploit their top leadership. Unfortunately, this is how the Indian political system has been criminalized.
2.United States of America attained independence in July, 1776; but American women were given voting rights bin 1920. The power od the monarch in Britain started getting controlled since Magna Carta in 1215; this was the beginning of democratic movements in Britain; but the British women were given conditional voting rights in 1918; the conditions included minimum value of property holding and minimum educational qualification. The British women achieved unconditional voting rights in 1928.
3.India attained independence in August 1947; but the Indian women were given unconditional voting rights from the beginning.
4.State funding of elections may not be there in any country; but that does not mean India can’t set precedence in this respect. State funding of elections will reduce the level of corruption in India and help her to develop at a faster rate.
Decriminalization of Politics:
5.In India we follow the British parliamentary system of governance. No political party in Britain gives tickets to candidates having criminal backgrounds. But in India, all political parties give tickets to candidates having criminal antecedents; this practice must stop immediately.
Expenses in 2019 Lok Sabha Elections:
6.The maximum election expense to be incurred by a candidate as set by the Election Commission of India was Rs.75 Lakhs. I understand that the winning candidate in a rural constituency spent around Rs. 4 Crores; the expenses incurred by the winning candidates in urban and semi urban constituencies must have been much higher. This fact must be known to all the concerned authorities.
But, on the hindsight, our honourable MPs are forced to submit unreal expenditure expenses to confirm to the maximum expenditure limits. Why is this hypocrisy? Our honourable MPs will be forced to recoup these huge staggering expenses by other means. This silly system forces our honourable MPs to start their innings by adopting un-straightforward means.
I do not have any intention to malign our honourable MPs. If our honourable MPs and others feel hurt, I apologise to them.
State funding of elections will stop this bad practice and cleanse our political system and lead to the further development of Bharat.
Author: Sib Kumar Adhikari, B-14/174, Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal-741235. Mob - +91-9477472629.
