If Wishes were Horses

 

Now that there seems a sliver of a chance to reclaim our democracy, here’s my wish list to build it back better. 

1.     The sine qua non for democracy is a free and fair election which gives a level-playing field to all contestants so it has to start with the Election Commission of India (ECI). The latest Act for the appointment of the election commissioners should be scrapped. The earlier Supreme Court (SC) mandated selection structure with Chief Justice of the Supreme Court as member should not only be brought back but should be designated as part of the “basic structure of the Constitution.” The Chief Election Commissioner should enjoy the status and privileges of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

2.     The election should be believable by the opposition. Towards that end, the EVM related issues must be sorted out. VVPATs should be machine-read for all the polling stations and tallied with the EVM results.

3.     Election expenditure limits for the candidates are ridiculous at present. They should be fixed at a more reasonable level. On the other hand, there is no limit on the expenditure of the political party on elections. These limits should also be prescribed on a per candidate basis.

4.     All fundings for parties and elections including corporate funding should be completely transparent. The donor, the receiver and the actual beneficial ownership of the donation should be published on the ECI website.

5.     Total number of votes polled should be published on the ECI website within 48 hours of the scheduled close of polling hours of each phase. ECI should aim to hold the polls for each state on one single date to begin with, and for the entire country eventually.

6.     Democracy doesn’t merely consist of polls once in five years. It needs to be nurtured and health-checked every single day. Towards this, strength of the institutions and conventions are critical. Let’s start with the Parliament. We should borrow some of the good (great!) things of the Westminster conventions – Weekly Prime Minister’s Question hour with minimum six questions granted to the leader of the opposition, Ministerial code whereby lying in the Parliament means sacking), Conscience voting, announcement of major policy first on the floor of the House when in session and, ideally, shadow ministers by the opposition party/ coalition.

7.     To avoid railroading of the minorities and the marginalised, it is necessary that these sections have an effective representation and say in the Parliament. There are many ways of ensuring it.

8.     Once a person is elected as a speaker, (s)he should cease to have any party affiliation or to cast vote in the case of a tie. There should be no party whip for election of speaker – it should be a ‘conscience vote.’ Ideally, the speaker should be a retired justice of the Supreme Court without any political affiliation and after a two-year cooling-off period after retirement. Parliament is a forum of accountability and belongs to the opposition – the opposition should get 2/3^rd of the discussion time. No bill should be passed by voice vote.

9.     The single largest opposition party, regardless of its numbers, should nominate the leader of the opposition.

10.  Every member of Parliament must attend at least 50 % of each session failing which (s)he must forfeit her/his membership.

11.  All far-reaching legislations must go through deliberations of the Parliamentary committees. The remit of the Parliamentary Committees should be specific and defined.

12.  Now, let us come to the executive. No one should be Prime Minister for more than five years, overall, whether it’s a full term or a combination of truncated terms. Only a member of Lok Sabha should be able to become a Minister or Prime Minister – that will accord legitimacy to these offices. There should be deliberative, consultative process of decision-taking. At the minimum, all major decisions should be by the cabinet. Anything with far-reaching consequences must be widely examined through parliamentary committees and inviting comments from the public. Decision making will be a little slower in the process but it will avoid disasters like demonetisation, sudden lockdown, the now-repealed farm laws and so on.

13.  In the United Kingdom, the Civil Service enjoys serious credibility. That is because they are able to function without fear or favour. For example, when the opposition was sniping away at Boris Johnson, he appointed a civil servant, Sue Gray to enquire and everybody went quiet until the Sue Gray report. The civil servants there have recourse to a grievance redressal mechanism which ensures against unlawful transfer or termination. In India, we do not have that. We should aim for a system where the civil service should act as the first bulwark against authoritarian whimsicality. The Police needs to be independent of the political executive. Already, there is a Supreme Court order to achieve this but the politicians have found creative ways to subvert it so far. This refers to my blog: 

https://b-b-dash.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-caged-parrot.html 

14.  The appointment of the higher executive makes a difference towards the independence and integrity of the civil services. The former system of Appointments Committee of the Cabinet should be restored – currently, it is just a PMO letter box. [Earlier, all appointments of Joint Secretary and above were with the approval of the Cabinet Secretary, the concerned Minister, two seniormost Ministers and the Prime Minister.]

15.  Chief of Army Staff, Judges, Police, Comptroller & Auditor General, UPSC members and so on should be completely outside political appointment/ manipulation.

16.  The offices of Governors have come under a cloud many times, under many governments. Qualification for Governors should be prescribed. Governors should be from a panel which should be arrived at through the deliberations of a broad-based Committee. Knowledge of law should be an essential pre-requisite for the post. Once a Governor is appointed, he should continue for five years and his term should not be co-terminus with that of the Central government.

17.  The final custodians of democracy are the Courts. Judicial appointments should be ring-fenced against political overreach. The deliberations of the collegium should be made open and mandatory in a time-bound manner. Delay in judicial determinations is misused to hound officials and political rivals. So much so that the process becomes the punishment. Adjournment of hearing should be the rare exception rather than the norm as of now. I also find that when the witnesses land up, sometimes travelling great distances, the hearing is adjourned just because the concerned judge happens to be on leave on that day. Hearing, recording of evidence, etc. should be carried out by whichever judge is standing in for the day. Then, there is the matter of long vacations of the Courts. Vacation benches/ judges rarely pronounce substantive orders. It has been seen that sometimes executive actions, legislative skullduggery and even ordinances are timed to coincide with these vacations. These should be judicially dealt with with a heavy hand and promptly.

18.  The media, both national and regional, are in a bad shape. That is because the media houses are critically dependent on governments for advertisements, newsprint, etc. and also there have been unsavoury prosecutions and arrests. India must develop a system of penalty for wrongful arrest, to be recovered from the person effecting the arrest. There are many advertisements and packaging which are ostensibly by the government but, in reality, for promoting particular political leaders. All these must stop. Photographs of political leaders in offices should also be banned. Media should have a possibility of crowdfunding by putting a ceiling on such donations but making the donations tax-exempt.

19.  India has enough ability and resources to thrive on its own. What is required is stability and predictability rather than the governments interfering in too many things and actually encouraging regulatory capture. So, the golden principle should be, “If it ain't broke, don't fix it.” 

Can we as ordinary citizens do anything regarding the above? Well, just one YouTuber with courage of conviction and at great risk to himself made a substantial difference in the last election ...