Citizens’ power must become the fifth pillar of Indian Constitution to ensure cleansing of the electoral process, said financial expert, Ajit Ranade.
Citizens’ power must become the fifth pillar of Indian Constitution to ensure cleansing of the electoral process, said financial expert, Ajit Ranade. He was speaking at the ongoing Vasant Vyakhanmala in the city on Friday on ‘Electoral reforms and strengthening of Indian democracy.’
“There are no laws governing the working of political parties. The Constitution does not even mention the word political party,” he said, making a strong case for urgent changes in the electoral process.
Narrating the events in 1999, which made it compulsory for election candidates to declare their assets, Ranade said, “It was made possible due to the initiative of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). ADR was an NGO formed by like-minded individuals, who wanted to stop the criminalisation of politics.”
“In our deliberation, we found that there was no compulsion on candidates to declare their assets, or court cases pending against them. We filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Delhi high court against the election commissioner to make it compulsory for candidates to file an affidavit. The affidavit should declare the candidates’ assets, their dependants, criminal cases against them and their educational qualification. The high court gave a verdict in our favour,” he said.
The verdict was challenged by the then National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre in the Supreme Court. The court upheld the verdict, which promoted the government to draft an ordinance quashing the verdict. Hectic lobbying with the then president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam prevented the ordinance from being signed at first. This prompted the government to re-send the ordinance and get it signed by the president, Ranade said.
“But the intense public pressure prevented the government from converting the ordinance into a law. Thus, since 2002, it has become compulsory for every candidate to submit an affidavit declaring their assets,” he said.
The political parties getting income tax benefits was also an invitation for the birth of plethora of political parties to be formed, the financial expert added. “The present-day system of majority is flawed as it only gives rise to fractionalisation of the electorate. To rectify this lacuna, the winning candidate must get 50% of the total votes polled in the election,” he said. There should be stringent laws in regulating the working of political
parties, he added.
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