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Jenny - you said it right, it is time for some electoral reforms. May be the election commission or the Courts should take the lead - parliament will never do it.

Cant we have a law which will increase the time between the last day of filing nominations and election day to atleast 45 days. I don't see any drawback or disadvantage to any one if such a rule comes into effect - but the irony is no one wants to change the system.

A longer time frame will give the voters enough time to evaluate candidates and also gives candidates enough time to state their views and opinions and agendas.

But the most disheartening treads is that of the rise of caste/religion based voting patterns. If you observe with closely, caste seams to be becoming more and more prominent every passing election. Parties decide candidates on the basis of his caste and how much money he can spend. They dont seam to be bothered about the candidates social or educational credentials.

I dont know if we ever fought an election on the basis of issues after the 1981 election (the one after the emergency). No party seams to be talking of critical issues like - education (specifically - primary and secondary education), poverty (hunger, food scarcity, water scarcity) or agriculture development.

We as a nation have screwed up our priorities.

Jenny i look forward for your candidate profiles - hope u will also include their educational back grounds, past achievements and other relevant data.

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Firstly party-less elections sounds good in theory but may not be practicable.  Imagine 546 independents trying to pass a Bill.  Or the simple question of who will form the government.  What will majority in parliament mean?  The wise people might have thought of all the anwsers, but they elude me.  At the end of the day decisions have to be made on issues and parties being organizations with hierarchies and power structures get the job done.  My thoughts and not some noble truth.

Second, we have to recognize that politicians (like all of us) are driven largely by self interest.  Their goal is to get re-elected.  if development gets them re-elected, well and good.  If it is caste based division and polarization, then they will follow this path.  It is the job of the electorate to make sure that some of their interests overlap with their self interests.  And urban voters need to come out and vote to begin with.  A 55% turnout with booths pretty much within walking distance is simply unacceptable.

Third our participation in the democratic process ends with elections, when it really should be the beginning.  When I read blogs in the US, I read about people writing to their representatives and calling them about the bail-out, e,g,  Once we vote, we seem almost helpless to influence the course of things.  We just don't seem to have access to our MPs and MLAs.  Some system should have been put in place in the 50s itself where things like "town-hall" meetings, etc would happen on a regular basis.  Or am I being just too optimistic?

Ramesh Ramanathan has written a nice little piece called " Awakening and Relevance" and goes on to explain why the urban voter is still largely irrelevant inspite of the candlelight vigils, etc.  http://www.livemint.com/2008/12/17211451/Awakening-and-relevance.html 

I am not sure when we lost our way.

Srivathsa

 

 

 

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yes, their profile, their achievements and their interviews...if we ever get them, will go online on praja, jaagore and smartvote. also, to comment on what you said. take caste...as long as most indians still hold caste above else, caste will continue to play a major role in politics. for instance, a quick look at the matrimonials in newspapers or online, will tell you where we are as a society today. if mayawati's main claim to the PM's chair is her caste, then where do we start??

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Yes - this is an important issue. While in most cases the election is based on issues here it is based on other factors such as caste/class/religion  which have very little effect on the secular urban middle class person. Basically the secular urban middle/upper middle class has no vote bank. I have idly toyed with the idea of starting a party to cater to the secular  urban middle class professional and if indeed such a party or canditate exists then I would vote for him or her. I guess in one place - namely South Mumbai, there is such a person but he is part of the Congress.

But perhaps instead of at the national level it would be better if one had elected professionals running the city instead of the nominated officials who can be transferred at will by some disgruntled politician. I fear that the proposed elected Mayor will just become another political farce with a lot of the major parties joining in the fray and the issues will be forgotten - it will just become another battle for the lucrative infrastructure contracts that are up for grabs. And at the end of the day, well, the secular urban middle class professional will continue to suffer.

The point is this that of course at the end of the day the life of a middle class professional is much better than that of a poor villager. But it is getting worse day by day and by and large it is perhaps not true that what the politicians are doing is  improving the lives of the poor. Sure they have kicked out governments for not delivering but its not always the case that the govt that replaces them delivers a great deal either. I think people have stopped expecting anything from the government and in general happy if the things dont get worse. There does not seem to be any accountability.

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srivatsa,
 partyless government may be a far fetched idea, but then, in what way has the present party system served the national interest??
for all practical purposes, its each man/woman for himself, anyway. they switch allegiance, they horse trade,  they throw chairs, they rush to the well, they line their pockets, hoard their ill gotten gains in swiss banks........all in self interest as you say...so 546 independants working in self interest, may work better when not bogged down with party, caste and communal politics.
my wandering thoughts, and not some noble truth :-)

your second and third points actually do  serve to make the partyless idea stronger. if there was no party line to toe, no high command to genuflect before,  the voter would be more imprtant to the MP/MLA than he/she is now. the MP, having to depend on his voter alone to get re-elected, would serve his conststuency better.
the party system protects scoundrals and encourages sychophants. the members are given tickets based on their abilit to "get" votes and nothing else.
  all this has  lead to voter cynicism and apathy.
urban votes dont count and rural votes can be bought (by and large)
are we truly a democracy??

jenny

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