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Bribed voters could get 6 months in jail?
Written By silkboard - 16 March, 2009
Bangalore Politics Mysore Elections Complaint Election Commission Issues
Read with interest in a newspaper this morning that Mr P Manivannan, who is the Returning Officer for Mysore is talking about tough measures to monitor misuse of Liquor and Money in Lok Sabha Elections. See this Biz Standard story: DC strict on curbing Malparctices. Some measures Mr Manivannan is talking about are
- ... bankers will mark the serial number of currency notes randomly when heavy case is withdrawn. Poll officials and the police will search residences of voters looking for currency notes. In case the currency notes are a part of the heavy cash withdrawal by political activists or their supporters, the voter will be questioned as to how he got it. If the voter fails to provide convincing answers, he will be booked ... Bribed voters could get a jail term of six months.
- Not in this particular story, but there is talk of keeping track of bulk liquor purchases at "wine shops" etc.
Now, why is only Mr P Manivannan talking tough here? Is he the only PR savvy babu who is 'visible' in media talking about such measures (and all this could be empty talk)? Or is he the only one taking initatives, whereas all Returning officers or DCs have the power to take serious steps to curb election time malpractices, but are not doing the best job?
Is anyone in Bangalore too doing or is suposed to do such tracking of money and liquor? Who? And how do we meet the responsible person to ask him/her about what he/she is doing?
COMMENTS
Nareshb - 16 March, 2009 - 04:58
Looks like another case where the big fish will get away and the small fish will be harassed! Usually, bribes to voters will be in the range of Rs. 100 to Rs. 500 per vote and in some exceptional cases go up to Rs. 1000/-. Is it worthwhile to go behind these voters when most candidates spend up to 5 times the expenditure limit set by the Election commission and get away by filing false affidavits? What is Mr P Manivannan doing about such candidates and parties?
Nareshb - 16 March, 2009 - 08:20
idontspam - 16 March, 2009 - 10:03
...that bribe takers need to be punished. My only request is that it be made a non bailable offence with the term in jail be proportional to the amount taken as bribe and that it be applied to all walks of life especially to government and city administration departments.
Rithesh - 17 March, 2009 - 06:28
Many of the people who are lured are either slum dwellers or the poor labor class in the villages. Considering the poverty that they are in, they will take any money that is offered to them.
@silkboard - your observation about the secret ballot system not guaranteeing the vote of the bribed voter is perfect. I have seen how this works in villages and slums - it is not that only one of the candidates distributes money/liquor/sarees - instead almost all the main candidates indulge in this act of distributing money/liquor/sarees. This is a perfect case of "Tragedy of Commons".
Just because one of the candidates distributes money/liquor/sarees - others are also forced to do the same. If all candidates agree not to distribute money/liquor/sarees - the overall voting patter will still remain the same. But obviously no one wants to take chances.
If you ask me - i am actually happy about this whole thing. Atleast during these times the black monies of these politicians come out and gets distributed among the poor.
Yes this system might screw up the chances of a honest, clean candidate.. aah but "honest, clean" and "candidate" is just another oxymoron :)
silkboard - 16 March, 2009 - 06:05
I am not defending anyone or anything here, but do we have double standards on bribery due to our bias against neta/babu?
- In matters of corruption in daily life, we point fingers at those who take it, and don't really discourage those who offer bribes.
- But here, on this election malpractice thing, we are only focused on those who offer bribes.
Pursuing a strategy where you advertize heavy punishments for those who take, as well as give bribes may work better. After all, it should be easier to scare small fishes than daring the big ones, isn't it!?
One more point. Since we have secret ballots in place, how does handing out money or booze really guarantee votes? If I am a drunkard, I would probably collect a bottle from each party, and yet, go vote for my favorite independent of the day. Isn't it?
Or is it that the "booth agents" of political parties track and keep tabs on votes, and pick out bribed voters at random for 'punishment' if they end up 'defying the whip'?
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