Dictator Democracy

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Dictator-democracy/articleshow/5120815.cms
An article Re-print of Jug Suraiya's Dictator Democracy on the ToI. While the treatment of the subject is sarcastic and humorous, it asks a very sensitive question: Whether government decrees and force feed democrcay like the one in Maharashtra is in true spirit of democracy.

Can democracy be a democracy and a dictatorship, both at the same time? Yes, it can, if it's Indian democracy. The Maharashtra government decreed that when the state went to assembly polls, Mumbai would forcibly be shut down shops, restaurants, schools, offices, factories, all closed so that people, with nothing else to be distracted by or to do, would be forced to vote.

The reason for this drastic measure to force-feed democracy or at least elections to Mumbaikars is that the otherwise 'can do' city is notoriously 'can't do' or 'won't do' when it comes to voting. This was evident in the last Lok Sabha polls in which the voter turnout was just over 40 per cent. The fact that the polls coincided with a long weekend which lured many Mumbaikars to out-of-town holidays was deemed to be largely responsible for the poor showing. However, sarkari concern was voiced over the seeming political apathy of a city which had just suffered a murderous terrorist attack and should have been all gung-ho about manning the barricades of democracy as represented by the ballot box, instead of swanning off on holiday.

To preclude the possibility of the assembly elections also proving a non-event in terms of turnout, the authorities reportedly issued orders that anyone failing to comply with the shutdown diktat was liable to face arrest under Section 135-B of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. To ensure compliance with this closed-door policy, special squads patrolled the city to make sure that no one was subverting democracy by trying to sneak into a school, or an office, or a factory, or a shop, or a restaurant. Go to vote. Or you might find yourself in jail: that was the message, willy-nilly, that officialdom sent out not just to Mumbaikars but to all of us who are citizens of this democracy.

Mumbai's case is symptomatic of a fundamental problem of our democracy. Democracy is supposed to be about empowering people, the common citizens, and helping them to get on with their daily lives as best they can (by going to schools, offices, factories, etc). But our sarkar seems convinced that democracy is only about empowering itself, at the expense of the people and their day-to-day needs.

India's political class and the successive governments that it forms, and which often comprise the strangest of bedfellows sees democracy only in terms of elections. It doesn't really matter which party comes into power, for in the end as a number of blatantly opportunistic alliances and coalitions have shown they are all fundamentally the same: cynical exploiters of the people.

Or at least that's the message that all our political parties have over the years been communicating, consciously or otherwise, to an increasingly sceptical electorate. The way our political parties, all our political parties of all shades and stripes, appear to see it is that the function of our democracy is only to hold periodic elections in which voters will, forcibly if necessary, vote one or other, or several, of these parties into power. Having fulfilled that basic duty (of having voted a politician into power) the voter can go jump. The voter's and the politician's democratic responsibility is over. Elections are the end all and be all of our democracy. And never mind what happens in between, never mind the persistent hardships and despair that citizens continue to face in their daily lives.

This is the real meaning of the Mumbai bandh on polling day: in our democracy the voter has no right of education, employment, earning a livelihood, whatever other than the right to vote. Indeed, as the Mumbai authorities would have it, the voter's right to vote is not just a right but an enforceable obligation. In other words, you've got to vote, whether you like it or not, whether you feel it's going to better your daily life in any way or not.

Jai ho to the democratic dictatorship of India that is Bharat.

6000 crores: Cost of running the Largest democracy in the world

Seven days back, i had put in my first post on the election expenditure in India. http://newspaper-posts.blogspot.com/2009/02/elections-in-india-financial-black-box.html
I feel compelled to revisit the the topic again basis a times of India report on election expenses. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Finance/Coming-Rs-6000-crore-poll-stimulus/rssarticleshow/4146923.cms

This ToI report by Akshaya Mukul and Sanjaya Dutta tries estimating the lowerside of the costs of a general election in India. The starting premise is Rs.1300 crores (equal to 2004s spends) on getting the infrastructure and machinery running. (I had estimated this to be Rs.2000 crores)

On a very basic assumption that all 543 constituencies will have a triangular contest, the model estimates 543*3*2 = Rs.3258 crores of money spent by candidates on their campaigns. It is worth a mention that the average spend by a candidate has been fixed at Rs.2 crore. This doesnot include upsides like city candidates spending more, or, more than 3 candidates in the fray. Also the campaigns are getting the technology edge i.e SMSs, Websites, Web Banners etc. These costs have been overlooked because compared to all other traditional means and methods, these would really be a very small percentage.

Then there are the party propaganda costs. This is over and above the candidate spends at constituencies and they drive the party objective (e.g Bharat Nirman, LKAdvani.com etc). This doesnot stop at BJP and Congress. SP, BSP, BJD,RJD, DMK, TDP, NCP, JDU, CPM and many other will incur spends. These figures are difficult to ascertain. Alone Congress had declared Rs.125 crore spends and BJP had declared Rs.42 crore spends in 2004. We can assume a figure of Rs.750 crore as a cummulative of propaganda costs of all party which by all means would again be extremely conservative. (We already have BJP spending Rs.250 crore in its "L K Advani as prime minister" campaign).

Then a ball parkish Rs.250 cores (again on lower side) can be parked for donations from friends and benefactors of the candidates.

Thus we have 1300 crores (estimate of 2004) + 3258 (Spends by candidates) + 750 crores (Spends by parties) + 250 crores (donations) ~ Rs. 6000 corore riding on teh elections. A more realstic figure would be Rs.7500 crore. In a year , when 2 stimulus packages have failed to revive economic growth, and a pessimistic view of fiscal deficit puts it at 10% of GDP (Planned at 6%), Rs. 6000 crore appears to be a very high price to pay for making choices (one not any better than the other).

However, that i presume is the cost of running the largest democracy in the world ~ rs.6000 crore in the election year (recession or no recession!). The minimum we do is to vote!

Elections in India: The financial black box!

Till some time back, India was a third world nation. We have bettered that statistic quite meaningfully in the last decade. However, there is another statistic that is quite stark. The national commission on electoral reforms once remarked that the general election in India is eqquivalent to consucting polls in All Europe, US, Australia and Canada, all at once. That is perhaps because the population of India exceeds all these nations put together! The statistic shared above is the total cost of an election borne by the exchequer or rather the tax payer! Over the last 40 years the cost of conducting a general election in India has shot up by a multiple of 770! My estimate about the spends this year is above 2000 crores! Bear in mind, this to be the cost of general elections and not the state elections, which is borne by the respective state governments! The government spends the money on on deployment of security personnel and polling staff, setting up polling stations, purchase of electronic voting machines, and issuance of photo identification cards. Well, that is it as far as the government spends are concerned!

When the money blown up by the political parties, candidates and the private sources is concerned, there are no tabs! Political funding knows no accounting and measures! There are strict legal limits on the amount of money a candidate can spend on an election campaign. According to the Election Commission's rules, in bigger constituencies a candidate can spend up to Rs 25 lakh (Rs 2.5 million). In other constituencies, it varies between Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) and Rs 25 lakh. Supporters of a candidate can spend as much as they like to help out with a campaign. But they have to get the candidate's permission in writing to do so. There is a legislative loophole in here, Explanation 1 to section 77(1) of the Representation of the Peoples Act 1951, under which amounts spent by persons other than the candidate and his agent are not added to his/her election expenses. This means a candidate can spend as much as he likes without violating the ceiling on poll expenses. All additional expenditure, when revealed, can be attributed to the party or friends of the candidate. Thus a Ambani funded Narendra Modi campaign can spends millions and millions more, (in return of trade favours later), without Narendra Modi even accouting for what he spent on and how much did he spend!

While parties are allowed to spend as much money on campaigns as they want, recent Supreme Court judgments have said that unless a political party can specifically account for the money thus spent, it will be added to the election expenses of the candidates concerned. The accountability thus imposed on candidates and parties has curtailed some of the more extravagant campaigning that used to be a feature of Indian elections.

It is time to take the legislation and the audits further into each candidate, his constituency and his spends! The first one is to put a cap on electoral spending by candidates! This has to include donations and gifts by friends, well wishers, supporters, followers and every one else! Such blind spending imbalances the polls and is simply a "bribe" issued to people for their votes! These need to be audited and defaulters to be stripped off their membership of houses!

It is also absolutely essential to do statutory audits of the national parties polling in the elections in terms the source and the spending of their funds! If SEBI can demand audits of companies listed in the stock excahnges, i dont see any reason why EC cannot ask full audits of the parties which go to poll in every election!

After all, this is money from the people, of the people and for the people. WHy not use it judiciously!

Contesting the Lok Sabha elections with maturity and responsibility

http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1816831
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1816830

The only other place, where you would find a semblance of the "political one up man ship" act is probably the nursery for kids! Mud slinging is the USP of such debates! I was not surprised when L K Advani and Sonia Gandhi, the top most leaders in the respective fronts NDA and UPA have taken the first steps towards the political "debate". One would expect that being the top most leaders, these two individuals would step aside from this wild "free for all, no holds barred mud wrestling" matches to talk about development, economy, goals, direction and governance. Alas, the first salvo fired between these two fronts is basis what we call the dirty poll politics. If this be the start, it would only get worse from here both in thought and morals.

L K Advani has gone on an overdrive about three things: Hindutva issue and hence the Ram Mandir, the internal security issues threatening the country and the anti-Congress anti-dynastic rule. Significantly missing is any reference to the economy, trade, foreign policy and home issues (infrastructure, education, healthcare). I think it is time to realise that Ram is insufficient to galvanize votes. One has to have an agenda, a thought and a process! While LKA roils about internal security and the failure of UPA, may he be reminded that NDA carries the cross of Babri Demolition and the death of 1169 civilians in Gujarat riots!

Sonia Gandhi speaks against Divisive forces alluding to BJP and its allies for not supporting the ccause of the state in times of distress. For one thing, i would call Antulay's remarks after 26/11 a case of being divisive. Vote bank "Secular" politics have been far more divisive than any political gambit, and the allies of UPA play this card best. UPAs own leadership issues may be divisive to the common cause and agenda.

Net of all
1. Two seniormost leaders of the political bulwarks should be more fore-sightful in terms of what their parties stand for! (do they define their existance as being the anti matter of the other or are they relevant to India in its present state?)
2. In absence of an agenda for the country, BJP will end up doing a VK Malhotra act (in Delhi) for the polls in the country!
3. With people like Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram one still has faith about the Congress. (Inspite of the Shivraj Patils, Arun Singhs and Antulays of the world in the same party)