IS SHASHI THARUR RIGHT?

The Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr. Shashi Tharur has suggested on Twitter that We should not have October 2 as a Holiday. He has justified his statement by stating Gandhiji's words that mahatma Gandhi was not in favour of freedom from work and that he was an advocate of hard work. It is natural that as the media spread this view of Mr. Tharur reactions started pouring in. Let me not be involved in stating whether the reactions were right or wrong. What I believe is more important for me and I strongly support Tharur's view. If Gandhiji's Birthday is celebrated as a working day it is not, in any way, a disrespect to the Father of Nation. What he preached and what he fought for throughout his life can only be said to have given proper respect only if we work on that day.

Gandhiji's birthday apart, we are perhaps the only country where there are regular unnecessary holidays in the name of culture, religion, historical or mythological events. Some of the holidays are quite meaningless but because they have hidden political motives State and Central Governments are afraid of scraping such Holidays. I wish all those who are involved in deciding about holidays keep the national interest in mind and not a few people of this community or that community. If we want to emerge a strong nation in the world we must first do our duties and then ask for leisure. How many of us celebrated Gandhi Jayanti in its true sense? How many staying near Sabarmati Ashram visited it on this holy day? Only a few political leaders of different political parties garlanded the statues of Gandhiji countrywide not because all of them were true Gandhians but because they had political compulsion.

I WISH THARUR'S VIEW IS ENDORSED BY MANY A TRUE FOLLOWERS OF GANDHIJI AND RESPONSIBLE CITIZENS OF INDIA RAISE THEIR VOICE AGAINST UNJUSTIFIED HOLIDAYS...

ELECTION REFORMS # 4

COMPULSORY VOTING

Every election witnesses partial voting; sometimes well below 50% voters excercising their right. During the heat of elections we all debate the question of poor voter turnout and scores of suggestions are put forward from all corners of India aiming at increasing poll percentage. Once the elections are over, we forget poor voting till next election as if it were a non-issue.

One most widely uttered suggestion is "Compulsory Voting". Can voting be made mandatory ? Can people be forced to vote irrespective of their desire to do so ? What are the limitations of "mandatory voting"? Before we think about voting being made compulsory let us first think what the reasons for poor voter turnout can be. A person may not vote because he/she...

• ...is physically unfit.
  
• ...is not in his/her constituency on the day of election.
  
• ...is socially engaged.
  
• ...does not find, from the list of candidates, a proper person to vote for.
  
• ...feels that his/her vote is not going to make much difference as the constituency has been largely dominated by a person/ a political party for last several elections.
  
• ...feels that all political parties/candidates have one common minimum programme which excludes common man's interest once they get elected/ get power.
  
• ...is tired of voting frequently.
  

Some of the above are circumstantial limitations for which a person cannot be blamed if he/she does not exercise the right to vote.

I think the concept of "Compulsory Voting" is not justifiable as one may not be in a position to vote due to the reasons which are genuine and out of his/her control. There may be some alternative approach by which a strong opinion in favour of maximum possible voting be created nation-wide. All political parties and the Election Commission along with some NGOs should take an initiative right from now in this direction to work out a people-friendly policy which encourages people to vote in a positive manner rather than the so-called "Compulsory Voting".

ELECTION REFORMS # 3

Every citizen of India has the right to contest elections for Municipal Councils, State assemblies and the Parliament if he/she can fulfill legal requirements for that. At times we find persons without proper education entering the election fray only because they have backing of a particular political party. Such persons, if elected, can do little during their tenure as far as policy matters are concerned. Their only job is to raise their finger in favour of or against some point being debated in the house because they are told to do so by the party leader. They do not have even superficial knowledge of the issue being debated. Such members often do not even have proper knowledge of the geography, demography and history of the constituency they represent. This is not in the interest of the people of this country as far as progress and policy-making are concerned.

I firmly believe that :

THERE MUST BE SOME MINIMUM EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION MANDATORY FOR A PERSON TO BECOME ELIGIBLE FOR CONTESTING AN ELECTION

so that the democracy of this country is strengthened.

However, the million-dollar question is : WILL ALL POLITICAL PARTIES BE WISE ENOUGH TO REACH A CONSENSUS AS REGARDS MINIMUM EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION?

ELECTION REFORMS # 2

We witness, rather helplessly, scores of independent candidates during each election. If one studies the statistics of all elections, I am sure, one would find that most of the independent candidates lose the election. Rarely an independent candidate can collect victorious support on his own. Majority of them not only lose the election but they also lose their deposit money.

Indian constitution gives the right to contest election to all eligible citizens without being attached to any political party. There is nothing wrong in it, but this right is misused by some individuals as well as some political parties. Since the requirements to file the nomination paper are not stringent and the deposit amount is nominal (affordable) some people use election as a means to become publicly known. Some individuals use their candidature as a means to bargain with the party candidates. This happens when the candidature of a person as an independent poses a potential threat to a party candidate by eroding a fraction of the party's support base. The party candidate, in such circumstances, has to enter a bargain (by paying handsome amount of money to the candidate) as a result of which the independent candidate declares his support to the party candidate publicly and makes requests to vote for that candidate.

Often the political parties themselves bring such independent candidates to fight the election with a view to reducing the vote share of the candidate from the opposite party. The so called independent candidate is in reality a partyman supported from behind the curtain by the party so that he stays in the fray till end and helps the party candidate by obtaining votes from the share of the opposite party's candidate.

All above aspects are political but I am more concerned with the problems such independent candidates give rise to. For the Election Commission, a large number of candidates makes the situation more difficult to handle. Besides administrative problems the Commission has additional burden on its electional expenses. I remember an example in which more than 300 candidates had filed nomination in an assembly constituency in Karnataka. The ballet paper was actually a booklet which not only created problems for the Election Commission but also to the voters.

In the interest of democracy and the nation, I suggest that :

A CANDIDATE, IRRESPECTIVE OF HIS/HER PARTY AFFILIATION, SHOULD BE BARRED FROM FIGHTING ANY ELECTION FOR NEXT SIX YEARS IF HE/SHE LOSES HIS/HER DEPOSIT IN AN ELECTION.

ELECTION REFORMS # 1

We more than often see during general elections that a person fights election from more than one constituency. Constitutionally one can do so but the practice appears unjustifiable. Generally, big names of political parties prefer this option when they smell defeat from a constituency. I believe that...

A CANDIDATE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO CONTEST FROM THE CONSTITUENCY WHERE HIS/HER NAME HAS BEEN REGISTERED AS VOTER

If a candidate wins from, say, two constituencies, he/she has to vacate one of them in a very short period because constitutionally a person cannot represent two constituencies simultaneously in Local Municipal corporation, State Assembly, and the Parliament. We have by-election in the constituency vacated by such elected person. This lays additional burden on the Election Commission as well as the people of that constituency. The money spent on election process comes from the tax paid by the citizens of India. thus, there is additional burden on the tax-payer as the amount spent on such useless procedures is non-productive.

I cannot understand why such useless, expensive and unjustifiable(from all angles) options have been generated. All political parties should come forward to endorse the concept that 'ONE PERSON CAN CONTEST FROM ONLY ONE CONSTITUENCY AT A TIME' in the interest of the nation and its democracy.

TALIBANISATION OF PAKISTAN : A THREAT TO INDIA?

The developments that have taken place in SWAT GHATI(Pakistan) recently clearly indicate towards the weakness of Pakistan government and army in combating the evil of the TALIBAN. It appears that the Talibani cobra has started swallowing Pakistan and in the days to follow the world will witness the fall of Pakistan. Everybody knows that the TALIBAN theory of reinstating so called age-old out-dated religious customs by force has no relevance in modern times. Perhaps the Talibanis too know this but what they really want to do is to suppress people in the name of religion and Allah and to establish their supremacy in Islamic countries. What they are doing in the name of Islam is in no way ISLAMIC because no religion can preach violence in any form for any cause. All religions have one common message of SELF-SACRIFICE but the religions today have fallen victim to politicians who are versatile in taking advantage of religious feelings of common people. They mislead some people, induce JEHADI thoughts in their brains and hearts and use them to spread religious terrorism in the form of Fidayins.
It is a sure event to happen as it appears today that Pakistan will be ruined by Taliban. But the million dollar question is : WILL INDIA HAVE TO FACE TALIBANI THREAT? I believe that any strength gained by Taliban in Pakistan will have some detrimental effects on India in the long run and the government of India and the Indian armed forces cannot afford to turn deaf ear to this fact. Instead of 'WAIT & WATCH' policy we should start strengthening the security of our borders. Talibanis may use Pakistan and even Bangladesh to infuse terrorists in the country and disrupt normal life. Our neighbours are jealous of our progress in last decade and the rise of India as a POWERFUL STATE on global map. I wish Indian authorities would not let anything loose as far as the threat from Taliban is concerned. I firmly believe that the most appropriate alternative is to attack terrorists in Pakistan (let the world say whatever it wants to and let human rights organisations cry) before they gather more strength.

BJP BACK TO HINDUTVA AND RAM MANDIR

The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has once again returned to HINDUTVA as elections have come closer. Every time elections come the BJP opens the HINDUTVA BOX and remembers RAM MANDIR. This time the party president Shri Rajnath Singh has declared that if they came to power they would constitute Fast Track Courts to accelerate the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. The million dollar question is : WILL BJP GET ABSOLUTE MAJORITY ON ITS OWN ? These people know very well that odds are not in their favour and no political party is in a situation to gain majority on its own. Now, if BJP comes to power with the support of other NDA components, will it be able to fulfil the promise of Ram Mandir ? They should not forget that once they had been in power in Center with several parties supporting them and had ultimately bowed out of Ayodhya issue because they did not want to sacrifice power for Ram although thousands of innocent people have sacrificed their lives for Ayodhya Issue. BJP people also know that they are not going to get full power and in that case there will be no question of fulfilling the RAM MANDIR promise.
All political parties in India must understand one thing clearly that exploitation of people's religious faith and feeling can help them for once or twice but you cannot fool them by bringing same fundamentalist thoughts back every time election comes. All political parties should adopt constructive attitude and must come out with policies which unite people of this nation and bring prosperity to all in its true sense. The first need of any human being is living better life socially and economically. One may belong to any religious faith but that should not become a restraint in forging unity. During this hard time of global recession, our priority should be stabilisation and strengthening of economy and not any Mandir or Masjid.
Other parties like Congress SP, BSP, Janta Dal, etc are also trying to woo voters on the basis of religion but this attitude is dangerous and may harm the nation's interests in days to come.