Honourable Supreme Court of India has asked Election Commission and petitioner Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay to submit suggestions to prevent criminal elements from entering Parliament.
The solution to this lies in understanding the process of giving tickets right from Corporator to candidates for Lok Sabha elections.
Tickets are basically given to winnable candidates only. These winnable candidates can be from own party or from any other party where he/she is not happy for varied reasons. Money and muscle power are important criteria. Whether less or more FIR or nature of case is immaterial.
The voters have zero say in the selection and this will never change. Voters are left to choose the political party. Add to this post poll arrangement of forming government comes as major setback to the helpless voters.
Prime Minister Shri Modi had expressed his intention to clean up the mess in politics way back in 2014. In 2019 he shared his intentions once again but nothing tangible done so far.
Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay has done a splendid job and this has lead to the present situation. While learned professionals in judiciary and Election Commission of India will burn midnight oil to ensure a draft is prepared within a week to be submitted to Hon. Supreme Court of India, sharing few salient points that might come handy.
Anyone with cases of fraud, rape, dacoity, anti national activity, etc will not be eligible for contesting election or any activity remotely. A citizen from such a family normally would work as face. For such candidates, a road map of Dos and Don’t need to be created.
All rags to riches candidates and anyone in the political party should explain with facts how they made money in short period of time. A deadline should be given for this.
One candidate should contest from only one seat. In case of corruption case the runner up should be considered to take over the charge.
Government employee in any capacity will have a cooling period of at least five years before he / she is given ticket.
Any appointment of Independent Directors or consultant should be publicly shared by the government / ruling party. Any party registered with Election Commission of India will have no right to appoint their party workers in any capacity or cadre with any Sports body like BCCI, Hockey, etc Only professionals from the respective filed should be part of it.
Any MP or MLA having business like education, healthcare, etc. should have only online payment. No MP / MLA will be on Board of Directors of any Coop Bank, APMC, etc. If their family or relatives are on board of such organisation, it has to be revealed and information to be shared in public domain.
A dedicated portal for all law makers where citizens can request for an appointment, grievance, feedback, corruption, etc. It should have deadlines and auto escalation. Based on performance over a period of time, citizens should have the Right to Recall. https://blog.ipleaders.in/right-to-recall/
Whenever any amnesty is announced by central or state government, law makers and their family members should not be eligible for it.
All benami properties of any serving or ex politician who is not able to justify his /her source of income in a stipulated time, should be taken over by central government and provision should be make that there will be no appeals or stay order in highest court. “Come clean, keep all or loose all” should be the motto of Election Commission.
All government employees / officers and media professional should share their financial just like law makers. NIC should assist Election Commission with a small program where all financial details are entered (earning and expenditure at macro level) and the same is visible in graph format with % of savings, etc. Very often we hear disproportionate income. This will save time.
Media plays an important role in what politcians are doing today. Least said the better. Rigorous imprisonment for fake and biased news. A of lot people in news business want to be respected but their action are worse than enemies of nation. Citizens have noticed their lavish life style and are concerned. This fourth pillar should be brought under RTI and asked to make their earning open to public. All pillars of Democracy are alike and Media is no exception. Refer my article on why the need to go harsh on fake and biased media:
People in news media think they have a blank cheque to write, speak and air whatever they want. Some of them lie big and apologize in a small box in some inside page.
All this is possible only if Police Reforms are done parallel. In most cases it is observed that police can do splendid job but political compulsions prevents them from taking certain decisions. Why will law maker ever make a law that will hamper his / her personal life and business empire.
Judiciary too needs to support the citizens by ensuring that case is not adjourned for years, anticipatory bail is not given when serious charges are to be investigated. In fact Judiciary should go a step forward and initiate Suo Motu cases wherever required.
Police reforms are key to clean politics.
There is some discussion of Linking Aadhar to Voter id. A lot can be achieved using technology. Many voters are still doubtful. Linking voter id to Aadhar will definitely throw surprising numbers.
There should be no default benefits to all law makers. Election Commission (EC) and Government can fix a base level of annual income. Anyone above the said income should not be eligible for freebies and pension.
Criteria to contest election is second level. The process should start from the post holders of a political party itself. They work as gate keepers and coordinators for various work and many can be identified with the amount of gold they wear and lifestyle. On the contrary if you see most passionate and first generation enterpreneurs slog for years to buy ordinary cars and 2 BHK.
Fear of law is least in the eyes of most of the law makers.
At present only the ones who contest election have to reveal their source of income and criminal record. Going forward EC should make it mandotory for all political parties to upload data (financial and crime record if any) of their post holders on EC website. This should be a serious affair and not a formality. The oath I agree ………… If anyone is found to have submitted wrong information then it should lead to Rigorous Imprisonment for at least 20 years. A nation as large as India and bureacracy that is difficult to manage, only fear psychosis will work well.
The going is good, trust the final guidelines are water tight and prevent criminals at source i.e. appointment at party level itself.
Pic Credit: Elti Meshau, Screenshots from Twitter, TOI and News 18
