In India there would be one hundred presidential candidates --each getting less
than 20% votes - if we had Presidential system of democracy - anyhow we are
wasting taxpayers' money by having a President who is like the elephant's tusks
-- some for show (the long outer ones -- our President --useful only in some
fight ------and the inner ones (Parliament) for eating food)
*** President would be able to appoint people in his Cabinet who would not
necessarily be elected representatives of the people. In the present system we
set huge store by Parliament being sovereign because it represents the will of
the people of India, but Shourie points out that this is a chimera. ''In a
word, 99 per cent of the members got into the Lok Sabha by getting less than
half the electors to vote for them. Almost 60 per cent got in with the
endorsement of less than 30 per cent of electors in their constituencies. Even
if we consider only the electors who actually turned out to vote, 60 per cent
of the members got in on a minority vote. The unrepresentativeness of
governments and legislators in the states is even greater.''
Umesh
Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Democracy is not an aim in itself, it is a means. The aim is electing
governments that work.
*** Where did we hear this before?
*** Yours truly made exactly some of the same arguments years back, right
here in Assamnet. Perhaps Shourie has been listening :-)!
cm
Highlights mine.
Change the System
ON THE SPOT
Tavleen Singh
On a rainy evening in Mumbai last week, I attended the Business Standard
newspaper's annual awards ceremony for the best in Indian business. Whenever I
am invited to events that celebrate the successes of private enterprise in
India, I make it a point to go because it is here that you see how much India
has changed and meet the men responsible for India growing at such an
impressive clip, that after China we are today the fastest growing economy in
the world. As someone who grew up in the days when India was a socialist basket
case and our economic policies seemed designed to distribute poverty among
ordinary Indians, while making politicians and bureaucrats rich, it gladdens my
heart to see the might of Indian business today. Keep in mind that these are
the same men who in socialist times would be fined if they produced more than
their quota of scooters or light bulbs or whatever. They have not just survived
those times but come a long way since, and they deserve all the
appreciation they get.
The chief guest at this year's ceremony was the head of the Planning
Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and after beginning with the optimistic
statement that the ''economy is in very good shape'' he pointed out that there
are still major weaknesses that could become a huge problem if not dealt with
urgently. Agriculture is in the doldrums, and health and education are areas in
which there are serious problems that cannot be overcome with public funding
alone. If these problems persist then there will remain a huge section of
Indians who will not have benefited at all from high economic growth rates.
The next morning as I took my morning walk from Nariman Point to the Oval
Maidan, I saw the reality of what he meant on every pavement I passed. It had
rained at night so the streets were wet and slushy, but those who live on
Mumbai's pavements slept without covering on soggy, cardboard mattresses made
of Aquafina packing cases. A gaggle of small children had crept on to an ice
cream trolley and sheltered from the rain under its meagre roof. Raju from
Patna had just arrived in the city and slept on the pavement opposite the
glittering glass facade of the CR2 shopping mall. He looked worn-out and
scared, and seemed not to know what to do or where to go. These are ordinary,
everyday stories of Indians who have not got close to benefiting from economic
growth, and my personal view is that the reason why we have failed to provide
the average Indian with his most basic needs is because the political system
has failed us.
This is what makes Arun Shourie's new book The Parliamentary System timely and
important. Having been a member of the Rajya Sabha and a Cabinet minister in
Atal Behari Vajpayee's government, Shourie has seen the rot from the inside and
provided us with a devastating critique of Indian democracy and solutions we
need to think seriously about. Shourie recommends that we consider the
possibilities of a Presidential system who has a fixed term and the right to
contest only two terms. A directly elected leader, instead of one chosen by the
party with the largest number of seats in the Lok Sabha, makes him more
accountable to the people.
It would make good governance more attainable because a directly elected
President would be able to appoint people in his Cabinet who would not
necessarily be elected representatives of the people. In the present system we
set huge store by Parliament being sovereign because it represents the will of
the people of India, but Shourie points out that this is a chimera. ''In a
word, 99 per cent of the members got into the Lok Sabha by getting less than
half the electors to vote for them. Almost 60 per cent got in with the
endorsement of less than 30 per cent of electors in their constituencies. Even
if we consider only the electors who actually turned out to vote, 60 per cent
of the members got in on a minority vote. The unrepresentativeness of
governments and legislators in the states is even greater.''
To find out how this happens, read the book. Democracy is not an aim in
itself, it is a means. The aim is electing governments that work. This is no
longer happening in India for various reasons of which the most important is
that the wrong kind of people are getting elected. Criminals, heirs and
semiliterate peasants are hardly the stuff of good governance or lawmaking, and
we are unfortunately getting more and more of this kind of politician.
If things are bad at the Central Government level, they are much, much worse at
the State level, and the result is lawlessness and dangerous decay of the
authority of the State concerned. In his book, Shourie quotes a report by a
former Director General of the BSF (Border Security Force) that says this: "At
least eight districts in eastern UP and four contiguous districts of Bihar are
today completely under the grip of the mafia. The rule of law exists only on
paper. District magistrates and superintendents of police kowtow before the
mafia dons and take orders from them on critical matters.''
Time to find a new system or what?
_______________________________________________
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Umesh Sharma
Washington D.C.
1-202-215-4328 [Cell]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)
www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are used )
http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
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