Why Not Reject One Only!

By Vinod Varshney
The political class does not like to take up issues of electoral reforms seriously though it continues to debate over them at various fora. The reason is simple and straight. Why should politicians tamper with the existing system when it has offered them so much ?
      So far as the latest reform is concerned, the situation became funny when a fait accompli was converted into a deed of conviction in a dramatic manner by Rahul Gandhi for banning convicted elected representatives to retain their membership of the house. The moral of the story is–serious work would only be done by the Supreme Court and the credit must be grabbed by one or several political parties or just an individual. 
     Such dramas of stealing thunder are much needed by the media to remain interesting. They always look for spicy and sensational developments to retain some of its entertainment value amidst a lot of morose happenings. It gives good opportunity for the chattering class also to run their avocation with passion.
However, many politicians might be shuddering at the prospects of more electoral reforms that may befall in their way sooner or later by judicial intervention, hurting their interests even more. They may again have no choice but delay implementation by their peculiar tactics in the name of parliamentary democracy. Ultimately the voice of aam admi would be heard in a vibrant democracy.
     The next bolt from the blue can be the right to reject only an individual candidate during elections. The Supreme Court recently approved voters’ right to reject all the candidates contesting elections if they so wanted by clicking the button—NOTA (None of the above). This is harmless for individual contestants. It will not be able to check election of an undesired candidate as one of the rejected candidates will still be declared elected. Thus the purpose of checking an undesirable candidate cannot be achieved. For this many activists recommend that voters should be given the right to cast a negative vote against a chosen candidate. One will not be surprised if any time soon the Supreme Court gives a verdict of this kind. The hint is already there in the judgement passed on the petition related to rejecting all the candidates.
     Getting a right to reject all candidates is only a cosmetic change in the electoral process and does not fulfil the true desire of people who are frustrated with the way politics is conducted by their elected representatives. Many activists therefore demand a right to cast a negative vote against a chosen individual. Sometimes a winner gets only 15-20 percent of the total votes cast showing that majority of voters were not in favour of the winner. Negative voting against a chosen individual can qualitatively change the electoral chances of contesting candidates. The focus of elections then might be not so much on who should win, but on who should not win at all. But ultimate result would be the election of a clean candidate.


( The Article was first published in the monthly magazine of political affairs the ' Lokayat' (October, 2013 issue) 

Break this nexus

By Vinod Varshney
The arrest of Asaram Bapu must have opened the eyes of millions. They must have been shocked to know how in garb of supernatural healing powers carnal crimes can take place. The law is taking its own course in this case; but a larger question will remain who to blame for the widespread blind faith in the so-called supernatural powers of self-styled, self-proclaimed gurus and godmen in our society. The blame squarely falls first on widespread ignorance. But then why the ignorance could not be stamped out of the Indian society?
Unfortunately not only the political class for the sake of votes pays obeisance to such gurus and godmen, but a section of media also, whose job is to spread the light of knowledge, rationality and correct information, is found glamourising them. In fact there remains tremendous pressure on them in the name of ancient culture to protect many false and unscientific notions.
     The murder of Narendra Dabholkar in Pune is an example of how people who had been sincerely doing the job of fighting out the murky influence of the blind faith on the society run the risk for their life. It is all the more shameful in a country where our first prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru as an avowed rationalist wanted to see Indian society grow on the bedrock of scientific temper, his party the Congress has leaders like Vilas Rao Deshmukh and Ashok Chavan and others along with the BJP and Shiv Sena leaders who did not allow anti-blind faith and anti-black magic bill to pass for 18 years.
     Only after the murder of Dabholkar, an ordinance, that too much diluted, has been cleared by the Maharashtra government. It is a sad commentary on the political health of the country that several right wing organisations openly issue threats to people who believe in the scientific reason, methods and rationality. This needs to be reminded that if India remained behind in science and technology for centuries, much of the blame goes to the prevalence of anti-science attitude of its social, religious and cultural leaders.
     It is a myth that the proponents of rationality are anti-religion and decry the religious faith based on scriptures and traditional culture, but they, for sure, are against the blind faith and its misuse to exploit ignorant and gullible masses. The alleged exploitation of the sixteen year old school girl by Asaram Bapu is a case in point. Not just the sexual abuse, many rituals lead to even deaths, physical and psychological trauma. Many of the so-called supernatural cures are based on physical beating of the patient.
     The relevant question is who opposes social reforms. Why political leaders for the sake of votes become agents of godmen and godwomen touted with possessing magical supernatural powers? Indian society should remember that India too in the past had strong base of science and many scientists like Aryabhat, Varahmihir, Brahmgupa, Bhaskaracharya, Vagbhat, Nagarjuna and Sushrut etc built a strong base of rationality.
     Unfortunately, the current globalised form of capitalism has given a glamorous image to the centres of blind faith, godmen and godwomen—visiting them described as pilgrimage. A significant part of tourism industry relies on this. There exists a sinister nexus of black money, politics and the centres of blind faith. The healthy politics should aim to break this nexus.
( The Article was first published in the monthly magazine of political affairs the ' Lokayat' (September, 2013 issue)