One of the very important news items that caught my eyes in the last one week was recalling of three elected representatives from the posts of president of Nagara palika (Municipal Corporation or city civic body) in the State of Chattisgarh. This is one of the historical elections – as the voters stood in a queue to give their verdict on these three presidents. Voting in India is synonymous with electing their representative; but here is a case where they voted to strip the president ship of their earlier elected members.
The debate of people’s right to recall an erring or non-functioning representative is pretty old in India. So old that some of the contemporary politicians does not even know that such a debate was making rounds a few decades ago. Or it could be the case of not remembering it, as the same would not benefit them!!!. There are very few or handful people like visionary leader late Jayaprakash Narayan, to empower the electorate with the right to recall their representatives. The lobby, who opposes such revolutionary ideas and consequences, has ensured to bury these events and debates over a period of time.
It is very interesting to know that such a law exists only in two States in India today. The other State being Madhya Pradesh, from which the State of Chattisgarh was carved out as a separate State. In the year 2001, a similar incident had taken place in Madhya Pradesh, which again sparked off the debate as to whether such a law should be made applicable in every other State in India. If made, should it cover the whole of elected members including that of Legislative Assembly and Parliament?
Many are of the opinion that such a system is impossible to implement in a country like India. Here in case of a parliament member, he may be representing about 15-20 lakhs of people; in a constituency spread across the area of about 40-50 kilometers. Also, some are skeptical that such a law would only add to the existing problem of short lived assemblies and coalition politics. These people take the help of the fact that even the United Kingdom, the mother of all parliamentary democracies, has not empowered such right to recall the elected member.
Just imagine how nice would have been the system, in which you make your elected representative accountable; be under the examining microscopes of his electorate. Possibly, this would have paved the way for faster developmental work in their constituencies.
Though this was reported in almost all dailies around the date of election (June 17th), none of the media has given its due importance to such a great event in the history of democracy. I do not remember to have seen any coverage in the visual media (of course, I do watch less of the idiot box), and the news papers covered it in a page having ‘also happened’ kind of news. Understandably, visual media did not find it very interesting compared to some gossip of a movie star or a cricketer, as this would not generate enough of TRPs.
The debate of people’s right to recall an erring or non-functioning representative is pretty old in India. So old that some of the contemporary politicians does not even know that such a debate was making rounds a few decades ago. Or it could be the case of not remembering it, as the same would not benefit them!!!. There are very few or handful people like visionary leader late Jayaprakash Narayan, to empower the electorate with the right to recall their representatives. The lobby, who opposes such revolutionary ideas and consequences, has ensured to bury these events and debates over a period of time.
It is very interesting to know that such a law exists only in two States in India today. The other State being Madhya Pradesh, from which the State of Chattisgarh was carved out as a separate State. In the year 2001, a similar incident had taken place in Madhya Pradesh, which again sparked off the debate as to whether such a law should be made applicable in every other State in India. If made, should it cover the whole of elected members including that of Legislative Assembly and Parliament?
Many are of the opinion that such a system is impossible to implement in a country like India. Here in case of a parliament member, he may be representing about 15-20 lakhs of people; in a constituency spread across the area of about 40-50 kilometers. Also, some are skeptical that such a law would only add to the existing problem of short lived assemblies and coalition politics. These people take the help of the fact that even the United Kingdom, the mother of all parliamentary democracies, has not empowered such right to recall the elected member.
Just imagine how nice would have been the system, in which you make your elected representative accountable; be under the examining microscopes of his electorate. Possibly, this would have paved the way for faster developmental work in their constituencies.
Though this was reported in almost all dailies around the date of election (June 17th), none of the media has given its due importance to such a great event in the history of democracy. I do not remember to have seen any coverage in the visual media (of course, I do watch less of the idiot box), and the news papers covered it in a page having ‘also happened’ kind of news. Understandably, visual media did not find it very interesting compared to some gossip of a movie star or a cricketer, as this would not generate enough of TRPs.
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