While political speech in India is mired in the ’70s doublespeak jargon, agitations too are stuck in between the Independence struggle and the strident trade unionism of the ’80s.

Sample some of the battle cries used even today:

Agitations in India are held at the drop of a hat. Be it for hike in pay, increase in allowance, regularisation of jobs, back wages of sick PSUs, accident compensation, shortages in public utilities, venting public anger against price rise etc. Like a broken record, on and on, the slogans are repeated. Often those voicing them do not even comprehend what they mean. Just about anything from sublime to nonsense for which a case can be made out for government intervention, is worthy of an agitation.

The various methods used for agitation are:  strike, fasting, slogan shouting, effigy burning,  ’gherao’ , ‘dharna’, ‘bandh’, ’satyagraha’, rallies, token arrest, protest march, burning tyres, damaging government property, burning buses, smashing cars, obstructing railways, stone pelting  etc. From being largely instinctive earlier they have all now been reduced to well choreographed, carefully orchestrated, skillfully enacted pieces of drama. Effigy burning, slogan shouting, ‘Gherao’,'dharna’ are all played to the gallery with majority of action reserved for the camera.  Token arrests likewise feature a bout of spirited slogan shouting, jostling with the Police, then being packed into buses, detained at a playground and ultimately being let off as if returning from a day long picnic. The efficacy of these hackneyed forms of agitation in fulfilling their desired goals is declining by the day, forcing people to use even more violence to cause greater disruption of public order. The one thing that is common to all forms of agitation though is  public hardship. The targets of the public anger on the other hand are rarely, if ever  put to inconvenience.

Agitations are in a desperate need for innovation. The need for innovation is driven by growing public disenchantment with the means of agitation  as well as changes in the underlying assumptions on which most agitations are modeled.  Whereas earlier protests were meant to cripple the economy, causing financial losses to the British (or the businessmen) to eventually drive them to quit. The opponents now in our day to day battles are however not going anywhere else. The losses too return to haunt us eventually in the forms of botched up services, additional tax burden or rising prices. It is especially harsh on the daily wage earners whose wage loss may, at the end of the day, entail hungry stomachs. Biggest irony is that for a country that prides itself for having successfully used non violence to fight the foreigners, now freely uses violence and arson to fight against its own.

There have been minor innovations in the past such as begging bowl demonstrations, boot polish protests or even naked demonstrations – yet nothing has caught the public imagination. The only recent innovation that caused a flutter was ‘Gandhigiri‘ but that too seems to be fizzling out. We could do with a lot of new ideas on how to make the government responsive while causing minimum disruption. Ideas for new innovation could include an early start (possibly 6 AM instead of 10 AM) to a ’strike day’ ending in a symbolic protest. Other ideas could include switching off electricity at predetermined hour, declaring a protest to be ‘bicycle only’ day, or wearing clothes of the same color, or mass planting  of trees etc. The online protests meanwhile  will keep gathering steam from ‘Pink Chaddi‘ to Boobquake to the trending topics on Twitter. The next wave of agitation innovations will be driven by public acceptance shaped by media appreciation of ideas that harp on constructive engagement instead of public disruption.

‘Satyamev Jayate’, being the motto of the country has not stopped Indian politicians from mastering the art of doublespeak. Indian political discourse  is full of stonewalls, falsehoods, propaganda and disinformation.

Political speech in India is caught in a time warp. Reminiscent of the government controlled media days of  ’70s, it continues to be dotted with a unique set of phrases, patronized by the power elite, that are meant to hide more than they reveal. Worse they allow our politicians to lie though their teeth. Indiscriminate, repeated and moronic use of these phrases have beaten them hollow, so much so, that they have now come to mean the exact opposite of their literal meaning.

The coinage of the word ‘doublespeak’ is attributed to George Orwell and his famous novel Nineteen Eighty Four which used the word ‘doublethink’. ‘doublespeak’ means ‘ deliberate disguise, distortion, or reversal of the meaning of words‘. One of the most famous proponents of ‘doublespeak’ ( also called ‘doubletalk’) predating the coinage of the word itself was Dr. Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister. In its present avatar, Indian politicos of all shades have embraced doublespeak with open arms. Such is its command over both the ruling and opposition think tanks, that straight talk has become a shortcut to oblivion for politicians in India. [recall the ordeals of Shahi Tharoor (Congress) and Jaswant Singh (BJP) ] Even mainline media and journalists, who are entrusted with the responsibility of exposing the doublespeak of politicians, choose to play ball with them. Their confrontationist attitude is a thing of the past. Despite mushroom growth in news channels, most find protective niches, aligning themselves with one benefactor or the other, leaving the public to fend for themselves.

Given below are some rich vignettes of doublespeak present in Indian political arena. Help us collate more such examples using the comments section down below or use twitter with #doublespeak hash tag.

• Law will take its own course actually means that it would go round and round forever without ever converging on the issue.
• We will look into the incident actually means that everyone will soon forget it.
• We will not leave the matter alone actually means that the matter will be given a silent burial.
• A commission of inquiry has been instituted to probe the allegations expeditiously actually means that the case will stretch for ever and no action will be taken.
• I have nothing to hide actually means that though there are skeletons in my cupboard, all the investigation agencies are in my pocket.
• My life is an open book actually means that you may need an atomic microscope to read it.
• This is a political conspiracy of my opponents actually means that now that I have been caught with my pants down, I’ve no other recourse but to blame the opposition.
• Guilty will not be spared actually means that they will never be caught.
• Action will be taken if guilt is proved actually means that we will not act unless we are compelled.
• Foreign terrorist group xyz is behind the attack actually means that we have no clue, how to stop this.
• His departure is a deep loss to the country actually means that no one listened to him while he was alive, but we will now pay floral tributes and claim his legacy.
• Our sympathies are with bereaved families actually means that please make do with just our sympathies.
• I announce Rs. xxx as compensation to the victims’ family actually means that whether or not the family gets something, let me derive political mileage as if I am paying from my own pocket.
• Xyz Community has no or less representation in the cabinet actually means that I will not rest till I’m inducted into the cabinet.
• Cabinet is the Prime Ministerial prerogative actually means that it is hostage to the last guy who has a bargaining chip in government formation.
• All options are open actually means that we will go with the highest bidder.

[ Also read a brilliant satire by Ramesh Srivats on the lack of 'real answers' in Indian Politics -  The Alternate Press Conference of .... ]

Social Media platforms seem tailor made to fight Corruption. Many of their characteristics are ideally suited for building  a sustainable forum against Corruption.

Some of these favourable characteristics are:

a) Anonymity: A key factor that inhibits many people from exposing Corruption is the fear of retaliation. and how it will affect their day to day life. Social Media provides people with different shades of anonymity to suit individual comfort so that they can voice their opinions freely.  Online anonymity could vary from simply being a name without face  to the much more elaborate open web proxy servers used by the Iranian protesters.

b) Aggregation: This is a powerful tool available on Social Media that can be used to consolidate what is ‘common knowledge’ about Corruption. Consolidation gives information the credibility that it otherwise lacks and makes it difficult to ignore [recall: Obituary to Corruption]. @Gauravonomics refers to it as ‘Collective Intelligence’ in his The 4Cs Social Media Framework. Most common example of aggregation is Wikipedia, written by faceless multitudes, which is now widely used as reference material for a variety of topics.

c)  Interactivity: Public discourse has always been led by the vociferous  few. The silent majority simply endures and is unable to register its dissent. Social media gives voice to the silent majority and allows them to participate in a discussion rather than just be passive observers. ‘Like’,'Dislike’, ‘Share’, ‘Re Tweet’, ‘Bookmark’, ‘Comment’, ‘Poll Vote’ are all instruments  that can drive a new interactive and participative democracy. Those with more followers, fans, readers, subscribers will act as moderators in this interactive discussion.

d) Instantaneity: With growing use of Social Media on mobile, the ‘instantaneous’ factor can also be exploited to fight Corruption. Twitter has already stolen a march in this direction and there is a lot that can be done using such tools. [more on this in a separate post]

e) Viral: The viral nature of the medium makes it easier to spread the message – a task which is other wise beyond the reach of individuals or smaller groups in the physical world.

Despite all these positives, many of the historical negatives of Social Media still remain. Social Media evolved  from Social Networking which came into existence essentially as a ‘virtual  hanging out’ place for the young. So there is still a  preponderance of entertainment, sex, humour,  and the risqué on Social Media. In such an environment it is often difficult to find an audience for anything serious and substantive. [Refer to this Facebook page with 400K+ Fans as compared to our own  Corruption Free India page languishing with just 1.3K Fans] Anonymity too lends itself to spam and fraud where people assume fake identities and resort to spamming.  Many people still consider Social Media to be just a ’storm in the tea cup’ and doubt whether it can ever drive a change in the real life.  However things are bound to change. Even a virtual congregation does consist of real people (leaving aside ‘bots’) and a digital record is still a public record. There may be an impression that no one is listening, yet whenever something significant is said, it finds the audience as if from thin air. With all its imperfections, Social Media is still going to be the medium of choice for fighting Corruption because of the reasons enumerated earlier. With its growing clout evidenced by the rush of celebrities joining Social Media, exit of a Central Minister over charges leveled in Social Media and the growing use of Social Media to check ‘Social Reputation’ before hiring or even marrying, all point to the fact that time is now ripe for a greater use of Social Media in fighting Corruption.

I was forced to mull on this question by the runway popularity of a recent post by Fumiko Nagano on the World Bank blog regarding the efforts of 5th Pillar to fight Corruption in India with Zero Rupee Notes. Since then, it has taken the digital world by storm with several hundred twitterattis including @ShashiTharoor and @Gulpanag retweeting its link and several prominent websites including The Economist, CNN, Boing Boing featuring related posts. 5th Pillar is Chennai based, grass roots organisation that has been working against Corruption using RTI and Zero Rupee Notes. It encourages people to use Zero Rupee Notes distributed by them to counter requests for bribe. This is akin to ‘Gandhigiri’ as it tries to shame the Corrupt officials into giving up Corruption instead of using punitive measures. For the uninitiated, the concept of Gandhigiri was introduced by a 2006 Hindi film, Lage Raho Munna Bhai. It consists of confronting the tormentor with moral force, kindness and non-violence in true Gandhian tradition. Since the release of the movie, strikers, protesters and activists have begun to distribute roses or flowers to draw attention to their cause. Even powerful Politicians & Police have sometimes resorted to  Gandhigiri in an attempt to educate the public and convey their message.

Like Gandhigiri, the Zero Rupee note idea too is fairly simple and does not require much resources to implement. The idea also finds so many takers because it promises to fix a vexatious problem without too much turmoil. The real question is how effective the solution is? To my mind, there are three chief ingredients that can cause Gandhigiri to succeed:-

1. The foremost factor behind the success of Gandhigiri is the shock value associated with it. Since the tormentor does not anticipate such a response from the victim, he is shocked into compliance by the act of Gandhigiri. This factor is largely responsible for the initial success of Gandhigiri. However as the novelty fades and things fall back to normal, its effectiveness reduces dramatically.

2. The second chief ingredient of Gandhigiri is its viral nature. Nothing succeeds like success. The success of a few individuals can drive others to follow suit. If a million people who have got the Zero Rupee Note, start using it to pay the corrupt, the impact will be huge. The impact will not just be due to the ’shock value’ but also due to to the collective strength of the effort and the inherent weakness of the corrupt.

3. The third ingredient which is always latent is the threat element. Ironically it is diametrically opposite to what Gandhiji preached. For example in the two recent cases of Gandhigiri – MNS distributing elementary Marathi books to North Indian Taxi Drivers and RJD workers distributing roses to shopkeepers a day prior to ‘Bihar bandh’ requesting them  to keeps their shops closed – both had unmistakable elements of threat. Even in the movie, Gandhigiri succeeds largely because it is done by ‘Munna Bhai’ who is a gangster. The lurking element of threat and power is what makes Gandhigiri potent. It is debatable how effective it would be in the hands of the weak and the helpless. None have said this better than Ramdhari Singh Dinkar in his masterpiece ‘Kurushetra’  :-

क्षमा शोभती उस भुजंग को, जिसके पास गरल हो,

उसको क्या, जो दन्तहीन, विषरहित, विनीत, सरल हो

(Forgiveness only adorns a serpent who has venom,

It does not behove the toothless, poison-less and the imbecile.)

To set the record straight, this post is not meant to deride or debunk the idea of a Zero rupee note. It is meant to put things in perspective and set the expectations right. At the very least it is an idea that takes the fight to the doorsteps of the Corrupt officials. It gives even the poorest of the victims a tool to register their protest. Yet it is a desperate tool for desperate people. Anyone who can afford bribe is highly unlikely to use the Zero Rupee Note. Ironically, those who can’t afford bribe are also the most vulnerable in the face of any possible retaliation from the corrupt. This is where the ground operations of 5th Pillar play a crucial role by providing support, succour and advice to the hapless victims. There is also a strong case that can be made of a possible co-operation between the 5th Pillar and  the Legal BPO of the kind proposed by @Shaffi Mather to assist the victims of Corruption, if Gandhigiri alone does not work.

The real purpose of this post however, is to emphasise that Corruption is a serious issue just like Health, Education, Infrastructure, Poverty and Population. It requires similar allocation of resources not just from the government but also from all stake holders and well wishers. It requires us to institute academic studies, aggregate knowledge that already exists, monitor and measure progress over time and place, spread awareness, expose, control and eliminate Corruption. Like any other serious problem, it deserves a serious response. Mere symbolism will not be enough.

Each of us have our own experiences of Corruption to share. Bribe Rate Chart is an effort to pool our common knowledge of Corruption into making a price list of corruption services through out the country. Any reader may add new information to the table and become a contributor to this collective effort. The modification will however be subject to moderation by the moderator. As per decision of the moderator the proposed addition/ change may be accepted or deleted.

If you wish to add to this rate chart, please register and then login to be able to edit this rate chart. For help on adding information to this table click help.

One of the most redeeming qualities of Nitish Kumar is persistence. Most politicians have a tendency of launching something with much fanfare, only to fade away in a whimper once the public gaze shifts. Nitish on the other hand has an inclination for following up on his initiatives. One of the best examples of his persistence is the ‘Janta Durbar’ program. Every Monday morning, he along with his key ministers and top bureaucrats meets complainants who approach him.

Such programs had been in fashion with earlier administrations too, but then they were primarily used for either dispensing favours to select groups, patronizing sycophants (ala ‘Lalu Chalisa’), or most importantly for earning useful publicity news bites . However, more often than not they quickly lost their utility and were slowly relegated to the back burner. One of the first significant changes that Nitish made to this program was to change its name from ‘Janta Durbar of Chief Minister’ to ‘Chief Minister in Janta Durbar’. The change though symbolic, epitomizes Nitish’s approach to governance. Another important improvement that he brought in was to connect all the complaints to an online tracking system. This online system assigns a ‘ticket number’ to every complaint that is logged in. The complaint is then followed up through the maze of bureaucracy till its resolution. He also experimented with ‘Janta Durbar’ on specific topics such as cases related to Police or to other departments and schemes. After assuming Office, Nitish Kumar has meticulously stuck to his ‘Monday morning’ schedule of ‘Janta Durbar’. The only time he makes an exception is when he is unwell, away for some important business or any other extenuating circumstances ( like the period of mourning after his Wife’s demise). Another time when he changed his schedule was when he took the program to the electorate’s door steps during his ‘Vikas Yatra’ while campaigning for the Parliamentary Elections.

This is not to suggest that all the complaints that land up in the ‘Janta Durbar’ get redressed. While many complaints are frivolous in nature, many seek personal favours and some are even antagonistic and require investigation of the contrarian point of view also. However still many genuine problems too face bureaucratic resistance in spite of the direct intervention of Chief Minister. Moreover one of the unfortunate offshoots of persistence has been that that those whose problems get redressed are less likely to return for expressing their thankfulness than those whose problems do not get redressed. This has led to several publicity disasters with complainants turning to the Janta Durbar multiple times unable to get redressal even after repeated attempts. Anyone else would have given up on this program if not for anything else, then for the bad publicity it generates when complainants recount their horror story of bureaucratic apathy and expose the inability of even the CM to cut through the red tape. Yet he has steadfastly stuck to his guns and refused to shut the program down. Four years down the line, different people may have different take on the efficacy of the program, still its regular continuance is an achievement in itself. That people continue to flock his Monday morning sessions and are allowed to approach repeatedly if their problems are not resolved, is no mean achievement at all.

In conclusion, Nitish Kumar has turned out to be an honest politician who has sincerely worked hard to put the state back on rails. He however, does not just bring good intentions and hard work to the table but also actively engages in realpolitik to ensure his political survival. He may not be a perfect politician, but his persistence scores well over his lack of perfection. Yet it may not be desirable to have him at the helm in perpetuity. On the contrary, we need many more such politicians so that we can rotate power among them and be sure that one takes off from where the other left. Only then, the people’s work can finally get done .

Part: 1 2 3 4 5

It is for not for nothing that Nitish Kumar was called ‘Chanankya’ of undivided Janta Dal in the early ’90s. In his present avatar too, he has mixed up a fair dose of realpolitik with his developmental plank. From the very beginning of his term he strategically targeted the vote banks of his two chief opponents in the state – Lalu Yadav (RJD) & Ramvilas Paswan (LJP).

He began by assiduously wooing the Muslim Community to break the Muslim-Yadav (MY) axis of Lalu Yadav. Apart from symbolic gestures of admitting a large number of Muslim Leaders to his party (JDU), attending Muslim festivities, drafting a Muslim bureaucrat for the critical Home Secretary position ( rarity for a BJP ruled/partnered state) etc., he also has also launched several schemes for the Muslim community (such as ‘Hunar’) and recruited ‘urdu’ teachers in bulk . He took credit for finally convicting the main accused of Bhagalpur riots of 1989 and distributing relief to its victims on the lines of Delhi 1984 Sikh riots. He has cleverly positioned himself as a ‘doer’ versus Lalu who he says, only provided ‘lip service’ to the community. His recent decision of allocating 250 acres of land for establishing a center of Aligarh Muslim University in Bihar too, has been a step in the same direction..

At the same time he also targeted the ‘Dalit’ vote bank of Ramvilas Paswan. He first broke off a large chunk of the community by branding them as ‘Maha-Dalits’ as they had not received the benefits due to them while all their benefits were being cornered by the more well off communities among Dalits. A separate “Mahadalit Vikas Mission‘ was founded under his supervision and a flood of schemes have been launched to directly target succour to this community. To add injury to salt, he has slowly expanded the ambit of ‘Mahadalits’ leaving only the ‘Paswans’ in the dalit community. This move has been greatly resented by Ramvilas Paswan who has seen his electoral fortunes dwindle.

He has even tried to neutralize Congress with his demand for a special state status for Bihar. He strategically voiced this demand just before the declaration of the results of General Parliamentary Elections, at the time when Congress was fishing for more allies. The Congress was initially sympathetic but backtracked later after they were able to cobble up a comfortable majority on their own. Nitish now periodically uses this demand as a stick to beat Congress apart from his usual lament of insufficient central assistance. He has not even spared his partners in the government – BJP. Starting off as junior partners with BJP in the undivided Bihar, he has slowly pushed them to a corner and assumed the role of big brother in the state. He also asserts his authority clearly in matters of protecting his secular credentials such as the recent land allocation to AMU.

Internally he has moved swiftly against detractors in his own party. Early dissenters like Upendra Kumar Kushwaha were promptly shown the door. ( He has recently rejoined Nitish after unsuccessfully trying his luck with NCP for past 4 years). Even the party patriarch, George Fernandis who was also the convener of NDA, was kept at bay. Fernandis was denied a Loksabha ticket on grounds of ill health, though he was later accommodated in the Rajya Sabha. Other detractors such Nagmani were thrown out or the ones like Prabhunath Singh were neutralised through election defeat.

However despite all his brilliant strategies, Nitish received a body blow in the last bye-election for 18 assembly seats in September 2009. He along with BJP could only manage to win 5 setas whereas RJD+LJP won 9 and Congress 2. This has exposed his razor thin lead in the deeply divided caste equations of Bihar. While the marginalisation of Ramvilas Paswan has pushed him firmly into the Lalu camp, the rejuvenation of Congress nationally and the decline of BJP (his partner in the state) together have the potential of stinging him badly in the next assembly elections slated for late 2010. Only saving grace for him is that there is still another year to go and if he heeds to the warning signals of the recent bye-election defeat, he can still re-work the magic next year.

Part: 1 2 3 4 5

Note: This is the second part of a multi part series on Nitish Kumar and his efforts to build a New Bihar.

Another major challenge that confronted Nitish Kumar was Infrastructure. Roads through out the state were in poor condition. While rural roads were non-existent, National Highways too were in bad shape. Even roads in major towns were full of pot holes.  An immediate task was to find contractors to build these roads. In the past decades, all the big contractors had fled the state. Those who remained, were small and had no infrastructure of their own. Outside contractors were not interested due to the smaller size of opportunity and the overhang of bad image. Still,the work on road construction started early in Nitish’s term. Unfortunately the beginning itself was botched up badly by the inflexible bureaucracy. A rare national contractor, Tantia Constructions, who ventured to work on the Patna Road Project, was forced to exit the state after one year of incomplete work. Either side blamed the other, however the real losers were people (who had to wait longer) and the state (whose already tarnished image took another hit). Notwithstanding the initial hiccups, most roads in Patna at least have now been built. What is more remarkable however are the drainages (nalis) that have been built alongside all the major roads. This will prevent water logging and ensure that roads last longer. Paved footpaths too have sprung up, where none had existed earlier. Today wherever one goes in the state, construction activity is visible. Even though progress has been stilted, it is still progress nevertheless from the days when infrastructure in Bihar wasn’t going anywhere.

The real crown jewel of infrastructure however, has been a small, erstwhile sick, state PSU - Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam. The Nigam which was put under liquidation by the previous administration, has been turned around in quick time. From having accumulated losses of Rs. 17 crores in 2005-06, it was able to contribute Rs. 20 crores towards CM Relief Fund after last year’s devastating Kosi Floods. In the past 3 years it has built an impressive array of 300 high level bridges at an estimated cost of Rs. 708 crores.

Bridges that had languished since ages, have been completed in record time. In the process many a stereotypes of a state infamous for tardy work culture, have been broken. The corporation has emerged as a role model for other ailing state corporations. Another stereotype that has been challenged is that of an ossified bureaucracy. The success of Amrit Pratyaya, a young, soft spoken, 1991 batch IAS officer, who is credited with this turnaround, has demonstrated what committed bureaucracy can achieve if it can rise above vested interests and get out of its comfort zone. The IAS Officer has since then been shifted to head a much larger Road construction department, normally reserved for a more senior, Principal Secretary level officer. This has lent credence to another important, emerging Nitish trait that he is able to spot, inspire, back and reward good performers consistently.

Part: 1 2 3 4 5

Note: This is the first part of a multi part series on Nitish Kumar and his efforts to build a New Bihar.

When Mayawati became Chief Minster of U.P. for the first time, she shook up the entire bureaucracy and police by shifting more than 150 officers in one day. When Lalu became CM, he soon landed up at the Patna Medical College Hospital with the media in tow, to inspect whether Doctors were attending duty properly. He publicly rebuked those who were found derelict. He did the same when he became the Central Railway Minister, by ordering the office gates to be locked after the scheduled time so that the habitual late-comers could not get in. Yet, when Nitish Kumar became CM of Bihar in November 2005, after 15 long years of Lalu-Rabri rule, there was hardly a flutter.

Save one or two key bureaucratic changes, there were hardly any changes anywhere. So much so that even the official residence of Chief Minster, 1 Anne Marg, continued to adorn the outgoing Chief Minister, Rabri Devi more than two months after he was sworn in. People started to wonder what, if any, were the changes. Nitish Kumar went to work with practically the same bureaucratic and executive team as his predecessor. Sure there were reshuffles later on but the pace was unremarkable. He started off by conducting long meetings with the senior bureaucrats that routinely went on till late nights. The bureaucracy was rattled a bit but not too much thinking that the initial enthusiasm will soon run out of steam. They were, however, in for a rude shock. Nitish was digging his heels for a long seize, not a guerrilla war. Assiduously he went to work to put the state back on track, bit by bit.

One of the first challenges was to stabilize law and order situation. However here too, those who were looking for some high profile, quick fix solutions, were disappointed. In fact the first full year barely saw any change. High profile kidnappings and murders continued to rattle the state. Nitish came in for criticism for his pre-election claim that he will fix law & order within three months.  Change however, started to become visible later after a few cases were cracked by the Police and the accused were charge sheeted promptly. Another significant change appeared in the form of unshackling of several upright senior Police Officers who had been completely sidelined during the Lalu Rabri era.

Another turning point was the gusto with which the state embraced the centrally sponsored Fast Track Court scheme. More and cases were transfered to the FTC especially those belonging to high profile criminal politicians ( even those from his own JDU Party) . Suddenly things started to look up after the conviction rates started to inch up. In the past two years 2006 – 2008, more than 26000 convictions have taken place. Several dreaded political criminals have been awarded capital punishment and lesser sentences. Today, even thogh the law & order situation may not be ideal, but at least it has turned a corner . A clear proof of this is that Bihar has already ceded its monopoly over prime time television news to a lot of other states. No news is indeed good news.

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Note: This is the concluding part of the three part series on Next Generation Electoral Reforms (other two –   Intership for MPs & MLAs , Inner Party Democracy) .

Indian Electoral System today is at a point of inflection. What started in early ’90s as a  lone struggle by a maverick (T. N. Seshan) to cleanse the cesspool of Indian Elections, has now transformed into a well oiled election machinery that has won acclaims for the  successful conduct of several difficult electoral battles. Indian Elections are unique because of the number of people that vote, the varied geography it covers as well as the specter of violence that hangs around them. The real game changer has been the speedy roll out of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). From trial runs to all EVM Elections, they have even caught the fancy of the world community.  The somewhat checkered implementation of the Voter ID Cards, and the mandatory affidavits by candidates have  also contributed to the credibility of Indian Elections.  But where do we go from here? K5735SE9R8XV

To be sure, there are still problems galore. There is the problem of increased Naxalite insurgency and the violence inflicted by them during elections. Beside that the role of money power too has come in for sharp focus. Around 300 present MPs are known to be Crorepatis, giving rise to the feeling that in near future, being a millionaire might become a pre-requisite for the job.  However the most serious problem of them all is the twin issue of increasing Criminalisation of Politics and the lack of good people joining politics.  Both these are essentially two sides of the same coin.

For our democracy to enter the next level of maturity, we need to usher in a new generation of Electoral Reforms. It is customary in the election season to run campaigns for increased voter turnout. There have been other ideas that have come to fore such as public funding of Elections, option to reject all candidates, provisions for recall of candidates etc. However many of these ideas can only take us thus far. Increased voter turnout will only have an impact if there is a wide choice of good candidates and detailed information about their performance is available. Even though public funding is being touted as a solution to the rising influence of money power, it may end up becoming up another channel for large scale waste of public money.

The problem of the criminalisation of politics needs to be tackled head on. We have for too long, dithered on the premise that any law to debar under trial criminals before they are finally convicted by the highest court, will open the door for falsely implicating innocent persons and will be against the laws of natural justice . However such arguments have become fallacious after more and more MPs & MLAs are being convicted of serious crimes such as murder, rape & sedition. We need to bite the bullet now and make the law applicable to criminals convicted of serious crimes by any court of law. Once convicted they should not be allowed to contest even if their appeal is pending in a higher court, till the time their conviction is annulled by a competent court. Besides this ‘Fast Courts’ should be mandatory in case of MPs & MLAs being accused.

The problems facing our nation are serious and the rapid degeneration in the quality of our MPs and MLAs will reverse whatever progress we have made in the past decades. An intense debate on Next Generation Electoral Reforms is the need of the hour and the denizens of Social Media Network should take a lead in this direction. These discussions will hopefully throw up some ideas that will help shape a new dawn.