Silencing voices in democracy

Silencing voices in democracy
Neerja Chowdhury

Limited franchise was once a 19th century idea. In the 21st century, it is strange that we should even be discussing the concept as a possible remedy to the ills besetting our electoral process.

A suggestion made in one of the discussion papers released by the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC), which has gone unnoticed, stipulates that candidates should be educated, and be able to read and understand the complexities of the Constitution. By that token, neither Indira Gandhi, nor Kamraj, nor Harkishen Singh Surjeet would have made it into politics.

The logic has its own corollary. A legislator today is required not just to know the Constitution. He has to be conversant with the ins and outs of a Convergence Bill, and cope with a highly complex WTO regime, given the speed with which technology and, for that matter, the world is changing. In that case, only those manning our universities or who are members of Delhi’s India International Centre may qualify to represent the people of India.

Implicit in the suggestion is the belief that the problems of our democracy stem from illiteracy. Had that been the case, our bureaucracy would have delivered the goods. Our universities would have been the hub of new ideas. But it is the educated who have been involved in major scams. A BMW which mowes people down on Delhi’s roads can pass off as a "truck"!

It is desirable for the MPs and MLAs to be able to read and write. They have to make laws, pass budgets, and evolve a consensus on policy. But then MPs are given specialised briefings in the various parliamentary committees so that they can make decisions in the interest of the nation and of the people they represent, which is what they are required to do. That they often take decisions on considerations other than these, is not because of their lack of education. Today, 80 per cent of the present MPs have studied above the matriculate level according to the data available with the NCRWC. While the standard of education has gone up over the years, the level of debate has come down.There is certainly a case for training MPs and MLAs on constitutional procedures, once they are elected. But to deny anyone the right to contest a poll because he or she is uneducated is to go against the basics of a democratic order. The Constituent Assembly had rejected the idea outright. As it is, the poor and the socially disadvantaged are not in a position to educate their children. This is going to become difficult even for the lower middle classes, with the increasing privatisation of the education sector.

What is worrying about the suggestion is the mindset it reflects. Read with some of the other ideas mooted in the Commission papers like indirect elections to Parliament by a collegium, debarring regional parties from contesting national elections unless they poll 10 per cent of the votes spread over 14 states, which would throw out all parties except the BJP and the Congress and the message is clear. That one half of India has a right to rule the other half. That the "chhota log", and the "chhota" parties are responsible for the political instability that bedevils the country today. That if people will not throw up a two-party system and they do not seem to be doing it despite successive elections it should be brought about by changes in the Constitution. And that, if necessary, Parliament should directly elect the prime minister and do away with the party system.Metropolitan India views a Laloo, a Mulayam, a Mayawati or a Jayalalitha as the main obstacle to political stability. It attributes the repeated reelection of a Laloo or Rabri to no more than the rise of casteism. It fails to recognise that large sections of Bihar have elected them despite their corruption, nepotism and misgovernance, because for the first time they can lift their heads high. It was only 15 years ago, when in districts like Gaya it was common for the "doli" of a Dalit woman to be taken first to the landlord’s door, or those working on the fields of zamindars were beaten for asking a few days off. This is less frequent now, though new vested interests have developed in the shape of the Sadhu Yadavs, for instance.

The Commission’s suggestions for political stability, which express a lack of faith in the people of India to be their own masters, are unlikely to be passed by Parliament. But then even a debate on them would appeal to sections of the middle classes who the BJP wants to keep on its right side. The party is shooting from the Commission’s shoulders.

The vote has enhanced consciousness. The Congress declined and the BJP plateaued because of their failure to identify with people’s growing aspirations. The "others" have come to occupy just under half the total political space. The Commission needs to do harder thinking. The answer to political instability may lie in identifying more effectively with people’s problems. In other words, in widening representative democracy and not curtailing it.