Elect the PM directly

Elect the PM directly
C.B. Muthamma

Since the commission set up to review the working of the Constitution released its tentative proposals on January 8, inviting a discussion, there have been some articles and comments. Some denounce the whole exercise on the ground that it attacks the Constitution and our democracy. Some political parties too have taken this stand. But the commission's brief is to review the working of the Constitution, not the Constitution itself.

Surely, it is not anybody's case that the criminalisation of our politics and public life, which has assumed monstrous proportions over the years, or the persistent installation in power of parties elected on a minority of the votes cast, and which are manifestly unrepresentative of the majority of voters (let alone the whole nation), is either democratic or a foundation for good governance? The coalition in power at present at the Centre is reported to have won less than 50 per cent of the votes cast. According to reports, we now have not only a large body of legislators but even some ministers with criminal records. Many of those who do not have criminal records themselves are beholden to criminal elements for electoral support and therefore collaborate with them.

This is so for one single reason: the overriding desire of politicians and political parties to capture power and retain it, by fair means or foul. Governmental power, under our system, is based on standing party majorities in the legislatures. The drive to capture such majorities and power, in which politicians and parties collaborate, encourages the wrong kind of people to get into politics -- people whose idea of debate in legislatures is often not different from street brawls, and whose electoral methods include not just black money and mafia support but violence to the point of murder. These people have no qualifications for running a government, especially the government of this great and complex country.

Surely it is in the national interest and supportive of the Constitution and democracy to inquire if it is possible to find a system which will break the nexus between politics and crime? And to look into the possibilities of ensuring that the parties that do take power do so on the basis of the support of the majority of the voters? The President in his Republic Day speech has spoken out against indirect elections. The comparison made by him with President Ayub's basic democracy, with its pyramidical structure, similar to the commission's formula put out for discussion, is obvious. But there is one vital difference. Ayub himself, who was at the apex of the pyramid, had no electoral base, whether direct or indirect. The commission's formula envisages that the prime minister and chief ministers should be elected by a majority of the entire legislature.

It is very necessary to recognise that the present practice in this country is based on indirect elections of the PM and the CMs; namely, a narrow based electoral college consisting of his own party which takes power on a minority of votes cast (in every single case at the Centre since Independence, and in most cases in the states). It is not the people who elect them. If the party-based PM/CMs were to go directly to the people, they might not win at all; or they would have to change their religious or caste platforms to be acceptable to the total electorate.

If in fact the people could elect the PM/CM directly, it would solve many of the steadily growing evils of the present electoral system, which negates all the objectives of the Constitution. The parties would be out of the race for power, since the people would decide, and take the decision out of the hands of the politicians and their rivalries. It might be an incentive to a better type of people to enter politics.

It would, by the same token, solve the question of stability. The recurring proposal for making the life of the legislatures a mandatory five years would create more problems than it would solve. A minority government would, under the five-year rule, feel less constrained to be accountable and the legislators, freed from the fear of possibly losing their seats in an election, would play at making and unmaking PMs and CMs, selling their support to whoever will make them ministers.

At the very least, the commission's proposals should be carefully considered.