Thursday, 12 February 2015

Electoral Reform needed in India:
                        A welfare Government should fulfil basic necessities of Common Man to provide good health scheme, quality education at affordable cost,  creation of employment opportunities  etc. The interesting point in Delhi Result is there is no recognised Opposition like in Parliament.  It’s dangerous sign for a  democracy.  AAP's real challenge is similar to Modi's after May 2014: excessive expectations. But Modi got a mere mandate. Kejriwal has got an overwhelming one. His fall can be greater if he does not meet the greatest of great expectations
                        To make the Union Cabinet effective & fulfill the aspirations & sentiments of all in the country, the Constitution should be amended by giving equal representation in the Cabinet Rank Ministers to all Federal States. If no Member elected from any State in such a case, the competent  should nominate a Right person from his own Party or any intellectual through Rajya Sabha & nominate him in the Cabinet. Giving more representation to only few States & no representation to many Federal States is not good for a Healthy Democracy. It is also presumed that no where in the Constitution states 10% Members of total Parliament mandatory to become LOP. The existing convention of minimum 10% of total Members of Parliament to select Leader of Opposition in Parliament may be deleted and in its place second largest single Party should be elected as Leader of Opposition (as suggested in the case of Judicial Reform Bill etc.) in the present prevailing situation to safeguard the interest of our Democracy since we need strong & effective Opposition (Ombudsman) Incidentally it may be worth to mention here that no party has ever before won more than half the seats with a vote share of just about 31% as BJP now got which means about 69% of voters are against them. In a simple term, a minority BJP Govt. running the majority administration with No. game with our present Electoral System. That is why our Electoral System need Reform in tune with changing times among others proportionate vote share should also be made one of the many factors to decide the issue. For instance a National party which got 4% vote share in the recently concluded Parliament Election, 2014 got zero Representation in Parliament while some Regional Parties with less than 4% vote share got 37 MPs/34 MPs etc. respectively. Is it not an anomaly? .
                      Let us forget affiliations of Political Parties. How the 10% representation fixed, is it on scientific lines? We have to discuss & debate more to have LOP in changed scenario. It is also really important that the Opposition leader keeps a close eye and ear on what the public is saying, needs and wants because problems are often caused by the Government not delivering.The election results  shows way for Electoral Reforms including Proportional Representation of votes polled etc. one among many factors to elect People’s Representatives to State Assemblies & Parliament as well.  A  National debate on Electoral Reform is the needed now.