We do not tire of shouting from the rooftops that India is the greatest democracy in the world and cite the cases of banana republics, where elections are rarely held, to prove this point. "Dil bahlane ke liye" this is a good argument but in reality we have a phoney electoral system. That is why candidates win a seat by securing just 20% of the votes. This in reality means that 80% of the electorate voted against a winning candidate or did not vote at all. How then can such a winner be called a representative of the people?
Well, that's how our system is, which is why I call it a phoney electoral system. Now sample more: Never in the history of India has any political party come to power with more than 50% of the votes that were cast, in its favour. Except once. That's was the 1984 elections, which were held under the shadow of Mrs Indira Gandhi's assassination. Rajiv Gandhi's Congress won 51% of the votes and 415 seats out of 545 in Lok Sabha or 77% of the seats. This is the distorted system that we have: a lesser percentage of votes converts into a much bigger percentage of seats. Since all of us look at seats and not carefully at the votes secured by the winner we fall into an illusion, a "maya jaal". We think the winning party has got a massive mandate or has swept the polls!
In recent times, ruling parties have come to power winning a much lesser aggregate of votes and this is true of both the Congress and the BJP. Both of them have secured power at the Centre by polling just about 28%er cent of the votes. So, how representative are they? What is the popular mandate they have?
Take this hypothetical example and see the distortion in the system: Imagine that all your MPs have been elected with 30% votes. Now for a bill to be passed in the Lok Sabha and become a law (which you and me have to adhere to) requires 50% of the MPs voting for it. That means 15% of the people's mandate (50% of 30%). So without 85% of the mandate of the people, the lawmakers can thrust a law on to us! Now you know why so many laws in the country are followed in breach?
But don't lose heart. These distortions can easily be corrected if we change our electoral system. This system that we have is called the first-past-the-post system (FPTP) and like everything else we have borrowed it from the Angrez. The rest of Europe does not follow this system. There they have more representative systems like proportional representation or double ballot. There is also the better single transferable votes system as followed in Australia. In Germany you have a hybrid system: 50% of the seats are won by the FPTP and the other 50% by proportional representation.
Let me tell you, to change the system does not require any constitutional amendment. The constitution merely says that there will universal franchise in India and that each person will be eligible for one vote only. The electoral system was enacted by the Representation of the People Act 1950 and 1951. Merely by amending the law we can change the system. But the question is: who will bell the cat? Certainly not our present crop of politicians who have got used to operate and win by it. You and I, dear readers, will have to take the initiative.
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