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Rajiv Shukla

Stupid, stupid electorate!

I totally disagree with the view that the Indian electorate knows what it is doing. With due apologies to everyone, I would like to say that India has got the most stupid voters. For the fourth time running, we Indians have given a hung Parliament without realising the consequences of instability. It is more shocking since, this time around, stability was the major issue -- and our voters have gone and given a multiple fractured mandate!

Verdict 1998 is worse than verdict 1996. In the last Lok Sabha, we had 28 political parties. This time, even as everybody talked about stability, we have 42.

What I presume is that our voters did not vote on national issues, but purely went by small considerations like casteism, regionalism and incumbency factor.

They must distinguish between the issues of a Parliament election and assembly election. If they are unhappy with the state government, they vote against it in the Lok Sabha election, which is quite funny. They have to make a distinction between the state and Central governments.

For example, N Chandrababu Naidu is playing a destructive role in national politics. The voters of Andhra Pradesh should not have given any seats to him; they should have voted for either the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party allies.

Unfortunately, they have given him 12 seats, and he is turning out to be the king-maker of India. This is not something new. Andhra Pradesh has done it in the past, too.

I have a serious grievance against educated people who are opinion mobilisers. They do not vote. They sit at home and celebrate the polls as a holiday. When a political crisis occurs and instability causes harm to the economy and society, these same people criticise the politicians and voters.

This time, thanks to the Election Commission and Doordarshan, the voting percentage has slightly increased. The government should frame a law that those who do not vote will not get jobs, banks loans, ration cards and electricity connections.

Casteism and communalism is basically responsible for a hung Parliament or assembly. Instead of judging a political party by its performance, our voters vote for the candidate of their own caste, or to the party headed by the leader of their community. This has destroyed the basic fabric of democracy. No political party should be allowed to play the caste card. And no one should be allowed to field candidates of a particular caste in a constituency which has more than 100,000 voters of that caste. Political parties should be discouraged from distributing tickets on caste and communal lines.

To avoid the instability factor, I strongly feel that the prime minister and chief ministers should be directly elected by the people for a term of five years. In fact, several regional parties, including the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham, have included this demand in their manifesto.

There is also the suggestion that the term of the Lok Sabha be fixed for five years, that it should not be dissolved before that -- governments may come and go, but the Lok Sabha should last the full five years.

This suggestion can also be considered, but it will provide ample opportunity for horse-trading. The Anti-Defection Law also needs to be amended as it does not serve its purpose -- the requisite strength for a split in a party should be made half the total strength.

Rajiv Shukla