Indian Political System-2

8/13/2019 Indian Political System-2

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Indian Political System - 2


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ARE WE A

SUCCESSFULDEMOCRACY ? ?


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First Past The Post System

Candidate A: 30%

Candidate B: 30%

Candidate C: 40%

(Rejected by 60%)FPTP used in

- Elections to Lok Sabha

- Elections to Legislative Assemblies of states

56.97%Voter turn-out (2009 General

Elections)

Is it ELECTION or REJECTION ? ?


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Representative Government!!!

MINISTER MINISTRYAs % of Actual

Votes Polled

As % of Total

Eligible Voters

P. Chidambaram Finance 43.13 30.61

Veerappa MoilyPetroleum & Natural

Gas39.90 27.17

Kapil Sibal Communication & IT 59.67 32.95

Sushilkumar

ShindeHome Affairs 52.15 24.31

Manmohan Singh PRIME MINISTER NA NA

A.K.Antony Defence NA NAGhulam Nabi

Azad

Health & Family

WelfareNA NA

Anand Sharma Textiles NA NA

Should voting be made compulsory ??


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Itz a Family Affair !!

Family members in 2009 Elections

Sonia GandhiRahul Gandhi

Sharad PawarSupriya Sule

Sisir AdhikarySubendhu Adhikari Ajit SinghJayant Choudhary

Farooq AbdullahSachin Pilot

M K AzhagiriDayanidhi Maran

Mulayam Singh YadavAkhilesh Yadav

ADMINISTRATION: A hereditary skill

? ?


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Youth in Parliament

(2009 General Elections)

76 yr old Manmohan VS 81 yr old Advani Total no. of MPs below 40 yrs: 81

50 of the 81 come from political families

9 (from the remaining 31) are from studentpolitics

22 out of the 25 young MPs from Congress

have relatives in politics

Every young Minister in UPA is a dynast

A common man entering politics:

POSSIBLE ? ?


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Criminalization of Politics

15th

Lok Sabha Elections (2009)Total Members: 552

One MP represents 1.8 million

people

- -

TYPE OF CHARGES No. of MPs facing

Criminal charges 162Charges of murder 14

Attempt to murder 20

Cheating (Sec 420) 11

Abduction charges 13

TOTAL About 200


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UNParliamentary Behavior

Attendance of members

MPLADS (Local Area Development

Scheme) Behavior in the House

Horse-trading (Defection)

Parliamentary privileges

Cash for Query

R t Hik i S l i f


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Recent Hike in Salaries of

MPs 300% increase in salary

(Rs 16000 to Rs 50000)

100% increase in Constituency Expenses

(Rs 20000 to Rs 40000)

Advance for purchase of vehicle hiked

(Rs 1 lakh to Rs 4 lakh)

Pension (Rs 8000 to Rs 40000)

Addnl Cost for Govt: Rs 103.76 cr peryear

Probably the only group in India

which


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No. of Political Parties in India

(2009 General Elections)

7 - National Parties

34 - State Parties

322 - Registered (Unrecognized Parties)TOTAL: 363 + Independents

How about a single-party system like

China?

US or UK ??


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Age of Coalitions


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Coalitions in India: The

Beginning4 failed Coalitions

Coalition politics is about getting the

arithmetic right

Party in Power Duration and Fall

BJP (Vajpayee)May, 1996 13 days; Lack of numbers

United FrontJune, 1996(HD Deve Gowda) 10 months(Congress withdrawal)

United FrontApril, 1997

(I K Gujral)

11 months

(Congress withdrawal)

NDAMarch, 1998

(Vajpayee)

13 months

(AIADMK withdrawal)

C liti T d


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Coalitions: Towards

Stablization ? NDA & UPA-I completed full 5-yr terms

UPA-II entering 5thyear

Members of UPA (Congress : 204/304 seatsonly)

(271 seats required for majority !!)

India has only 6 national parties:

NCP (national) Rashtriya Lok Dal (UP)DMK (Tamilnadu) Sikkim Democratic Front

Indian Union Muslim League

(Kerala)

All India United Democratic

Front (Assam)

J&K National Conference Samajwadi Party (UP)

Kerala Congress RJD (Bihar)

VCK (Tamilnadu) BSP (national)


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ADVANTAGE:

Regional Parties


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Electoral Reforms

Abolish FPTP (Include a 2ndRound) State funding of elections ??

Candidates participating from multiple

constituencies

Declarations in election affidavits

Increase security-deposits (Now Rs.

10,000)

Exit polls and Opinion polls

Accounting by political parties


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Anti-Defection Law

10thSchedule (1985)

Introduced by Rajiv Gandhi

government

Grounds for Disqualification

- Voluntarily gives up his party

membership

- Violates party Whip

Defection of 2/3rdis treated as

MERGER


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Bureaucracy and CorruptionAsian countries bureaucracy ratings

COUNTRY RATING

India 9.21

Indonesia 8.37

China 7.11

South Korea 5.87

Japan 5.77

Hongkong 3.53

Singapore 2.25

Higher the rating, worse is theperformance !!


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Reasons for high levels of

Corruption

Value system

Minister (NOT the bureaucrat) is

accountable to Parliament Means become ends

Salaries not on par with peers in

Corporates Corrupt political masters (Vote-banks)

Power corrupts and absolute power

corrupts absolutely

Ch k B ti


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Checks on Bureaucratic

Corruption

Evaluation after 15 years

Result Framework Document

Citizens Charter Documentation of advice to

Ministers

File Notings included under RTI Appointing authority is President

ARE THESE ENOUGH ? ?


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Judiciary - Problems

3.5 Crore cases pending in Indiancourts

Unaffordable for the poor

Lengthy proceedings

Lack of efficient judicial personnel

Outdated CrPC and CPC

Corruption in judiciary

Technical nature of cases


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Judiciary - Reforms Fast Track Courts

Regional Benches of SC/HCs

Tribunals for specific matters

No. of judges to be raised

Rural courts for cheap & speedy justice

Indian Judicial Service to be created

Age old CrPC and IPC to be revised

Appointment of SC judges

Declaration by judges

Alternative modes of conflict resolution

P d f


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Procedure for

formation of new states

Article 3 of the ConstitutionProcedure:

- Prior approval of President

- Referring to state Legislative Assembly

- Bill introduced in Parliament

- Simple majority (in both Houses)

- Political Will and Parliament Bill. Thats

it!!

STATES HAVE NO SAY AT ALL !!


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ARE SMALLER STATES

BETTER ?


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Small States vs Larger States

Factors IN FAVOR OF smaller statesEconomic backwardness of sub-regions

Better governance (Administrative convenience)

Better channeling of funds

Similarity in developmental needs of sub-regions

Better democratic participation

Better use of resources

Responsive to local needs

S ll S L


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Small States vs Larger

StatesFactors AGAINST smaller states

Threat to national unity and integrity

Bigger states ensure cohesion and stability (!!!)

Lesser access to human resources

Natural resources

Easy prey for multinational companies

Politically less preferred in the age of coalitions


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How have smaller states

performed?REGION 1994 to 2001 2001 to 2009

UP 3.9 % 5.8 %

Uttarakhand 3.1 % 9.0 %

UP + Uttarakhand 3.8 % 6.1 %

MP 5.1 % 4.7 %

Chattisgarh 1.6 % 7.9 %

MP + Chattisgarh 4.1 % 5.6 %

Bihar 4.8 % 8.5 %

Jharkhand 4.6 % 8.7 %

Bihar + Jharkhand 4.8 % 8.6 %

Does SIZEreally matter?


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It is less about SIZEand

more about

GOVERNANCE


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Centres control over States

Grants in Aid (Finance Commission)

Appointment of Governor

National Development Council National Budget

President Rule

Bills reserved for President

Centres directives to states

P liti dil ti M t


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Politics diluting Monetary

Policy

RBIFormulates Monetary Policy

Objective:

- Regulate money-supply in the economy- To keep inflation under control

How can POLITICS affectMONETARY POLICY?


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Economy in Action

Aggregate

DemandIncreased

capitalinvestmen

t

Increasedproductio

nMore

employment

Increasedsalaries

Increasedspending

Government disrupts the cycle !!!

Governmentdisbursescash viaschemes

andsubsidies


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Section 66A of IT Act

Any person who sends by means of a computer

resource or a communication device any

information that is grossly offensive or has

menacingcharacter; or any information which he

knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing

annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction,insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred,

or ill-will, persistently makes by making use of

such computer resource or a communication

device, any electronic mail or electronic mailmessage for the purpose of causing annoyance

or inconvenienceor to deceive or to mislead the

addressee or recipient about the origin of such

messages shall be punishable with imprisonment

for a term which may extend to three years and

Sec 66A vs Fundamental


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Sec 66A vs Fundamental

Rights Introduced in 2009

Offence under Section 66A is cognisable, non-bailable, and the police have power to arrest

without a warrant

Imprisonment (up to three years) is an automatic

resultbecause the courts do NOT have the powerof choosing imprisonment or fine

Article 19(1)(a): guarantees freedom of speech &

expression to all citizens

Article 19(2): state can impose reasonablerestrictions on this right in the interest of public

order

a hidden tool to restrict free speech in a

democratic country


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Indian Political System-2