{"id":30800,"date":"2018-10-26T18:15:54","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T12:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=30800"},"modified":"2018-10-26T18:15:54","modified_gmt":"2018-10-26T12:45:54","slug":"it-is-time-to-have-a-debate-on-proportional-representation-says-ex-cec-s-y-quraishi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/it-is-time-to-have-a-debate-on-proportional-representation-says-ex-cec-s-y-quraishi\/","title":{"rendered":"It is time to have a debate on proportional representation, says ex-CEC S.Y. Quraishi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/interview\/it-is-time-to-have-a-debate-on-proportional-representation\/article22951889.ece\"><b>It is time to have a debate on proportional representation, says ex-CEC S.Y. Quraishi<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Various electoral reforms are currently being debated, from improving transparency in party funding to holding simultaneous elections.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Electoral bonds:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Electoral bonds, as announced by the Union Finance Minister, hold the promise of making political funding transparent, which has been a long-standing demand of the Election Commission (EC).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Benefit of electoral bonds:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cash transactions will not happen as people will have to buy bonds through the bank.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Why electoral bonds are significant?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Without transparency in political funding, free and fair elections.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government has decided to give precedence to the donors\u2019 wish to be anonymous.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There was a CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) report of 2015 which said that donors want anonymity for two reasons:<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1- \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0other parties would make a beeline for their donations, and<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2- \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fear of political reprisal from those not getting the donation.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The donors\u2019 desire for transparency has got preference over citizens\u2019 desire for transparency and the people\u2019s right to know, which is more important in a democracy and critical for the fairness of elections.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Has there been any reprisal against a donor in the past?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The solution lies in having a National Electoral Fund, where companies can donate without indicating preference for any political party and thereby avoiding the reprisal they claim to fear.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fund can be distributed transparently on the basis of actual performance.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Will that money be enough for political parties?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Between 2009 and 2014, the total donation shown by all political parties was <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u20b9<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4,000 crore.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With all their efforts at blackmailing, arm-twisting and corruption, they got <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u20b9<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4,000 crore.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They get <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u20b9<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5,500 crore with dignity, by cheque, based on their performance, on objective criteria.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All political parties have been demanding an end to electoral corruption, and state funding of elections.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Simultaneous elections:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Arguments in favour:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People love elections as the vote is the only power they have.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Election time provides work opportunities to lakhs of youth<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Frequent elections are good for the economy as the money goes from the rich to the poor.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">National and local issues don\u2019t get mixed up.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Regional parties have an increasingly important role to play.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Argument against:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dislocation of normal life.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Huge cost involved.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Money in elections is the fountainhead of all corruption.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Communalism and casteism are at a peak during elections.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Hateful, divisive politics is the consequence of frequent elections.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>First- past \u2013the post system (FPTP):<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is demand for replacing FPTP with proportional representation (PR).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT):<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every political party has raised questions about EVMs at different times.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In any case, after introduction of voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT), there is no ground left to quibble.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> VVPAT makes the system transparent and foolproof.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The EC has now committed to the Supreme Court that every election in future would be with 100% VVPAT.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections were the first-ever full VVPAT elections.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Credibility of the EC:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The problem lies in the process of appointment of Election Commissioners.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are appointed by the government of the day with no consultation with the Opposition.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most powerful electoral body in the world has the most defective system of appointment.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is time to have a debate on proportional representation, says ex-CEC S.Y. Quraishi Context: Various electoral reforms are currently being debated, from improving transparency in party funding to holding simultaneous elections. Electoral bonds: \u00a0\u00a0Electoral bonds, as announced by the Union Finance Minister, hold the promise of making political funding transparent, which has been a&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/it-is-time-to-have-a-debate-on-proportional-representation-says-ex-cec-s-y-quraishi\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">It is time to have a debate on proportional representation, says ex-CEC S.Y. Quraishi<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}