Go for electoral reforms, save the next Narendra Kumar!

Will Narendra Kumar’s gruesome murder change anything? On 5th Match 2012, while attempting to highlight the need for Electoral Reforms , I wrote:

“By April, annoying facts pertaining to gross abuse of power, will fall by the wayside once the Political machinery starts humming in these States. The spin-doctoring, political vendettas and blatant misrepresentation and obfuscation of facts will assume centre-stage; and we the people, will resume our collective ain’t-it-awful-but-what-can-can-we-do stance. Occasionally, we will erupt in child-like glee when another Politician bites the dust and is put on the bus to Tihar.”

I was way off the mark. April is too far off!

Within four days of the dance of democracy in five states being projected into our living rooms, we have already seen 2 innocents getting killed in UP as a direct outcome of the election process, journalists being threatened and attacked, political party workers venting their ire on some hapless residents in some localities in UP (your guess is as good as mine on the motives, suffice to say that voting patterns in the said locality were possibly the reason for the attacks)

When it comes to resuming “our collective ain’t-it-awful-but-what-can-we-do-stance”, I was once again, wrong; we did utter that phrase, sighing deeply, but not because of events in UP.

In a completely unconnected incident, which had nothing to do with the elections, yet everything to do with electoral reforms, the life of a young IPS officer has been snuffed out in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh. I don’t know about you, but this particular news item felt like a cold icicle going through my heart.

It does not take a huge leap of imagination to nudge the needle of suspicion towards the unholy nexus between politics, business and crime. After all, can the “Mining Mafia” operating in various states flourish without political patronage? There is, as is to be expected, great outrage all around – which will possibly fizzle out in a few days as we go back to “getting a life”. I touch nothing, nothing touches me, and all that jazz. Extreme disenchantment, frustration and helplessness leading to a permanent state of debilitating apathy, save for an occasional jolt which touches something deep within us, however fleetingly…

Which then, brings me right back to the issue of electoral reforms. Every single incident mentioned above, and a few more that will happen in the near or distant future, are a direct outcome of the lack of electoral reforms in this country. I can quote from white papers, recommendations, and research papers again, but that would be a waste of space.

To keep things simple, let me just say that the relevant sections which are connected to the incidents mentioned above, fall under criminalisation of politics, funding of elections, transparency in political funding and false declaration provided in the nomination forms. (If I am incorrect on some minor technicalities, I will be happy to be corrected)

For those of you who are wondering what electoral reforms, or the lack thereof, have to do with political party workers descending on a particular locality with violent intentions, I quote from a background paper on Electoral Reforms (2010) by the Core Committee, Ministry Of Law & Justice (co-sponsored by the Election Commission Of India) :

“The Election Commission recommends an amendment be made to the Conduct of Elections Rules to provide for the use of “totalizer‟ for counting of votes cast at more than one polling station where EVMs are used, so that the trend of voting in individual polling station areas does not get divulged and the electors may not be subjected to any harassment or victimization on that account”.

The current CEC SY Quraishi, due to retire in June, stated in a recent interview that he will retire a content man, but “if the government acts on long-pending electoral reforms, I will be happier”.

Final Word: Narendra Kumar, and many others before him have lost their lives due to the “supposedly” non-existent nexus between crime, business interests and politics. Period. Many more will die. I wish I could be naïve enough to believe such lawlessness could be tackled by simple things like empowering the police and the administration – fact is, it cannot be. Cleaning up of the routes taken by pilgrims headed for a five-year term in temples of democracy, is where the long-term remedy lies, and electoral reforms are a step in that direction.

The question that bothers me is, “Who will take the lead”? And when someone does, will the so-called intelligentsia assert its non-existent intellectual superiority even as they discredit the crusader once more, the obvious sanctity of “The Cause” notwithstanding?! Or perhaps we will all get caught up in the etymology of the word “crusade”?