Why I Will Vote for an Independent Candidate This Election

I do not, not even for a moment, doubt that vibrant and functioning democracy requires an equally vibrant and functioning party system. I have no doubt at all that the biggest disaster that can befall our country is to have all our MPs elected as independents. Parties bring focus on ideas, discipline, and economy of effort in mobilizing public opinion and meeting the collective aspirations of the people.

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Prominent MPs like DR Bimal Jalan and Mr Rajeev Chandrashekhar speaking from their experience,feel independent MPs are handicapped, to use Dr Jalan,s words, “in influencing public policy, legislation and accountability of ministers for action taken(or not taken)”. Given the predominance, and sometimes hegemony of the parties, an independent can achieve little; mainly confined to question hour. Even then the answers given by the Executive branch of government are so evasive that Parliament has little chance of pinning down the incompetent and weeding them out.

Despite these compelling arguments for voting against I will be voting for an independent candidate.

Why?

Firstly, currently I feel political party as an association of people with same or similar ideology for achieving public as good as dead. Now the purpose to reads ‘private good’ instead of ‘public good’ and ideology ‘to capture executive power at any cost’. How else can one explain the following?

• Party candidates resigning immediately after election and switching parties for personal gain/ power. Do you think the party ideologies are so flippant that you can seamlessly move from one party to other? Does the rousing welcome such turncoats receive from party top leadership indicate bareness of ideas and plans of action to enthuse the public, and have to depend on the local power broker.

Do you for a moment accept that such deliverance of power is not without any gains to the deliverer? Parties are assembling and trading winnable members, same way as professional sports league trade players a ‘La IPL (Indian Political League; to barrow from Rajdip Sardesai’.

• The spectacle of distributing party tickets where the highest donor to the party war chest gets the ticket. That is only first step. Thereafter he has to ensure his own victory if he has to have any chance for recovering the money he has donated, which means more expenditure. Many a times the money involved is big enough to fund sizable social project, that is if the candidate was so socially disposed. No marks for guessing that the candidate has to recover at least his investment from governmental spending by organising a recovery racket through contractor and bureaucracy . Where then is the party or its ideology?

• Formation of small parties with the purpose exploiting the amplified power they wield and the ‘moolha’ they can extract. Magnitude of this ‘King Maker’ leverage is far higher than one gets by joining a big party, compact and with the ability switch loyalties to any ruling coalition without attracting anti-defection laws. This is a winning strategy all the way by combining the scale of a Party and flexibility of an Independent

Secondly, Parliamentary control over Executive at best it is notional, if not abondoned. The Executive has tamed the Legislature. Even in best of times legislative control over the executive is gross in nature; not fine or minute. That is how it should be; it is the privilege of the Executive to implement the Legislative intent. Today Executive has evolved methods to appease individual member’s requirement for executive power and weaken the apatite for exercising legislative control. See how they have done it.

• Area Development Fund Allotted to the Parliamentarians. Executing development projects is an executive function. When a parliamentarian decides and executes any work in his area is the work executive, or legislative, in nature? If it is executive is he answerable to the Chief Executive: the Prime Minister. If so where is the separation of executive and legislative functions? Is it not a case of buying peace and consent of Legislative, has not the executive tamed the legislative.

• Offices of Profit. Parliamentary control over executive as envisaged in the constitution us through ‘Council of Minister’; who have to be Members of Parliament and answerable to it. Offering and accepting any other post in the Government is an attempt to dilute this cardinal principle. We have many Members of Parliament being appointed as Chairman of government controlled boards. If this is not taming of the power of Legislative by the Executive then what is?

Thirdly, currently internal functioning of party is autocratic and cannot be good for democracy. Democracy requires evolution of aspirations and opinions with involvement of people at all levels of society. Role of political leadership is to educate the people and then help them in taking an informed decision, or forming a reasoned opinion. This entails skill in espousing of ideas, moderating discussion and evolving consensus.

It is very hard to accept that those who do not have the patience to listen to differing views inside their own parties can suddenly evolve this ability in the Parliament, or public debate elsewhere. Is it not true that parties do not have inner party democracy? Are they not either dictatorship of a single charismatic leader who can attract votes or collective tyranny of few mutually loyal individuals who control the party mechanism? What reason can you attribute to the following other than lack democratic ethos?

• Ticket aspirants running to appeal to the High Command rather than pleading with the local functionaries of the party from the area they wish to represent.

• Appointing people to various party posts by the High Command, MP MLA etc to posts which parties themselves say are to be filled through election.

Lastly, is it not better to have a voice, however feeble, that represents our views, our aspirations, our needs and our dreams on the floor of the Parliament as against the Voice of Greed, Voice of Money, Voice of Violence and Voice of Arrogance?

Do we not believe that we have a duty to ensure that people’s representatives represent people’s views fearlessly and are not compromised by the Executive through unconstitutional means of dispensing money, office or any other favour?

Until a political party that is internally democratic, chooses candidates that represent the aspirations of the people, select candidates from the best talent in legislature and governance the country can offer, that preaches and practices inclusive growth for every section of society, that respects and empowers equally all the three pillars of governance; Legislative, Executive and Judiciary emerges I will vote for worthy independent candidate.