By Melarbor Thabah
India is a nation profuse with elections where billions of rupees of public money are spent every 5 years for holding elections of sheer opulence that could have been spent to better people’s lives by sanctioning government jobs in service departments like Police, Education, Health, PWD, PHED, Municipal, and Power. Considering the increasing population, public services need to increase commensurately. This should be the top most priority to create stable financial jobs. Though elections are important, introspection into municipal elections which are not indispensable, is needed to eradicate such unnecessary elections. There is also a need to limit and put a final bar on the number of legislators—MPs, MLAs, and Legislators in the local bodies of the Autonomous District Councils and Panchayats. There is also a need to jettison the Legislative Councils. All these factors seep away the nation’s financial resources. Here is my elaboration on the statement made above.
Municipal Elections: A state like Delhi, as a case study, spends approximately ₹18 crores for conducting municipal elections. The figures will be more or less the same in the remaining states. States spend crores of rupees per year for the salaries of mayors, deputy mayors, councillors also known as ward commissioners. The election money spent on frivolous municipal elections could have been better utilized for other resource allocation demands.
Rajya Sabha MPs: The Central Government allocates approximately ₹99 crore per year exclusively for the salaries, allowances and direct travel benefits for the 250 Rajya Sabha MPs. Such extra expenses could have been curtailed for developing the nation’s vital critical socio-economic infrastructure.
State MLCs: The collective spending of the preferentially treated six states which have Members of the Legislative Councils (MLCs) totalling 405 MLCs is approximately ₹61 crores per year spent for their salaries, allowances and direct travel benefits are determined entirely by the respective State Legislatures under Article 195 has negligible expense variations between states drawn completely from the Consolidated Fund of the State for which money could have been spent for other important needs of those states.
Curative Proposition for Municipalities: Articles 243P to 243ZG including the 74th amendment must be re-amended to discontinue elections at all levels of the municipalities, renaming and converting those posts to executive promotional posts akin to government servants based on promotion thus functioning like a government department. India’s habit of replicating colonial era functioning styles is bland which necessitates changes.
Curative Proposition for the Rajya Sabha: Article 80 which calls for establishing 250 seats in the Rajya Sabha (12 nominated MPs and 238 MPs elected only by MLAs), needs to be mandatorily amended to 100 seats: 95 MPs elected by MLAs and 5 nominated MPs from any subject, service, sport or profession. The 5 nominated MPs will hold this post for 3 years and the remainder 3 years can be interchanged from amongst those subjects – services et.al. Nominated MPs should speak on various state and national issues. A subsequent amendment bill must be introduced and enacted into law whereby the remainder 150 seats in the Rajya Sabha must be transferred to the Lok Sabha to make it to 643 seats with an additional sanction of 7 more seats to make a round figure of 700 Lok Sabha seats which should never ever be increased to economize public spending and promote austerity.
Reasons for 100 seats in Rajya Sabha: These members are not directly elected by the people but by MLAs exclusively. Transferring these 150 seats to the Lok Sabha is innately logical because Lok Sabha MPs are directly elected by the people and hence holds more weightage. A nation like the USA which is more than 9.9 million square kilometres in size has an Upper House called the Senate with exactly 100 senators. India is three times smaller than the US. Having 250 MPs, which involves an extra step for bill retention and passage, especially since these MPs are elected solely by MLAs, demands curtailment for economization.
Equitable Credo Seat Distribution: The 150 seats transferred from the Rajya Sabha to the Lok Sabha, along with the 7 additional seats sanctioned for the Lok Sabha should be allocated to Indian regions neglected for the past 7 decades, such as Naxalite areas, North East India, the islands and other parts of India facing underdevelopment due to under-representation. Strategically important regions must be properly represented like the disputed and largest state of North East India, Arunachal Pradesh which has only 2 MPs to represent this whole state instead of 10 MPs as is the case with disputed Ladakh UT. The extremely strategic Andaman and Nicobar Islands which are widely disbursed and sparsed requires representation per habitable island. These three strategic areas which are main focal points of China, mandates thorough representation. North Eastern states, where the population is widely dispersed across large regions, require an increase in Lok Sabha seats. It is illogical and unfathomable that the MP scheme of only 5 crores per annum be distributed by an MP to 7-8 districts where the increasing population ranges from 1.5 to 2 million people. Under- representation in the Lok Sabha is one of the many reasons for under-development and stagnated backwardness in areas of India, often compounded by less weighted speeches from our MPs who are allowed to speak only when the parliamentary session is nearly over and most MPs have left at the session’s end dates. This is brazen discrimination of the highest order by the parliament secretariat.
Population should never be the sole barometer for determining the number of seats since this incentivizes population explosion like Uttar Pradesh which has to reproduce rapidly to maintain their 80 MP dominance at the Lok Sabha. Few states by virtue of their high population do not represent the entire nation. The current barometer represents a regressive mentality where over population and resulting pollution is rewarded. Factors such as “Size of the State” and “Geographical Strategic Importance” should also be given utmost weightage.
Curative Proposition for Legislative Councils: Articles 169 and 171, which call for the establishment of Legislative Councils must be revoked in its entirety to enable the 6 states to spend this allotted public money for development with prudent financial utilization. State Legislative Assemblies are fully equipped to deal with all State issues.
Women’s Reservation: The Indian Government must recognize that India has become a “Reservation State,” which the world has noted. Women’s reservation in politics must strictly be 2% out of the existing number of seats either at the Parliament, Assembly et.al strictly. More than 2% would further enhance India’s reservation country status. Playing reservation politics for votes at the expense of economization and overall development of India sets a bad precedence.
Analysis on Reservation: Financial frugality is also caused by reservations demanding extra sanctioned seats for SCs, STs, OBCs, Women at the central, state and local bodies. It is my expressed logical opinion that reservation as a whole must be rooted out in all its forms on August 15, 2047 which will mark 100 years of India’s independence. For the remaining 26 years, Indian governments must henceforth ensure that the non-creamy layer – poor people from rural and urban areas should merit 70% of the reservation. One should never forget that the main aim of reservation is to uplift those who had been disenfranchised by the caste system and geographical location of the poor rural tribals of North East India and the islands.
Reservation classification of non-creamy poor must be based on the Socio-Economic Census and NITI Council classification of poverty which must be in consonance with UNDP, WB and IMF classification of poverty. No representative should sign any document certifying a person as BPL to avoid any unwanted political interference across India. Only a collegium of experts at the district level should decide who is a BPL following the set criterias. The Father of the Constitution BR Ambedkar had said that Reservation is “Provisional” and the Supreme Court has stated that “Reservation cannot go on forever”.
Seats Number in the Panchayats and District Councils: The number of seats in the 3 Levels of Panchayats must have limits and the Autonomous Councils must have a maximal 30 seats and minimal 25 seats irrespective of the population to minimize state and central expenditure allocation. Quality governance in lieu of quantity is paramount.
Economization: “Economize” is key for maximizing socio-economic development of the country. Whether they are Municipal elections, existence of State Legislative Councils, existence of 250 members in the Rajya Sabha, Local body seats and Reservation manifestation demands, tantamounts to financial frugality. By expunging avertable entities, economic resources can be prudently utilized to take India and its people to great heights where the terms economization and economize assume their true meaning and projection.
