Criminalisation and corruption hurt electoral system, says K.K. Venugopal

April 5, 2009: The Hindu

CHENNAI: Criminalisation of politics and corruption undermine the democratic principles of the electoral system, K.K. Venugopal, senior advocate, Supreme Court, said on Saturday. He made suggestions for neutralising these negative aspects, to redemocratise the electoral system.

Delivering the Fourth Rajaji Memorial Lecture organised by the Triplicane Cultural Academy and the Kasturi Srinivasan Library here, Mr. Venugopal said that on the threshold of the elections to the 15th Lok Sabha, political parties were vying with one another, at the cost of the model code of conduct, to win votes.

Talking on ‘Redemocratisation of the electoral system,’ Mr. Venugopal first focussed on criminalisation of politics — the tendency of parties to rely on gangsters, history sheeters and goondas and their muscle power to win elections. Internet data revealed that as many as 93 members of Parliament had criminal charges pending against them.

Disqualification

Mr. Venugopal said Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act talked of disqualification of the contestant on conviction and sentencing for not less than two years. Also, any person who had been declared guilty under special laws by a court of law would be disqualified irrespective of the number of years of conviction. The principle behind the move to protect a candidate from disqualification was the presumption of innocence. But it would be incorrect to apply this principle in a “wooden fashion¶ without taking into account the damage that might be caused to the democratic process.

Mr. Venugopal urged the Election Commission not to discriminate between taking action against a candidate with criminal charges pending against him or her and action against sitting MPs or MLAs facing criminal charges. Mr. Venugopal’s suggestion to prevent corruption and regulate expenditure by candidates was to get the state to fund the bulk of the election expenses. A corpus fund could be set up and corporates willing to donate could pool their money into this general fund. This could then be disbursed to relieve political parties and candidates of part of the expenses. The Supreme Court advocate also proposed that the negative vote or expression of no confidence against every one of the contestants be used forcefully. In addition to the names of the candidates, the machine should carry a button with the legend “None of the Above¶ for the benefit of those who wanted to cast the negative vote. If, in any constituency, the negative votes exceeded the number of votes secured by the successful candidate, then the election should be declared null and void, Mr. Venugopal explained.

The former Chief Election Commissioner, T.S. Krishnamurthy, commenting on by-elections, said if a vacancy arose during the first half of the tenure of the House, the Election Commission should consider conducting a by-election. If it arose during the second half, the party must be asked to nominate a candidate to take the place or the person who secured the second place should take charge.

N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, who chaired the session, said the electoral system of the country was extremely complex, involving over 700 million eligible voters. There were debates on the lengthy process involved, the massive requirement of resources, including security forces, and the huge costs that made contesting polls nearly prohibitive for the aspirants, he said.

G. Narayanaswamy, president, Triplicane Cultural Academy, and V. Murali, vice-president, spoke.