Top court can take lead

Reforms are basically meant to address the draw backs in the existing situation and also to keep up with the changing needs in the country. Reforms also challenge the status quoists and disturb the existing power structure as well as institutional arrangements, even if they may be holding us back and could be infested with corruption and exploitation.

They adversely affect the existing beneficiaries who have considerable influence and control over a considerable number of people. It, therefore, requires enormous political will and courage to call out such forces and introduce some of the most difficult reforms.

It is surprising that no government has ever talked about the need for reforms in the political parties (mother of all reforms), which are the very bedrock of our parliamentary democracy. India is a secular and democratic republic and the sole objective of all the political parties is to contest elections and form governments at the Centre and states, which are required to be run on secular and democratic principles.

It is equally surprising that they do not find any mention in our constitution and there are no regulations in place to ensure that these parties observe secular and democratic principles in their own functioning. And when the Central Information Commission and the Election Commission say that they are public institutions, they claim that they cannot be regulated by the government as they are private ones.

Let me examine the basic contention of these parties that they are private bodies and not public institutions. These parties, when in power, want other institutions, like the national federations of various sports etc, to have restrictions on the tenure of their elected offices as they perform some of the functions of government. Is it not strange or illogical to contend that these parties, which run the affairs of the country and the states, are not performing the functions of the governments and they are only private bodies?

They are the law makers and have benefitted themselves with various concessions at public expense. Obviously, they do not want themselves to be brought under any kind of regulations as they will lose the freedom to run their private fiefdoms.

Now let us have a look at the state of affairs in these political parties. The main malady about political parties has been their proliferation based on considerations of caste, community, religion or the personal ambitions of certain individuals seeking shortcuts to power. Today, over 2,300 political parties are registered with the ECI. Most political parties are run as private entities, wholly owned and managed by a leader or a family. Leadership is hereditary. Most of these parties use money and even muscle power during the elections. They give tickets even to those who are involved in serious criminal offences. Their sole objective is to, somehow, win as many seats as possible.

The time has come to call their bluff. They are public bodies and like all other public bodies their functioning needs to be regulated. At present, the ECI has only the function of registering and recognising them as national and state level parties. It has no power to de-register them or regulate their functioning. It is absolutely necessary that political parties should be allowed to contest elections and be part of any secular and democratic government only if these are run on secular and democratic principles. There is an urgent need to reform the political system in the country.

Here are some of the key reforms which should be implemented to ensure that we have a more responsible, transparent, secular and democratic political system, which is accountable to the public. Political parties should find a mention in the Constitution and their registration, regulation and de-registration should be entrusted to the ECI.

Stringent conditions

The ECI should lay down stringent conditions for their registration and recognition - periodic elections to be held under the supervision of ECI, their audit of accounts including special audit by Comptroller and Auditor General of India, if considered necessary by the ECI, limiting the tenure of elected offices in the party, ban on switching sides after the elections and any other appropriate conditions to ensure that these parties run on secular and democratic principles.

The ECI should not register and recognise any party whose very name may betray its caste, community or religious identity. They should be required to publish their annual reports which should include audited statement of accounts. The Commission should also have the authority to suspend registration as well as to de-register the party if it violates any of the conditions of registration. The appeal against the decision of ECI should lie only with the Supreme Court.

People want good governance and they know that the current crop of political parties cannot provide that as most of them are divided on caste, community, religion and regional basis and their leaders cannot look beyond their narrow interests. The youth of India is highly mobile and nationalistic and they will welcome these reforms. We all want a truly secular, democratic and developed nation and these reforms will help us in achieving this goal.

I am sure that no political party would support such reforms. But I can only say that there will be no public outcry against such reforms. I think the only way to introduce such reforms is through the intervention of the Supreme Court. I urge some of the senior lawyers of Supreme Court, who have no political affiliations/biases, to move the SC and request it to direct the government to implement these reforms. Alternatively, the SC should, suo motu, direct the political parties to submit their response to this proposal and, after hearing them, pass appropriate orders in this regard. This mother of all reforms will transform the political culture of India and will also encourage good people to enter politics.

(The writer is a retired IAS officer)