Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India

Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India

The Path We Traversed

The Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India was launched in October 2008 after having seriously considered the non-representative and non-participatory nature of the First Past The Post electoral system that is in vogue in India. Power as participation should lead to participatory democracy. Unfortunately the Indian electoral system denies to a large extent not only participation but also genuine participants to many sections of Indian population. Friends of Dalit Solidarity Platform in Germany, especially Mr. Walter Hahn casually suggested that we have a look at other electoral systems in the world, especially in Germany. From an Indian point of view this made sense as German electoral system has taken many difficult steps to arrest the re-emergence of fascist forces in Germany.  

1. A Research was taken up by M C Raj on the German Electoral System and as a consequence the book Dalitocracy, Theory and Praxis of Dalit Politics was published and has been widely distributed for general education. It did not stop with being a book but stimulated a lot of discussion in many circles on the need for reconsidering the Indian Majoritarian Electoral System.

2. It was decided to launch a Campaign to bring about proportionate electoral system and the launching took place in Dhaka in an International Conference in October 2008. In this launching Conference a Core Group of CERI was set up with State Coordinators from 15 States.

3. The International Conference was followed up by a National Conference in Delhi where interested people from different parts of India took part. Participants from Nepal along with their present Chief Election Commissioner placed a formal request to CERI to start a chapter of CERI in Nepal and also organize an International Conference in Kathmandu in view of the urgency for integrating the Proportionate Electoral System into the new Constitution of Nepal.

4. Subsequently seventeen State Conferences and innumerable District level Conferences have taken place all over India.

5. The Communist Party of India has officially declared its support to CERI in the State Conference of Tamilnadu. Greater assertions from the Left parties have come for the Proportionate Electoral System in India.  CERI team has had official negotiations with the top guys in CPI and subsequently Mr. D. Raja one of the general secretaries of CPI raised the issue of Proportionate Electoral System in the Upper House of India's Parliament.

6. Many Intellectuals from North Eastern States have started openly saying that Proportionate Electoral System may be the only solution to the stalemate in democratic functioning in their region. Tripura, Manipur, Sikkim and Mizoram have already organized State Conferences.

7. It is a very encouraging signal that the Dalit Panthers of Kerala have taken up leadership for the Campaign in Kerala.  Now the President of the Dalit Panthers Party of India has also openly proclaimed in public meetings his allegiance to the Proportionate Electoral System.

8. Translation of Dalitocracy into Hindi, Manipuri, Telugu, Kannada, Oriya and Tamil languages is already done.

9. A European tour for lobbying on the Campaign was taken up in a successful way in April 2009. Support for the Campaign has also come from many other circles in Europe.

10. The Core Group of CERI has been meeting regularly at the Booshakthi Kendra and has planned out national programmes gradually also increasing its ownership level. It is a great measure of commitment that the original Coordinators of CERI still remain as Coordinators on a voluntary basis and new ones have joined for new States. Besides the Coordinators a not of others have joined hands in all the States to promote PR system in India.

11. Three Training of Trainers have taken place, one at the national level and other two for Maharashtra and Tamilnadu cadre of the Campaign,

12. In order to broaden the horizon and scope of CERI it was also decided to look at other existing variants of the Proportionate Electoral System. Raj, Archana and Babloo made a research on the Norwegian electoral system with particular reference to the Sami people and Sami Parliament.

13. Another research on the electoral system with special reference to the Maori people has taken place. The research in New Zealand was done by Raj and Jyothi and this ultimately led to the historic first ever Round Table of the World Parliament of Indigenous Peoples. This took place in January 2011 in Tumkur. 39 delegates from 10 countries attended it.

14. The Core Group of CERI spent three intensive days in discussions to prepare the Manifesto and also to develop gelling mechanisms to develop collective ownership of the Campaign. All are happy about the utter seriousness with which the Core Group worked and ended with a strategic plan for the future work of the Campaign.

15. There is also happiness that in such a short time CERI Nepal (CERiN) has been launched with active support from the Chief Election Commissioner of Nepal and many members of the Constituent Assembly and of the Parliament of Nepal.  

16. The German Dalit Solidarity Platform, Bread for the World, Misereor and Cordaid have been in the forefront of supporting the efforts of CERI. In India too many political parties and minority communities have come in open in support of CERI.

17. The All India Milli Council of the Muslim community in India, the Republican Party of India headed by Shri Ramdas Athvale, Shri Ram Vilas Pasvan, Dr. Jaya Prakash Narayan have pledged their support to the Campaign and are actively participating the programmes of CERI. Some members of the Parliament came together for a Conference organized by Shri Athawale in Delhi in the month of August 2011.

18. As of now the Campaign has stepped into 22 States of India with also a huge signature campaign for electoral reforms to collect 10 million signatures across the country. The London School of Economics has come forward to do two researches in India on the need for PR system. CERI is also organizing a Workshop of Electoral System Experts of the world. This Workshop will take place in October 2011 in Berlin.

19. The latest development is that a high profile civil society organization iCONGO has also joined hands with CERI to carry the campaign forward. Together with CERI they organized a Conference in Delhi with high profile people on 03 September 2011. As a consequence some top guys have written to the Election Commission of India to set up a special committee to look into PR system for India and to include M C Raj in such a committee, as an expert.  The NDTV of India is now planning to have a national TV programme on electoral reforms and they have already requested Raj to be part of it.

20. M C Raj has also recently completed a serious research on the electoral system of the Netherlands, which is hailed as one of the best proportional systems in the world. Now he is set to write a book on electoral systems bringing together all his research learning. It must be noted that M C Raj is an author of many books on Philosophy, Psychology, politics and spirituality. He is also a fiction writer. He has a way of bringing his researches in his fictions.

21. CERI is very happy that in such a short time of its campaign the issue of Proportionate Electoral System has been explicitly voiced in the Rajya Sabha by Comrade D. Raja in the debates on corruption as a way of containing many difficulties in governance including corruption.

22. One of the landmark events organized by CERI is the Workshop of Electoral Systems Experts. This was organized in Berlin in October 2011. 35 experts and delegates from 7 countries participated in this three days Workshop and brought out a tailor made PR system for India.

23. As a consequence a policy document of PR system for India was brought out by CERI. This was officially released by Dr. S Y Quraishi, the Chief Election Commissioner of India. He has subsequently also set up a Special Committee to work on the possibility of PR system for India.

24. Even as the policy document was sent to all the Members of Parliament of India many letters started pouring in appreciating the work of CERI. One of the significant developments was the call from the office of the Leader of the Opposition Ms. Sushma Swaraj to personally meet her. A small delegation of three members met her in the Parliament House on 17 May 2012 and she has promised that the issue of PR system will be taken up in the policy committee of the BJP party.

25. The first ever meeting of the Special Committee on PR set up by the Chief Election Commissioner met on 22 May 2012 at Nirvachan Sadan in Delhi. The meeting lasted for one hour forty-five minutes. It was decided to continue the dialogue and also organize a national consultation of top-level leaders in the government to get their support for ushering in PR system in India.

There is every reason to believe that this Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India will be carried forward by all and sundry in the future and the tasks of CERI will be considerably reduced as we move along.