The Election Commission of India is one of the vital pillars of Indian democracy. It has come to occupy the imagination of the Indian populace, more particularly from the time of TN Seshan who made a name for his toughness and strict application of the election law.
Since then, the Commission has moved from strength to strength and has become a well-structured proactive statutory authority with determination to hold elections in free and fair manner.The control and discipline of Election Commission extends, especially during the elections, not only to bureaucracy and all officials entrusted with the job of conducting elections but also to political parties and contesting candidates. The Commission has established its reputation in conducting elections with fairness and impartiality and in even-handed dealing with political parties across the board. All this has added to the prestige of the Commission and established its credentials in the public eye as a fair and unbiased constitutional authority, which perhaps may not be said about some other institutions.
The Commission has also played an active role in educating the masses about the entire gamut of election process through mass campaigns, encouraging them to actually go and vote and thus, help in strengthening democratic fervour in the country. Even then the percentage of polled votes varies from 45 per cent to 65 per cent, with some exceptions at both the ends. Taking the overall average of polled votes from election to election, it may hover around 50 per cent to 55 per cent. This is clearly not a very happy situation for the largest democracy of the world. We would definitely like more and more people coming out to cast their votes and thereby take the responsibility of electing their public representatives. After all, it is said that you get a Government that you deserve. So the electorate must prove its healthy sense of responsibility and concern for citizenship values by coming out in large number to vote for the candidate of their choice.
It is in this context that the new provision of election law whereby the voter can withhold his preference from all the contesting candidates, takes the centre stage. This is a very important development and going to be relied upon for the first time during this round of State Assembly elections. Thus, the provision of None of the Above (NOTA) is a significant stride in the direction of election related reforms. It has given the citizen a choice to deny his vote to one and all as depicted in the EVM. This innovation brings us to the question, why many educated people from the middle and upper middle classes are often not serious about going to vote, general refrain being “who should I vote for”IJ Thus, not having the option of saying no to the candidates, the prospective elector would rather sit at home than visit the nearest polling station. This provision has now entitled an elector to withhold his vote from those, who in his view, do not deserve it. It also means that theoretically the elector has no justification now not to rush to the polling booth on the plea that he finds none of the candidates suitable. He or she cannot any more take the alibi of not going to vote because none of the candidate is appropriate.
Presumably, it means that polled votes should actually start rising this year onward compared to previous elections because of this new empowerment. If that does not happen, the stance of some electors that they did not go to vote because candidates were not good would fall by the wayside, and it would just appear to be an excuse to avoid taking responsibility. Taking part in choosing the public representatives and thereby helping the process of constituting the political executive and the government should be a sacrosanct duty of every individual in a democracy. So hiding behind excuses cannot be good for democracy. This, however, does not mean that the provision of NOTA in itself be considered the best opinion. It is a new experiment and its efficacy or otherwise will be gauged in due course. There are opinions for and against this provision, but it cannot be faulted per se as democratic exercises pass though dynamic processes. These have to be constantly innovated and re-engineered to readjust them to new realities and make them at par with the needs of the day. Had this not been so, we would not be listening to newer orders from the Election Commission on subjects as varied as paid news and so. We may therefore, hope that the provision of NOTA shall play a positive role in further strengthening the election process in our country.