The Bharatiya Suraaj Manch on Thursday emphasised on electoral reforms for good governance in the country. The forum of luminaries from different walks of life brainstormed ways to bring electoral reforms needed to achieve the end result of good and effective governance in the country, at the same time, also highlighted the deficiencies in the reforms suggested by the Election Commission to the Government of India.
The members of the Manch stressed on bringing reforms in the election process, both for the office bearers of the political parties and people’s representatives to parliament and state assemblies. Terming the prevailing electoral processes as ‘the mother of all problems’ the Manch expressed labeled suggestion put forth by the Commission for effecting a change in the electoral system as ‘grossly inadequate’.
“It is necessary to have a right Cabinet to improve governance,” said National Convener of the Manch, PK Siddharth adding “none of the proposals mooted by the Manch features among the list of suggestions given by the Election Commission to the Government of India.”
Interestingly, some of the proposals mooted by the Manch seems to be new from the reforms point of view and is claimed as suggestion never made before by anybody. The proposals elicited by the Manch includes a voters’ right to information regarding the candidates, right to recall, holding re-election between top two candidates in the event of NOTA (None Of The Above) getting maximum number of votes, setting up eligibility criteria for candidates after due deliberations, anti-dynastic provision in reforms clauses, strict monitoring and control of internal elections in political parties, compulsory voting besides a host of measures to curb use of money in elections.
Central Coordinator Kamlesh Kumar Gupta, State Secretary Vinod Kumar along its members RD Singh, Dr. S N Munda and Umesh Kumar Verma shared their suggestion on reforms.