what is democracy? why democracy? constitutional … · 2020. 8. 12. · democracy consists of...

CHAPTER 1

WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? 1

WHY DEMOCRACY?

CHAPTER 2

CONSTITUTIONAL DESIGN 18

CHAPTER 3

ELECTORAL POLITICS 34

CHAPTER 4

WORKING OF INSTITUTIONS 56

CHAPTER 5

DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS 74

CHAPTER 6

ELECTORAL POLITICS IN THE 91

ERSTWHILE STATE OFJAMMU & KASHMIR

OVERVIEW

What is democracy? What are its features? This chapter builds on a simpledefinition of democracy. Step by step, we work out the meaning of theterms involved in this definition. The aim here is to understand clearly thebare minimum features of a democratic form of government. After goingthrough this chapter we should be able to distinguish a democratic formof government from a non-democratic government. Towards the end ofthis chapter, we step beyond this minimal objective and introduce a broaderidea of democracy.

Democracy is the most prevalent form of government in the world todayand it is expanding to more countries. But why is it so? What makes itbetter than other forms of government? That is the second big questionthat we take up in this chapter.

CHAPTER 1

What isDemocracy?WhyDemocracy?

2 DEMOCRATIC POLITICS

I have heard adifferent version.Democracy is offthe people, far(from) the peopleand (where they)buy the people.Why don’t weaccept that?

1.1 WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?But we don’t know if this is the best way ofdefining unless we think about it ourselves. Wemust not accept something just because it isfamous, just because everyone accepts it.

Yolanda: Ma’am, can I suggest something? We don’tneed to look for any definition. I read somewherethat the word democracy comes from a Greekword ‘Demokratia’. In Greek ‘demos’ meanspeople and ‘kratia’ means rule. So democracy isrule by the people. This is the correct meaning.Where is the need to debate?

Lyngdoh Madam: That is also a very helpful wayof thinking about this matter. I would just saythat this does not always work. A word does notremain tied to its origin. Just think of computers.Originally they were used for computing, that is tosay calculating, very difficult mathematical sums.These were very powerful calculators. But nowa-days very few people use computers for comput-ing sums. They use it for writing, for designing, forlistening to music and for watching films. Wordsremain the same but their meaning can changewith time. In that case it is not very useful to lookat the origins of a word.

Merry: Ma’am, so basically what you are sayingis that there is no shortcut to our thinking aboutthe matter ourselves. We have to think about itsmeaning and evolve a definition.

Lyngdoh Madam: You got me right. Let us get onwith it now.

A C T I V I T Y

Let us take Lyngdoh Madam seriously and try towrite down the exact definition of some of thesimple words that we use all the time: pen, rainand love. For example, is there a way of defining apen that distinguishes it clearly from a pencil, abrush, a chalk or crayon.What have you learnt from this attempt?What does it teach us about understanding the

meaning of democracy?

A simple definitionA simple definitionA simple definitionA simple definitionA simple definitionLet us get back to our discussion onsimilarities and differences amonggovernments that are called

You have already read about differentforms of government. On the basis ofyour understanding of democracyso far, mentioning a few exampleswrite down some common features of:Democratic governmentsNon-democratic governments

Why define democracy?Why define democracy?Why define democracy?Why define democracy?Why define democracy?Before we proceed further, let usfirst take note of an objection byMerry. She does not like this wayof defining democracy and wantsto ask some basic questions.Her teacher Matilda Lyngdohresponds to her questions, as otherclassmates join the discussion:Merry: Ma’am, I don’t like this idea. First we spend

time discussing democracy and then we wantto find out the meaning of democracy. I meanlogically shouldn’t we have approached it theother way round? Shouldn’t the meaning havecome first and then the example?

Lyngdoh Madam: I can see your point. But that isnot how we reason in everyday life. We usewords like pen, rain or love. Do we wait to havea definition of these words before we use them?Come to think of it, do we have clear definitionof these words? It is only by using a word thatwe understand its meaning.

Merry: But then why do we need definitions at all?Lyngdoh Madam: We need a definition only when

we come across a difficulty in the use of a word.We need a definition of rain only when we wish todistinguish it from, say, drizzle or cloudburst. Thesame is true for democracy. We need a cleardefinition only because people use it for differentpurposes, because very different kinds of gov-ernments call themselves democracy.

Ribiang: But why do we need to work on a defini-tion? The other day you quoted AbrahamLincoln to us: “Democracy is government ofthe people, by the people and for the people”.We in Meghalaya always ruled ourselves. Thatis accepted by everyone. Why do we need tochange that?

Lyngdoh Madam: I am not saying we need tochange it. I too find this definition very beautiful.

3WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? WHY DEMOCRACY?

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Ribiang went back home and collected some more famous quotations on democracy. This time shedid not mention the names of the people who said or wrote these. She wants you to read these andcomment on how good or useful these thoughts are: Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor. Democracy consists of choosing your dictators after they’ve told you what you think it is you want

to hear.Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes

democracy necessary Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

democracies. One simple factorcommon to all democracies is: thegovernment is chosen by the people.We could thus start with a simpledefinition: democracy is a form ofgovernment in which the rulers areelected by the people.

This is a useful starting point. Thisdefinition allows us to separatedemocracy from forms of governmentthat are clearly not democratic. Thearmy rulers of Myanmar were notelected by the people. Those whohappened to be in control of the armybecame the rulers of the country.People had no say in this decision.Dictators like Pinochet (Chile) are notelected by the people. This alsoapplies to monarchies. The kings ofSaudi Arabia rule not because thepeople have chosen them to do so but

because they happen to be born intothe royal family.

This simple definition is notadequate. It reminds us thatdemocracy is people’s rule. But if weuse this definition in an unthinkingmanner, we would end up callingalmost every government that holdsan election a democracy. That wouldbe very misleading. As we shall findout in Chapter 3, every governmentin contemporary world wants to becalled a democracy, even if it is notso. That is why we need to carefullydistinguish between a governmentthat is a democracy and one thatpretends to be one. We can do so byunderstanding each word in thisdefinition carefully and spelling outthe features of a democraticgovernment.

This cartoon wasdrawn when electionswere held in Iraq withthe presence of USand other foreign

powers. What do youthink this cartoon is

saying? Why is‘democracy’ written

the way it is?

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want in a democracy? Or must ademocratic government functionwith some limits? Is it necessaryfor a democracy to respect somerights of the citizens?Let us consider each of these

questions with the help of someexamples.

Major decisions by electedMajor decisions by electedMajor decisions by electedMajor decisions by electedMajor decisions by electedl e a d e r sl e a d e r sl e a d e r sl e a d e r sl e a d e r sIn Pakistan, General PervezMusharraf led a military coup inOctober 1999. He overthrew ademocratically elected governmentand declared himself the ‘ChiefExecutive’ of the country. Later hechanged his designation to Presidentand in 2002 held a referendum inthe country that granted him a five-year extension. Pakistani media,human rights organisations anddemocracy activists said that thereferendum was based on

1.2 FEATURES OF DEMOCRACY

Syria is a small westAsian country. Theruling Ba’ath Party

and some of its smallallies are the only

par ties allowed in thatcountry. Do you think

this cartoon couldapply to China or

Mexico? What doesthe crown of leaves

on democracysignify?


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We have started with a simpledefinition that democracy is a formof government in which the rulersare elected by the people. Thisraises many questions:Who are the rulers in this

definition? Which officials mustbe elected for any government tobe called a democracy? Whichdecisions may be taken by non-elected officials in a democracy?

What kind of election constitutesa democratic election? Whatconditions must be fulfilled for anelection to be considereddemocratic?

Who are the people who can electthe rulers or get elected as rulers?Should this include every citizen onan equal basis? Can a democracydeny some citizens this right?

Finally, what kind of a form ofgovernment is democracy? Canelected rulers do whatever they

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malpractices and fraud. In August2002 he issued a ‘Legal FrameworkOrder’ that amended theConstitution of Pakistan. Accordingto this Order, the President candismiss the national and provincialassemblies. The work of the civiliancabinet is supervised by a NationalSecurity Council which isdominated by military officers. Afterpassing this law, elections wereheld to the national and provincialassemblies. So Pakistan has hadelections, elected representativeshave some powers. But the finalpower rested with military officersand General Musharraf himself.

Clearly, there are many reasonswhy Pakistan under GeneralMusharraf should not be called ademocracy. But let us focus on oneof these. Can we say that the rulersare elected by the people inPakistan? Not quite. People mayhave elected their representatives tothe national and provincialassemblies but those electedrepresentatives were not really the

rulers. They cannot take the finaldecisions. The power to take finaldecision rested with army officialsand with General Musharraf, andnone of them were elected by thepeople. This happens in manydictatorships and monarchies. Theyformally have an elected parliamentand government but the real poweris with those who are not elected.In a few countries, the real powerwas with some external powers andnot with locally electedrepresentatives. This cannot becalled people’s rule.

This gives us the first feature. In ademocracy the final decision-making power must rest with thoseelected by the people.

Free and fa i r e lectora lF ree and fa i r e lectora lF ree and fa i r e lectora lF ree and fa i r e lectora lF ree and fa i r e lectora lc o m p e t i t i o nc o m p e t i t i o nc o m p e t i t i o nc o m p e t i t i o nc o m p e t i t i o nIn China, elections are regularlyheld after every five years forelecting the country’s parliament,called Quanguo Renmin DaibiaoDahui (National People’s Congress).The National People’s Congress hasthe power to appoint the Presidentof the country. It has nearly 3,000members elected from all overChina. Some members are electedby the army. Before contestingelections, a candidate needs theapproval of the Chinese CommunistParty. Only those who are membersof the Chinese Communist Party oreight smaller parties allied to it wereallowed to contest elections held in2002-03. The government is alwaysformed by the Communist Party.

Since its independence in 1930,Mexico holds elections after everysix years to elect its President. Thecountry has never been under amilitary or dictator’s rule. But until2000 every election was won by a

This cartoon wasdrawn in the contextof Latin America. Doyou think it applies tothe Pakistani situation

as well? Think ofother countries where

this could apply?Does this happensometimes in ourcountry as well?

WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? WHY DEMOCRACY?

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All this is so remotefor me. Is

democracy allabout rulers and

governments? Canwe talk about a

democraticclassroom? Or a

democratic family?


party called PRI (InstitutionalRevolutionary Party). Oppositionparties did contest elections, butnever managed to win. The PRI wasknown to use many dirty tricks towin elections. All those who wereemployed in government officeshad to attend its party meetings.Teachers of government schoolsused to force parents to vote for thePRI. Media largely ignored theactivities of opposition politicalparties except to criticise them.Sometimes the polling booths wereshifted from one place to another inthe last minute, which made itdifficult for people to cast their votes.The PRI spent a large sum of moneyin the campaign for its candidates.

Should we consider the electionsdescribed above as examples ofpeople electing their rulers? Readingthese examples we get a sense thatwe cannot. There are many problemshere. In China the elections do notoffer the people any serious choice.They have to choose the ruling partyand the candidates approved by it.Can we call this a choice? In theMexican example, people seemed toreally have a choice but in practicethey had no choice. There was noway the ruling party could bedefeated, even if people were againstit. These are not fair elections.

We can thus add a second featureto our understanding of democracy.Holding elections of any kind is notsufficient. The elections must offera real choice between politicalalternatives. And it should bepossible for people to use this choiceto remove the existing rulers, if theywish so. So, a democracy must bebased on a free and fair electionwhere those currently in powerhave a fair chance of losing. Weshall find out more about ademocratic election in Chapter 3.

One person ,One person ,One person ,One person ,One person , one v one v one v one v one vo to to to to teeeee ,,,,,o n e v a l u eo n e v a l u eo n e v a l u eo n e v a l u eo n e v a l u eEarlier, we read about how the strugglefor democracy was linked to thedemand for universal adult franchise.This principle has now come to beaccepted almost all over the world. Yetthere are many instances of denial ofequal right to vote.Until 2015, in Saudi Arabia women

did not have the right to vote.Estonia has made its citizenship

rules in such a way that peoplebelonging to Russian minorityfind it difficult to get the right tovote.

In Fiji, the electoral system issuch that the vote of anindigenous Fiji has more valuethan that of an Indian-Fijian.Democracy is based on a

fundamental principle of politicalequality. That gives us the thirdfeature of democracy: in ademocracy, each adult citizen musthave one vote and each vote musthave one value. We shall read moreabout it in Chapter 3.

This cartoon wastitled ‘Building

Democracy’ and wasfirst published in a

Latin Americanpublication. What domoneybags signify

here? Could thiscartoon be applied to

India?



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This cartoon is aboutthe Iraqi election held

after SaddamHussein’s regime was

over thrown. He isshown behind thebars. What is thecar toonist saying

here? Compare themessage of this

cartoon with the firstcartoon in this

chapter.

RRRRR ule o f lau le o f lau le o f lau le o f lau le o f law and rw and rw and rw and rw and re s p ee s p ee s p ee s p ee s p eccccc tttttfo r r ightsfo r r ightsfo r r ightsfo r r ightsfo r r ightsZimbabwe attained independencefrom White minority rule in 1980.Since then the country has beenruled by ZANU-PF, the party that ledthe freedom struggle. Its leader,Robert Mugabe, ruled the countrysince independence. Elections wereheld regularly and always won byZANU-PF. President Mugabe waspopular but also used unfair practicesin elections. Over the years hisgovernment changed the constitutionseveral times to increase the powersof the President and make him lessaccountable. Opposition partyworkers were harassed and theirmeeting disrupted. Public protestsand demonstrations against thegovernment were declared illegal.There was a law that limited the rightto criticise the President. Televisionand radio were controlled by thegovernment and gave only theruling party’s version. There wereindependent newspapers but the

government harassed thosejournalists who went against it. Thegovernment ignored some courtjudgments that went against it andpressurised judges. He was forcedout of office in 2017.

The example of Zimbabwe showsthat popular approval of the rulers isnecessary in a democracy, but it isnot sufficient. Popular governmentscan be undemocratic. Popular leaderscan be autocratic. If we wish to assessa democracy, it is important to lookat the elections. But it is equallyimportant to look before and after theelections. There should be sufficientroom for normal political activity,including political opposition, in theperiod before elections. This requiresthat the state should respect somebasic rights of the citizen. They shouldbe free to think, to have opinions, toexpress these in public, to formassociations, to protest and take otherpolitical actions. Everyone should beequal in the eyes of law. These rightsmust be protected by an independent

Why talk aboutZimbabwe? I read

similar reports frommany parts of ourown country. Whydon’t we discuss

that?

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judiciary whose orders are obeyed byeveryone. We shall read more aboutthese rights in Chapter 5.

Similarly, there are some conditionsthat apply to the way a governmentis run after the elections. Ademocratic government cannot dowhatever it likes, simply because ithas won an election. It has to respectsome basic rules. In particular it hasto respect some guarantees to theminorities. Every major decision hasto go through a series ofconsultations. Every office bearer hascertain rights and responsibilitiesassigned by the constitution and thelaw. Each of these is accountable notonly to the people but also to otherindependent officials. We shall readmore about this in Chapter 4.

Both these aspects give us the fourthand final feature of democracy:a democratic government ruleswithin limits set by constitutionallaw and citizens’ rights.

SSSSS u m m a ru m m a ru m m a ru m m a ru m m a ry d e fy d e fy d e fy d e fy d e f i n i t i o ni n i t i o ni n i t i o ni n i t i o ni n i t i o nLet us sum up the discussion so far.We started with a simple definitionthat democracy is a form ofgovernment in which the rulers areelected by the people. We found thatthis definition was not adequateunless we explained some of the keywords used in it. Through a series ofexamples we worked out four featuresof democracy as a form ofgovernment. Accordingly, democracyis a form of government in which:Rulers elected by the people take

all the major decisions;Elections offer a choice and fair

opportunity to the people tochange the current rulers;

This choice and opportunity isavailable to all the people on anequal basis; and

The exercise of this choice leadsto a government limited by basicrules of the constitution andcitizens’ rights.

Chinese governmentblocked free flow ofinformation on theinternet by placing

restrictions on popularwebsites like ‘Google’

and ‘Yahoo’. Theimage of tanks and an

unarmed studentreminds the reader ofanother major event in

recent Chinesehistory. Find out about

that event.



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Read these five examples of working or denial of democracy. Match each of these with the relevantfeature of democracy discussed above.

Example Feature

King of Bhutan has declared that in future he will beguided by the advice given to him by elected representatives.

Many Tamil workers who migrated from India werenot given a right to vote in Sri Lanka.

The king imposed a ban on political gatherings,demonstrations and rallies.

The Indian Supreme Court held that the dissolution ofBihar assembly was unconstitutional.

Political parties in Bangladesh have agreed that a neutralgovernment should rule the country at the time of elections.

1.3 WHY DEMOCRACY?An argument broke out in MadamLyngdoh’s class. She had finishedteaching the previous section onwhat is democracy and asked thestudents if they thought democracywas the best form of government.Everyone had something to say.

Debat ing mer i t s o fDebat ing mer i t s o fDebat ing mer i t s o fDebat ing mer i t s o fDebat ing mer i t s o fd e m o c rd e m o c rd e m o c rd e m o c rd e m o c ra ca ca ca ca c yyyyyYolanda: We live in a democratic country. All over

the world people want democracy. Countries thatwere not democratic earlier are becoming demo-cratic now. All great people have said nice thingsabout democracy. Isn’t it obvious that democracyis the best? Do we need to debate this?

Tangkini: But Lyngdoh Madam had said we shouldnot accept something just because it is famous,just because everyone else accepts it. Isn’t itpossible that everyone is following a wrongpath?

Jeni: Yes, it actually is a wrong path. What hasdemocracy brought to our country? Sevendecades of democracy and there is so muchpover ty in the country.

Ribiang: But what has democracy got to do withit? Do we have poverty because we are demo-cratic or do we have pover ty despite being ademocracy?

Jeni: Whatever, how does it make a difference?The point is that this can’t be the best form ofgovernment. Democracy is all about chaos, in-stability, corruption and hypocrisy. Politiciansfight among themselves. Who cares for the coun-try?

Poimon: So, what should we have instead? Goback to the British rule? Invite some kings torule this country?

Rose: I don’t know. I think what this country needsis a strong leader, someone who does not haveto bother about elections and parliament. Oneleader should have all the powers. He shouldbe able to do whatever is needed in country’sinterest. That alone can remove corruption andpover ty from this country.

Someone shouted: That is called dictatorship!Hoi: What if that person starts using all these pow-

ers for himself and his family? What if he iscorrupt himself?

Rose: I am speaking only of the honest, sincereand strong leader.

Hoi: But that is not fair. You are comparing a realdemocracy with an ideal dictatorship.We should compare an ideal with an ideal, thereal with the real. Go and check the record ofdictators in real life. They are most corrupt, self-ish and brutal. It is just that we don’t get to knowabout this. And what is worse, you can’t evenget rid of them.

I want to be inLyngdoh Madam’sclass! That sounds

like a democraticclassroom.Doesn’t it?

Rule of law

Respect for Rights

One person one voteone value

Free and fairelectoral competition

Major decisions byelected leaders


Madam Lyngdoh was listening tothis discussion with interest. Nowshe stepped in: “I was delighted tosee you all arguing so passionately.I don’t know who is right and whois wrong. That is for you to settle.But I did feel that you all wanted tospeak your mind. You may have feltvery bad if someone tried to stop youor if someone punished you forsaying what you felt. Would you beable to do that in a country that isnot democratic? Is that a goodargument for democracy?”

Arguments against democracyArguments against democracyArguments against democracyArguments against democracyArguments against democracyThis conversation has most of thearguments that we routinely hearagainst democracy. Let us go oversome of these arguments: Leaders keep changing in a

democracy. This leads to instability.Democracy is all about political

competition and power play. Thereis no scope for morality.

So many people have to beconsulted in a democracy that itleads to delays.

Elected leaders do not know thebest interest of the people. It leadsto bad decisions.

Democracy leads to corruption forit is based on electoral competition.

Ordinary people don’t know whatis good for them; they should notdecide anything.Are there some other arguments

against democracy that you canthink of? Which of these argumentsapplies mainly to democracy? Whichof these can apply to misuse of anyform of government? Which of thesedo you agree with?

Clearly, democracy is not amagical solution for all theproblems. It has not ended povertyin our country and in other parts ofthe world. Democracy as a form ofgovernment only ensures that

people take their own decisions.This does not guarantee that theirdecisions will be good. People canmake mistakes. Involving the peoplein these decisions does leadto delays in decision making. Itis also true that democracy leadsto frequent changes in leadership.Sometimes this can set backbig decisions and affect thegovernment’s efficiency.

These arguments show thatdemocracy of the kind we see maynot be the ideal form of government.But that is not a question we face inreal life. The real question we faceis different: is democracy better thanother forms of government that arethere for us to choose from?

Arguments for democracyArguments for democracyArguments for democracyArguments for democracyArguments for democracyChina’s famine of 1958-1961 wasthe worst recorded famine in worldhistory. Nearly three crore peopledied in this famine. During thosedays, India’s economic conditionwas not much better than China. YetIndia did not have a famine of thekind China had. Economists think

This cartoon is fromBrazil, a country thathas long experienceof dictatorship. It isentitled “The HiddenSide of Dictatorship”.Which hidden sidesdoes this cartoon

depict? Is itnecessary for every

dictatorship to have ahidden side? If

possible, find this outabout the dictators

including Pinochet inChile, Jaruzelski in

Poland, Sani Abachain Nigeria and

Ferdinand Marcos inthe Philippines.



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that this was a result of differentgovernment policies in the twocountries. The existence ofdemocracy in India made theIndian government respond to foodscarcity in a way that the Chinesegovernment did not. They point outthat no large-scale famine has evertaken place in an independent anddemocratic country. If China too hadmultiparty elections, an oppositionparty and a press free to criticise thegovernment, then so many peoplemay not have died in the famine.

This example brings out one of thereasons why democracy is consideredthe best form of government.Democracy is better than any otherform of government in responding tothe needs of the people. A non-democratic government may and canrespond to the people’s needs, but itall depends on the wishes of thepeople who rule. If the rulers don’twant to, they don’t have to actaccording to the wishes of the people.A democracy requires that the rulershave to attend to the needs of thepeople. A democratic government isa better government because it is amore accountable form ofgovernment.

There is another reason whydemocracy should lead to betterdecisions than any non-democraticgovernment. Democracy is based onconsultation and discussion. Ademocratic decision always involvesmany persons, discussions andmeetings. When a number of peopleput their heads together, they areable to point out possible mistakesin any decision. This takes time. Butthere is a big advantage in takingtime over important decisions. Thisreduces the chances of rash orirresponsible decisions. Thusdemocracy improves the qualityof decision-making.

This is related to the thirdargument. Democracy provides amethod to deal with differencesand conflicts. In any society peopleare bound to have differences ofopinions and interests. Thesedifferences are particularly sharp ina country like ours which has anamazing social diversity. Peoplebelong to different regions, speakdifferent languages, practisedifferent religions and have differentcastes. They look at the world verydifferently and have differentpreferences. The preferences of onegroup can clash with those of othergroups. How do we resolve such aconflict? The conflict can be solvedby brutal power. Whichever groupis more powerful will dictate itsterms and others will have to acceptthat. But that would lead toresentment and unhappiness.Different groups may not be able tolive together for long in such a way.Democracy provides the onlypeaceful solution to this problem. Indemocracy, no one is a permanentwinner. No one is a permanent loser.Different groups can live with oneanother peacefully. In a diversecountry like India, democracy keepsour country together.

These three arguments were aboutthe effects of democracy on thequality of government and social life.But the strongest argument fordemocracy is not about whatdemocracy does to the government.It is about what democracy does tothe citizens. Even if democracy doesnot bring about better decisions andaccountable government, it is stillbetter than other forms ofgovernment. Democracy enhancesthe dignity of citizens. As wediscussed above, democracy isbased on the principle of politicalequality, on recognising that the

What would havehappened if India

was not ademocracy?

Could we havestayed together as

a single nation?



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poorest and the least educated hasthe same status as the rich and theeducated. People are not subjects ofa ruler, they are the rulersthemselves. Even when they makemistakes, they are responsible fortheir conduct.

Finally, democracy is better thanother forms of government becauseit allows us to correct its ownmistakes. As we saw above, there isno guarantee that mistakes cannotbe made in democracy. No form ofgovernment can guarantee that. Theadvantage in a democracy is thatsuch mistakes cannot be hidden forlong. There is a space for publicdiscussion on these mistakes. Andthere is a room for correction. Either

the rulers have to change theirdecisions, or the rulers can bechanged. This cannot happen in anon-democratic government.

Let us sum it up. Democracycannot get us everything and is notthe solution to all problems. But itis clearly better than any otheralternative that we know. It offersbetter chances of a good decision,it is likely to respect people’s ownwishes and allows different kinds ofpeople to live together. Even whenit fails to do some of these things, itallows a way of correcting itsmistakes and offers more dignity toall citizens. That is why democracyis considered the best form ofgovernment.

This cartoon waspublished in Canada

just before itsparliamentary

elections of 2004.Everyone, including

the cartoonist,expected the Liberalpar ty to win onceagain. When the

results came, theLiberal Party lost the

elections. Is thiscartoon an argumentagainst democracy or

for democracy?

Rajesh and Muzaffar read an article. It showed that no democracy has ever gone to war with anotherdemocracy. Wars take place only when one of the two governments is non-democratic. The article saidthat this was a great merit of democracy. After reading the essay, Rajesh and Muzaffar had differentreactions. Rajesh said that this was not a good argument for democracy. It was just a matter of chance.It is possible that in future democracies may have wars. Muzaffar said that it could not be a matter ofchance. Democracies take decisions in such a way that it reduces the chances of war. Which of the twopositions do you agree with and why?



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1.4 BROADER MEANINGS OF DEMOCRACY

In this chapter we have consideredthe meaning of democracy in alimited and descriptive sense. Wehave understood democracy as aform of government. This way ofdefining democracy helps us toidentify a clear set of minimalfeatures that a democracy musthave. The most common form thatdemocracy takes in our times is thatof a representative democracy. Youhave already read about this in theprevious classes. In the countries wecall democracy, all the people do notrule. A majority is allowed to takedecisions on behalf of all the people.Even the majority does not ruledirectly. The majority of people rule

through their elected representatives.This become necessary because:Modern democracies involve such

a large number of people that it isphysically impossible for them tosit together and take a collectivedecision.

Even if they could, the citizen doesnot have the time, the desire or theskills to take part in all thedecisions.This gives us a clear but minimal

understanding of democracy. Thisclarity helps us to distinguishdemocracies from non-democracies.But it does not allow us todistinguish between a democracyand a good democracy. It does not




This famous cartoonby R K Laxman

comments on thecelebrations of the

fifty years ofindependence. Howmany images on the

wall do you recognize?Do many common

people feel the way thecommon man in this

cartoon does?

©R

.K. L

axm

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of I

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allow us to see the operation ofdemocracy beyond government. Forthis we need to turn to broadermeanings of democracy.

Sometimes we use democracy fororganisations other than thegovernment. Just read thesestatements: “We are a very democratic family.

Whenever a decision has to be taken,we all sit down and arrive at aconsensus. My opinion matters as muchas my father’s.”

“I don’t like teachers who do not allowstudents to speak and ask questions inthe class. I would like to have teacherswith democratic temperament.”

“One leader and his family membersdecide everything in this party. How canthey talk of democracy?”These ways of using the word

democracy go back to its basicsense of a method of takingdecisions. A democratic decisioninvolves consultation with andconsent of all those who are affectedby that decision. Those who are notpowerful have the same say intaking the decision as those who arepowerful. This can apply to agovernment or a family or any otherorganisation. Thus democracy isalso a principle that can be appliedto any sphere of life.

Sometimes we use the worddemocracy not to describe anyexisting government but to set upan ideal standard that alldemocracies must aim to become: “True democracy will come to this

country only when no one goes hungryto bed.”

“In a democracy every citizen must beable to play equal role in decisionmaking. For this you don’t need just anequal right to vote. Every citizen needsto have equal information, basiceducation, equal resources and a lot ofcommitment.”

If we take these ideals seriously,then no country in the world is ademocracy. Yet an understanding ofdemocracy as an ideal reminds usof why we value democracy. Itenables us to judge an existingdemocracy and identify itsweaknesses. It helps us todistinguish between a minimaldemocracy and a good democracy.

In this book we do not deal muchwith this expanded notion ofdemocracy. Our focus here is withsome core institutional features ofdemocracy as a form of government.Next year you will read more abouta democratic society and ways ofevaluating our democracy. At thisstage we just need to note thatdemocracy can apply to manyspheres of life and that democracycan take many forms. There can bevarious ways of taking decisions ina democratic manner, as long as thebasic principle of consultation on anequal basis is accepted. The mostcommon form of democracy intoday’s world is rule throughpeople’s elected representatives. Weshall read more about that inChapter 3. But if the community issmall, there can be other ways oftaking democratic decisions. All thepeople can sit together and takedecisions directly. This is howGram Sabha should work in avillage. Can you think of some otherdemocratic ways of decision making?

A C T I V I T Y

Find out the total number of eligible voters in yourassembly constituency and your parliamentaryconstituency. Find out how many people can fitinto the largest stadium in your area. Is it possiblefor all the voters in your parliamentary or assemblyconstituency to sit together and have a meaningfuldiscussion?

In my village theGram Sabha nevermeets. Is thatdemocratic?

15WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? WHY DEMOCRACY?

1 Here is some information about four countries. Based on thisinformation, how would you classify each of these countries. Write‘democratic’, ‘undemocratic’ or ‘not sure’ against each of these.a Country A: People who do not accept the country’s official religion

do not have a right to vote.b Country B: The same party has been winning elections for the last

twenty years.c Country C: Ruling party has lost in the last three elections.d Country D: There is no independent election commission.

2 Here is some information about four countries. Based on thisinformation, how would you classify each of these countries. Write‘democratic’, ‘undemocratic’ or ‘not sure’ against each of these.a Country P: The parliament cannot pass a law about the army

without the consent of the Chief of Army.b Country Q: The parliament cannot pass a law reducing the powers

of the judiciary.c Country R: The country’s leaders cannot sign any treaty with

another country without taking permission from its neighbouringcountry.

d Country S: All the major economic decisions about the countryare taken by officials of the central bank which the ministers cannotchange.

3 Which of these is not a good argument in favour of democracy? Why?a People feel free and equal in a democracy.b Democracies resolve conflict in a better way than others.c Democratic government is more accountable to the people.d Democracies are more prosperous than others.

exercises

This also means that no countryis a perfect democracy. The featuresof democracy that we discussed inthis chapter provide only theminimum conditions of ademocracy. That does not make itan ideal democracy. Everydemocracy has to try to realise theideals of a democratic decision-making. This cannot be achievedonce and for all. This requires aconstant effort to save andstrengthen democratic forms ofdecision-making. What we do ascitizens can make a difference tomaking our country more or lessdemocratic. This is the strength and

the weakness of democracy: the fateof the country depends not just onwhat the rulers do, but mainly onwhat we, as citizens, do.

This is what distinguisheddemocracy from other governments.Other forms of government likemonarchy, dictatorship or one-partyrule do not require all citizens totake part in politics. In fact mostnon-democratic governmentswould like citizens not to take partin politics. But democracy dependson active political participation byall the citizens. That is why a studyof democracy must focus ondemocratic politics.


4 Each of these statements contains a democratic and an undemocraticelement. Write out the two separately for each statement.a A minister said that some laws have to be passed by the parliament

in order to conform to the regulations decided by the World TradeOrganisation (WTO).

b The Election Commission ordered re-polling in a constituencywhere large-scale rigging was reported.

c Women’s representation in the parliament has barely reached 10per cent. This led women’s organisations to demand one-third seatsfor women.

5 Which of these is not a valid reason for arguing that there is a lesserpossibility of famine in a democratic country?a Opposition parties can draw attention to hunger and starvation.b Free press can report suffering from famine in different parts of

the country.c Government fears its defeat in the next elections.d People are free to believe in and practise any religion.

6 There are 40 villages in a district where the government has madeno provision for drinking water. These villagers met and consideredmany methods of forcing the government to respond to their need.Which of these is not a democratic method?a Filing a case in the courts claiming that water is part of right to life.b Boycotting the next elections to give a message to all parties.c Organising public meetings against government’s policies.d Paying money to government officials to get water.

7 Write a response to the following arguments against democracy:a Army is the most disciplined and corruption-free organisation in

the country. Therefore army should rule the country.b Rule of the majority means the rule of ignorant people. What we

need is the rule of the wise, even if they are in small numbers.c If we want religious leaders to guide us in spiritual matters, why

not invite them to guide us in politics as well. The country shouldbe ruled by religious leaders.

8 Are the following statements in keeping with democracy as avalue? Why?a Father to daughter: I don’t want to hear your opinion about your

marriage. In our family children marry where the parents tell themto.

b Teacher to student: Don’t disturb my concentration by asking mequestions in the classroom.

c Employee to the officer: Our working hours must be reducedaccording to the law.

9 Consider the following facts about a country and decide if you wouldcall it a democracy. Give reasons to support your decision. exerc

ises

17

exercises a All the citizens of the country have right to vote. Elections are heldregularly.

b The country took loan from international agencies. One of theconditions for giving loan was that the government would reduceits expenses on education and health.

c People speak more than seven languages but education is availableonly in one language, the language spoken by 52 percent peopleof that country.

d Several organisations have given a call for peaceful demonstrationsand nation wide strikes in the country to oppose these policies.Government has arrested these leaders.

e The government owns the radio and television in the country. Allthe newspapers have to get permission from the government topublish any news about government’s policies and protests.

10 In 2004 a report published in USA pointed to the increasinginequalities in that country. Inequalities in income reflected in theparticipation of people in democracy. It also shaped their abilities toinfluence the decisions taken by the government. The reporthighlighted that: If an average Black family earns $ 100 then the income of average

White family is $ 162. A White family has twelve times more wealththan the average Black family.

In a President’s election ‘nearly 9 out of 10 individuals in familieswith income over $ 75,000 have voted. These people are the top20% of the population in terms of their income. On the other handonly 5 people out of 10 from families with income less than $15,000 have voted. They are the bottom 20% of the population interms of their income.

About 95% contribution to the political parties comes from therich. This gives them opportunity to express their opinions andconcerns, which is not available to most citizens.

As poor sections participate less in politics, the government doesnot listen to their concerns – coming out of poverty, getting job,education, health care and housing for them. Politicians hear mostregularly about the concerns of business persons and the rich.

Write an essay on ‘Democracy and Poverty’ using the informationgiven in this report but using examples from India.

Most newspapers have an editorial page. On that page the newspaperpublishes its own opinions about current affairs. The paper also publishesthe views of other writers and intellectuals and letters written by thereaders. Follow any one newspaper for one month and collect editorials,articles and letters on that page that have anything to do with democracy.Classify these into the following categories:

Constitutional and legal aspects of democracy Citizens’ rights Electoral and party politics Criticism of democracy



CHAPTER 2

CONSTITUTIONALDESIGN

OVERVIEW

We noted in the previous chapter that in a democracy the rulers are notfree to do what they like. There are certain basic rules that the citizensand the government have to follow. All such rules together are calledconstitution. As the supreme law of the country, the constitution determinesthe rights of citizens, the powers of the government and how the governmentshould function.

In this chapter we ask some basic questions about the constitutionaldesign of a democracy. Why do we need a constitution? How are theconstitutions drawn up? Who designs them and in what way? What arethe values that shape the constitutions in democratic states? Once aconstitution is accepted, can we make changes later as required by thechanging conditions?

One recent instance of designing constitution for a democratic state isthat of South Africa. We begin this chapter by looking at what happenedthere and how the South Africans went about this task of designing theirconstitution. Then we turn to how the Indian Constitution was made,what its foundational values are, and how it provides a good frameworkfor the conduct of citizens’ life and that of the government.

19

2.1 DEMOCRATIC CONSTITUTION INSOUTH AFRICA

“I have fought against white dominationand I have fought against blackdomination. I have cherished the ideal ofa democratic and free society in which allpersons live together in harmony and withequal opportunities. It is an ideal which Ihope to live for and to achieve. But ifneeds be, it is an ideal for which I amprepared to die.”

This was Nelson Mandela, beingtried for treason by the white SouthAfrican government. He and sevenother leaders were sentenced to lifeimprisonment in 1964 for daring tooppose the apartheid regime in hiscountry. He spent the next 28 yearsin South Africa’s most dreadedprison, Robben Island.

SSSSSt rt rt rt rt ruggle against aparuggle against aparuggle against aparuggle against aparuggle against apartheidtheidtheidtheidtheidApartheid was the name of a systemof racial discrimination unique toSouth Africa. The white Europeansimposed this system on SouthAfrica. During the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries, the tradingcompanies from Europe occupied itwith arms and force, in the way theyoccupied India. But unlike India, alarge number of ‘whites’ had settledin South Africa and became thelocal rulers. The system of

apartheid divided the people andlabelled them on the basis of theirskin colour. The native people ofSouth Africa are black in colour.They made up about three-fourthof the population and were called‘blacks’. Besides these two groups,there were people of mixed raceswho were called ‘coloured’ andpeople who migrated from India.The white rulers treated all non-whites as inferiors. The non-whitesdid not have voting rights.

The apartheid system wasparticularly oppressive for theblacks. They were forbidden fromliving in white areas. They couldwork in white areas only if they hada permit. Trains, buses, taxis,hotels, hospitals, schools andcolleges, libraries, cinema halls,theatres, beaches, swimming pools,

CONSTITUTIONAL DESIGN

Sign on Durban beachin English, Afrikaans

and ZuluIn English it reads:

‘CITY OF DURBAN Undersection 37 of the Durban

beach by-laws, this bathingarea is reserved for the sole

use of members of thewhite race group’.

1

2

1

2

A signboard emblematic ofthe tense relations of the

apartheid era, 1953.

Nelson Mandela

Sou

th A

frica

His

tory

Onl

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public toilets, were all separate forthe whites and blacks. This wascalled segregation. They could noteven visit the churches where thewhites worshipped. Blacks could notform associations or protest againstthe terrible treatment.

Since 1950, the blacks, colouredand Indians fought against theapartheid system. They launchedprotest marches and strikes. TheAfrican National Congress (ANC) wasthe umbrella organisation that ledthe struggle against the policies ofsegregation. This included manyworkers’ unions and the CommunistParty. Many sensitive whites alsojoined the ANC to oppose apartheidand played a leading role in thisstruggle. Several countries de-nounced apartheid as unjust andracist. But the white racist govern-ment continued to rule by detain-ing, torturing and killing thousandsof black and coloured people.

A C T I V I T Y

Make a poster on the life and struggle of NelsonMandela.

If available, read some portions of his autobi-ography, The Long Walk to Freedom, in theclassroom.

TTTTTooooowwwwwa ra ra ra ra rds a neds a neds a neds a neds a new cw cw cw cw constitutiononstitutiononstitutiononstitutiononstitutionAs protests and struggles againstapartheid had increased, thegovernment realised that they couldno longer keep the blacks undertheir rule through repression. Thewhite regime changed its policies.Discriminatory laws were repealed.Ban on political parties andrestrictions on the media were lifted.After 28 years of imprisonment,Nelson Mandela walked out of thejail as a free man. Finally, at themidnight of 26 April 1994, the new

national flag of the Republic of SouthAfrica was unfurled marking thenewly born democracy in the world.The apartheid government came toan end, paving way for the formationof a multi-racial government.

How did this come about? Let ushear Mandela, the first president ofthis new South Africa, on this extra-ordinary transition:

“Historical enemies succeeded innegotiating a peaceful transition fromapartheid to democracy exactly becausewe were prepared to accept the inherentcapacity for goodness in the other. Mywish is that South Africans never give upon the belief in goodness, that theycherish that faith in human beings is thecornerstone of our democracy.”

After the emergence of the newdemocratic South Africa, blackleaders appealed to fellow blacks toforgive the whites for the atrocitiesthey had committed while in power.They said let us build a new SouthAfrica based on equality of all racesand men and women, on democraticvalues, social justice and humanrights. The party that ruled throughoppression and brutal killings andthe party that led the freedomstruggle sat together to draw up acommon constitution.

After two years of discussion anddebate they came out with one of thefinest constitutions the world hasever had. This constitution gave toits citizens the most extensive rightsavailable in any country. Together,they decided that in the search fora solution to the problems, nobodyshould be excluded, no one shouldbe treated as a demon. They agreedthat everybody should become partof the solution, whatever they mighthave done or represented in thepast. The preamble to the SouthAfrican Constitution (see page 28)sums up this spirit.

What would havehappened in SouthAfrica if the blackmajority haddecided to takerevenge on thewhites for all theiroppression andexploitation?

21

The South African constitutioninspires democrats all over theworld. A state denounced by theentire world till 1994 as the mostundemocratic one is now seen as amodel of democracy. What made thischange possible was thedetermination of the people of SouthAfrica to work together, to transformbitter experiences into the bindingglue of a rainbow nation. Speakingon the South African Constitution,Mandela said:

“The Constitution of South Africa speaksof both the past and the future. On the onehand, it is a solemn pact in which we, asSouth Africans, declare to one another thatwe shall never permit a repetition of ourracist, brutal and repressive past. But it ismore than that. It is also a charter for thetransformation of our country into onewhich is truly shared by all its people — acountry which in the fullest sense belongsto all of us, black and white, women andmen.”

This image captures the spirit of South Africa today. SouthAfricans call themselves a ‘rainbow nation’. Can you guesswhy?

Does the story of South African struggle for freedom remind you of the Indian national movement? Makea list of similarities and dissimilarities between the two on the following points: Nature of colonialism Relationship between different communities Leadership: Gandhi/ Mandela Party that led the struggle: African National Congress/ Indian National CongressMethod of struggle

2.2 WHY DO WE NEED A CONSTITUTION?

CHECKYOUR

PROGRESS

The South African example is a goodway to understand why we need aconstitution and what doconstitutions do. The oppressor andthe oppressed in this new democracywere planning to live together asequals. It was not going to be easy forthem to trust each other. They had

their fears. They wanted to safeguardtheir interests. The black majoritywas keen to ensure that thedemocratic principle of majority rulewas not compromised. They wantedsubstantial social and economicrights. The white minority was keento protect its privileges and property.


Wik

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For more details about South Africa, visit https://www.gov.za


After long negotiations both partiesagreed to a compromise. The whitesagreed to the principle of majorityrule and that of one person one vote.They also agreed to accept somebasic rights for the poor and theworkers. The blacks agreed thatmajority rule would not be absolute.They agreed that the majority wouldnot take away the property of the whiteminority. This compromise was noteasy. How was this compromise goingto be implemented? Even if theymanaged to trust each other, whatwas the guarantee that this trust willnot be broken in future?

The only way to build andmaintain trust in such a situationis to write down some rules of thegame that everyone would abide by.These rules lay down how the rulersare to be chosen in future. Theserules also determine what theelected governments are empoweredto do and what they cannot do.Finally these rules decide the rightsof the citizen. These rules will workonly if the winner cannot changethem very easily. This is what theSouth Africans did. They agreed onsome basic rules. They also agreedthat these rules will be supreme,that no government will be able toignore these. This set of basic rulesis called a constitution.

Constitution making is not uniqueto South Africa. Every country hasdiverse groups of people. Theirrelationship may not have been asbad as that between the whites andthe blacks in South Africa. But all overthe world people have differences ofopinion and interests. Whetherdemocratic or not, most countries inthe world need to have these basicrules. This applies not just togovernments. Any association needsto have its constitution. It could be aclub in your area, a cooperative

society or a political party, they allneed a constitution.

A C T I V I T Y

Approach a club or cooperative society or union orpolitical party in your locality. Get a copy of theirrule book (it is often called Rules of Association)and read it. Are these rules in accordance withprinciples of democracy? Do they give membershipto any person without discrimination?

Thus, the constitution of a countryis a set of written rules that areaccepted by all people living togetherin a country. Constitution is thesupreme law that determines therelationship among people living ina territory (called citizens) and alsothe relationship between the peopleand government. A constitution doesmany things: First, it generates a degree of trust

and coordination that is necessaryfor different kind of people to livetogether;

Second, it specifies how thegovernment will be constituted,who will have power to take whichdecisions;

Third, it lays down limits on thepowers of the government and tellsus what the rights of the citizensare; and

Fourth, it expresses theaspirations of the people aboutcreating a good society.All countries that have constitutions

are not necessarily democratic. Butall countries that are democratic willhave constitutions. After the War ofIndependence against Great Britain,the Americans gave themselves aconstitution. After the Revolution, theFrench people approved a democraticconstitution. Since then it hasbecome a practice in all democraciesto have a written constitution.

This is not fair!What was the pointin having aConstituentAssembly in India ifall the basics werealready decided?

23CONSTITUTIONAL DESIGN

2.3 MAKING OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION

like. Much of this consensus hadevolved during the freedom struggle.Our national movement was notmerely a struggle against a foreignrule. It was also a struggle torejuvenate our country and totransform our society and politics.There were sharp differences ofopinion within the freedom struggleabout the path India should takeafter Independence. Suchdifferences exist even today. Yetsome basic ideas had come to beaccepted by almost everyone.

As far back as in 1928, MotilalNehru and eight other Congressleaders drafted a constitution forIndia. In 1931, the resolution at theKarachi session of the IndianNational Congress dwelt on howindependent India’s constitutionshould look like. Both thesedocuments were committed to theinclusion of universal adult franchise,right to freedom and equality and toprotecting the rights of minorities inthe constitution of independent India.Thus some basic values wereaccepted by all leaders much beforethe Constituent Assembly met todeliberate on the Constitution.

The familiarity with politicalinstitutions of colonial rule alsohelped develop an agreement overthe institutional design. The Britishrule had given voting rights only toa few. On that basis the British hadintroduced very weak legislatures.Elections were held in 1937 toProvincial Legislatures andMinistries all over British India.These were not fully democraticgovernments. But the experiencegained by Indians in the working ofthe legislative institutions proved tobe very useful for the country insetting up its own institutions and

Like South Africa, India’sConstitution was also drawn upunder very difficult circumstances.The making of the constitution for ahuge and diverse country like Indiawas not an easy affair. At that timethe people of India were emergingfrom the status of subjects to thatof citizens. The country was bornthrough a partition on the basis ofreligious differences. This was atraumatic experience for the peopleof India and Pakistan.

Atleast ten lakh people were killedon both sides of the border inpartition related violence. There wasanother problem. The British hadleft it to the rulers of the princelystates to decide whether theywanted to merge with India or withPakistan or remain independent.The merger of these princely stateswas a difficult and uncertain task.When the constitution was beingwritten, the future of the country didnot look as secure as it does today.The makers of the constitution hadanxieties about the present and thefuture of the country.

A C T I V I T Y

Speak to your grandparents or some other eldersin your locality. Ask them if they have any memoryof partition or independence or the making of theconstitution. What were their fears and hopesabout the country at that time? Discuss these inthe classroom.

TTTTThe pahe pahe pahe pahe path tth tth tth tth to Co Co Co Co ConstitutiononstitutiononstitutiononstitutiononstitutionDespite all these difficulties, therewas one big advantage for themakers of the Indian Constitution.Unlike South Africa, they did nothave to create a consensus aboutwhat a democratic India should look

Val labhbhaiVal labhbhaiVal labhbhaiVal labhbhaiVal labhbhaiJhaverbhai PJhaverbhai PJhaverbhai PJhaverbhai PJhaverbhai Patelatelatelatelatel

(1875-1950) born: Gujarat.Minister of Home,

Information andBroadcasting in the InterimGovernment. Lawyer andleader of Bardoli peasant

satyagraha. Played adecisive role in the

integration of the Indianprincely states. Later:Deputy Prime Minister.

Abul Kalam AzadAbul Kalam AzadAbul Kalam AzadAbul Kalam AzadAbul Kalam Azad(1888-1958)

born: Saudi Arabia.Educationist, author andtheologian; scholar of

Arabic. Congress leader,active in the nationalmovement. Opposed

Muslim separatist politics.Later: Education Minister in

the first union cabinet.

TTTTT.T.T.T.T.T.Krishnamachari.Krishnamachari.Krishnamachari.Krishnamachari.Krishnamachari(1899-1974)

born: Tamil Nadu.Member, Drafting

Committee. Entrepreneurand Congress leader. Later:

Finance Minister in theUnion Cabinet.

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working in them. That is why theIndian constitution adopted manyinstitutional details and proceduresfrom colonial laws like the Governmentof India Act, 1935.

Years of thinking and deliberationon the framework of the constitutionhad another benefit. Our leadersgained confidence to learn fromother countries, but on our ownterms. Many of our leaders wereinspired by the ideals of FrenchRevolution, the practice ofparliamentary democracy in Britainand the Bill of Rights in the US. Thesocialist revolution in Russia hadinspired many Indians to think ofshaping a system based on socialand economic equality. Yet theywere not simply imitating whatothers had done. At each step theywere questioning whether thesethings suited our country. All thesefactors contributed to the making ofour Constitution.

TTTTThe Che Che Che Che Const i tuenonst i tuenonst i tuenonst i tuenonst i tuent At At At At AssemblyssemblyssemblyssemblyssemblyWho, then, were the makers of theIndian Constitution? You will findhere very brief sketch of some of theleaders who played an importantrole in making the Constitution.

A C T I V I T Y

Find out more about any member of theConstituent Assembly from your state or regionwho is not mentioned here. Collect a photographor make a sketch of that leader. Write a shortnote on him or her, following the same style asused here: Name (year of birth-year of death),place of birth (by current political boundaries),brief description of political activities; role playedafter the Constituent Assembly.

The drafting of the document calledthe constitution was done by anassembly of elected representatives

called the Constituent Assembly.Elections to the ConstituentAssembly were held in July 1946. Itsfirst meeting was held in December1946. Soon after, the country wasdivided into India and Pakistan. TheConstituent Assembly was alsodivided into the Constituent Assemblyof India and that of Pakistan. TheConstituent Assembly that wrotethe Indian constitution had 299members. The Assembly adoptedthe Constitution on 26 November1949 but it came into effect on 26January 1950. To mark this day wecelebrate January 26 as RepublicDay every year.

Why should we accept theConstitution made by this Assemblymore than six decades ago? We havealready noted one reason above.The Constitution does not reflect theviews of its members alone. Itexpresses a broad consensus of itstime. Many countries of the worldhave had to rewrite theirConstitution afresh because thebasic rules were not acceptable toall major social groups or politicalparties. In some other countries, theConstitution exists as a mere pieceof paper. No one actually follows it.The experience of our Constitutionis different. Over the last half acentury, several groups havequestioned some provisions of theConstitution. But no large socialgroup or political party has everquestioned the legitimacy of theConstitution itself. This is an unusualachievement for any constitution.

The second reason for acceptingthe Constitution is that theConstituent Assembly representedthe people of India. There was nouniversal adult franchise at thattime. So the Constituent Assemblycould not have been chosen directlyby all the people of India. It was

Rajendra PrasadRajendra PrasadRajendra PrasadRajendra PrasadRajendra Prasad(1884-1963) born: Bihar.

President of the ConstituentAssembly. Lawyer, known

for his role in theChamparan satyagraha. Three

times the president ofCongress. Later: the first

President of India.

H. C. MookherjeeH. C. MookherjeeH. C. MookherjeeH. C. MookherjeeH. C. Mookherjee(1887-1956)born: Bengal.

Vice-Chairman of theConstituent Assembly.

Reputed author andeducationist. Congress

leader. Member of All IndiaChristian Council and

Bengal LegislativeAssembly. Later: Governor

of West Bengal.

Jaipal SinghJaipal SinghJaipal SinghJaipal SinghJaipal Singh(1903-1970)

born: JharkhandA sportsman and

educationist. Captain of thefirst national Hockey team.

Founder President ofAdivasi Maha Sabha. Later:founder of Jharkhand Party.

25

CHECKYOUR

PROGRESS

elected mainly by the members ofthe existing Provincial Legislaturesthat we mentioned above. Thisensured a fair geographical share ofmembers from all the regions of thecountry. The Assembly wasdominated by the Indian NationalCongress, the party that led India’sfreedom struggle. But the Congressitself included a variety of politicalgroups and opinions. The Assemblyhad many members who did notagree with the Congress. In socialterms too, the Assembly representedmembers from different languagegroups, castes, classes, religionsand occupations. Even if theConstituent Assembly was electedby universal adult franchise, itscomposition would not have beenvery different.

Finally, the manner in which theConstituent Assembly worked givessanctity to the Constitution. The

Constituent Assembly worked in asystematic, open and consensualmanner. First some basic principleswere decided and agreed upon. Thena Drafting Committee chaired by Dr.B.R. Ambedkar prepared a draftconstitution for discussion. Severalrounds of thorough discussion tookplace on the Draft Constitution,clause by clause. More than twothousand amendments wereconsidered. The membersdeliberated for 114 days spread overthree years. Every documentpresented and every word spoken inthe Constituent Assembly has beenrecorded and preserved. These arecalled ‘Constituent AssemblyDebates’. When printed, thesedebates are 12 bulky volumes! Thesedebates provide the rationale behindevery provision of the Constitution.These are used to interpret themeaning of the Constitution.

Read the information about all the makers of the Indian Constitution given in the side columns here. Youdon’t need to memorise this information. Just give examples from these to support the followingstatements:1. The Assembly had many members who were not with the Congress2. The Assembly represented members from different social groups3. Members of the Assembly believed in different ideologies

2.4 GUIDING VALUES OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION

In this book we shall study theexact provisions of the Constitutionon different subjects. At this stagelet us begin by understanding theoverall philosophy of what ourConstitution is all about. We can dothis in two ways. We canunderstand it by reading the viewsof some of our major leaders on ourConstitution. But it is equallyimportant to read what theConstitution says about its ownphilosophy. This is what thepreamble to the Constitution does.

Let us turn to these, one by one.

The Dream and the PromiseThe Dream and the PromiseThe Dream and the PromiseThe Dream and the PromiseThe Dream and the PromiseSome of you may have noticed aname missing from the sketches ofthe makers of the constitution:Mahatma Gandhi. He was not amember of the ConstituentAssembly. Yet there were manymembers who followed his vision.Years ago, writing in his magazineYoung India in 1931, he had speltout what he wanted the Constitutionto do:

Baldev SinghBaldev SinghBaldev SinghBaldev SinghBaldev Singh( 1901-1961)born: Haryana.

A successful entrepreneurand leader of the PanthicAkali Party in the PunjabAssembly. A nominee of

the Congress in theConstituent Assembly.

Later: Defence Minister inthe Union Cabinet.

G. DurG. DurG. DurG. DurG. Durgabai Deshmukhgabai Deshmukhgabai Deshmukhgabai Deshmukhgabai Deshmukh(1909-1981)

born: Andhra Pradesh.Advocate and public activistfor women’s emancipation.Founder of Andhra MahilaSabha. Congress leader.

Later: Founder Chairpersonof Central Social Welfare

Board.



Bhimrao RamjiBhimrao RamjiBhimrao RamjiBhimrao RamjiBhimrao RamjiAmbedkarAmbedkarAmbedkarAmbedkarAmbedkar

(1891-1956) born: MadhyaPradesh. Chairman of the

Drafting Committee. Socialrevolutionary thinker and

agitator against castedivisions and caste basedinequalities. Later: Law

minister in the first cabinetof post-independence India.Founder of Republican Party

of India.

I shall strive for a constitution which will release India from all thralldom

and patronage … I shall work for an India in which the poorest shall feel that it

is their country in whose making they have an effective voice; an India in which

there shall be no high class and low class of people; an India in

which all communities shall live in perfect harmony. There

can be no room in such an India for the curse of

untouchability or the curse of the intoxicating drinks

and drugs. Women will enjoy the same rights as men …

I shall be satisfied with nothing else.

This dream of an India that haseliminated inequality was shared byDr. Ambedkar, who played a key rolein the making of the Constitution buthe had a different understanding of

how inequalities could be removed. Heoften bitterly criticised MahatmaGandhi and his vision. In his conclud-ing speech to the Constituent Assembly he stated his anxiety very clearly:

On the 26th of January 1950 we are going to enter a life of contradictions.

In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have

inequality. In politics we will be recognising the principle of one man one vote and

one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our

social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one

value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall

we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to

deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril.

Finally let us turn to JawaharlalNehru giving his famous speech to the

Constituent Assembly at the strokeof midnight on 15 August 1947:

Shyama PrasadShyama PrasadShyama PrasadShyama PrasadShyama PrasadMukherjeeMukherjeeMukherjeeMukherjeeMukherjee

(1901-1953) born: WestBengal. Minister for

Industry and Supply in theInterim Government.

Educationist and lawyer.Active in Hindu Mahasabha.Later: Founder President of

Bharatiya Jansangh.

Kanhaiyalal ManiklalKanhaiyalal ManiklalKanhaiyalal ManiklalKanhaiyalal ManiklalKanhaiyalal ManiklalMunshiMunshiMunshiMunshiMunshi

(1887-1971) born:Gujarat.Advocate, historian and

linguist. Congress leaderand Gandhian. Later:Minister in the Union

Cabinet. Founder of theSwatantra Party.

27

CHECKYOUR

PROGRESS

Long years ago we made a tryst with destinytryst with destinytryst with destinytryst with destinytryst with destiny,,,,, and now the time comes

when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially.

At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life

and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step

out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation,

long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take

the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still

larger cause of humanity …

Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this

Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the

birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy

with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless,

the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now.

That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we

may fulfil the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The

service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending

of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition

of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye.

That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our

work will not be over.

Read the three quotations above carefully. Can you identify one idea that is common to all these three?What are the differences in their ways of expressing that common idea?

Jawaharlal NehruJawaharlal NehruJawaharlal NehruJawaharlal NehruJawaharlal Nehru(1889-1964) born: Uttar

Pradesh. Prime Minister ofthe interim government.

Lawyer and Congressleader. Advocate of

socialism, democracy andanti-imperialism. Later: First

Prime Minister of India.

SarSarSarSarSarojini Naiduojini Naiduojini Naiduojini Naiduojini Naidu(1879-1949)

born: Andhra Pradesh.Poet, writer and political

activist. Among theforemost women leaders in

the Congress. Later:Governor of Uttar Pradesh.

Somnath LahiriSomnath LahiriSomnath LahiriSomnath LahiriSomnath Lahiri(1901-1984) born: WestBengal. Writer and editor.Leader of the Communist

Party of India. Later:Member of West BengalLegislative Assembly.



in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestictranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, andsecure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and

establish thisConstitution for the United States of America.

We, the people of South Africa,

Recognise the injustices of our past;

Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land;

Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and

Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.

We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of

the Republic so as to —

Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and

fundamental human rights;

Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of

the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;

Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and

Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the

family of nations.

May God protect our people.

Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso.

God seën Suid-Afrika. God bless South Africa.

Mudzimu fhatutshedza Afurika. Hosi katekisa Afrika.

Ph i lo sophy o f thePh i lo sophy o f thePh i lo sophy o f thePh i lo sophy o f thePh i lo sophy o f theCCCCConstitutiononstitutiononstitutiononstitutiononstitutionValues that inspired and guided thefreedom struggle and were in turnnurtured by it, formed thefoundation for India’s democracy.These values are embedded in thePreamble of the IndianConstitution. They guide all the

28

articles of the Indian Constitution.The Constitution begins with a shortstatement of its basic values. Thisis called the Preamble to theconstitution. Taking inspirationfrom American model, mostcountries in the contemporaryworld have chosen to begin theirconstitutions with a preamble.

29CONSTITUTIONAL DESIGN

REPUBLICREPUBLICREPUBLICREPUBLICREPUBLICThe head of the stateis an elected personand not a hereditaryposition.

JUSTICEJUSTICEJUSTICEJUSTICEJUSTICECitizens cannot bediscriminated on thegrounds of caste,religion and gender.Social inequalitieshave to be reduced.Government shouldwork for the welfareof all, especially ofthe disadvantagedgroups.

LIBERTYLIBERTYLIBERTYLIBERTYLIBERTYThere are nounreasonablerestrictions on thecitizens in what theythink, how they wishto express theirthoughts and the waythey wish to follow uptheir thoughts inaction.

EQUALITYEQUALITYEQUALITYEQUALITYEQUALITYAll are equal beforethe law. Thetraditional socialinequalities have to beended. Thegovernment shouldensure equalopportunity for all.

FRAFRAFRAFRAFRATERNITYTERNITYTERNITYTERNITYTERNITYAll of us shouldbehave as if we aremembers of the samefamily. No one shouldtreat a fellow citizenas inferior.

WE, THE PEOPLEWE, THE PEOPLEWE, THE PEOPLEWE, THE PEOPLEWE, THE PEOPLEOF INDIAOF INDIAOF INDIAOF INDIAOF INDIA

The constitution hasbeen drawn up and

enacted by the peoplethrough their

representatives, andnot handed down to

them by a king or anyoutside powers.

SOSOSOSOSOVEREIGNVEREIGNVEREIGNVEREIGNVEREIGNPeople have supreme

right to makedecisions on internal

as well as externalmatters. No external

power can dictate thegovernment of India.

SOCIALISTSOCIALISTSOCIALISTSOCIALISTSOCIALISTWealth is generatedsocially and should

be shared equally bysociety. Government

should regulate theownership of land and

industry to reducesocio-economic

inequalities.

SECULARSECULARSECULARSECULARSECULARCitizens have

complete freedom tofollow any religion.

But there is no officialreligion. Government

treats all religiousbeliefs and practices

with equal respect.

DEMOCRADEMOCRADEMOCRADEMOCRADEMOCRATICTICTICTICTICA form of government

where people enjoyequal political rights,elect their rulers andhold them account-

able. The governmentis run according tosome basic rules.

Let us read the Preamble of our Constitution verycarefully and understand the meaning of each of itskey words.

The Preamble of the Constitution reads like a poemon democracy. It contains the philosophy on which theentire Constitution has been built. It provides a standardto examine and evaluate any law and action ofgovernment, to find out whether it is good or bad. It isthe soul of the Indian Constitution.


GLOSSARY

Compare the Preambles to the constitutions of the United States of America, India and South Africa.Make a list of ideas that are common to all these three. Note down at least one of the major differences among these.Which of the three makes a reference to the past?Which of these does not invoke God?

Institutional designInstitutional designInstitutional designInstitutional designInstitutional designA constitution is not merely astatement of values and philosophy.As we noted above, a constitution ismainly about embodying these valuesinto institutional arrangements.Much of the document calledConstitution of India is about thesearrangements. It is a very long anddetailed document. Therefore it needsto be amended quite regularly to keepit updated. Those who crafted theIndian Constitution felt that it has tobe in accordance with people’saspirations and changes in society.They did not see it as a sacred, staticand unalterable law. So, they madeprovisions to incorporate changesfrom time to time. These changes arecalled constitutional amendments.

The Constitution describes theinstitutional arrangements in a verylegal language. If you read theConstitution for the first time, it can

be quite difficult to understand. Yetthe basic institutional design is notvery difficult to understand. Like anyConstitution, the IndianConstitution lays down a procedurefor choosing persons to govern thecountry. It defines who will have howmuch power to take which decisions.And it puts limits to what thegovernment can do by providingsome rights to the citizen thatcannot be violated. The remainingthree chapters in this book are aboutthese three aspects of the workingof Indian constitution. We shall lookat some key constitutionalprovisions in each chapter andunderstand how they work indemocratic politics. But thistextbook will not cover all the salientfeatures of the institutional designin the Indian Constitution. Someother aspects will be covered in yourtextbook next year.

Apartheid: The official policy of racial separation and ill treatment of blacksfollowed by the government of South Africa between 1948 and 1989.Clause: A distinct section of a document.Constituent Assembly: An assembly of people’s representatives that writesa constitution for a country.Constitution: Supreme law of a country, containing fundamental rulesgoverning the politics and society in a country.Constitutional amendment: A change in the constitution made by thesupreme legislative body in a country.Draft: A preliminary version of a legal document.Philosophy: The most fundamental principles underlying one’s thoughtsand actions.Preamble: An introductory statement in a constitution which states thereasons and guiding values of the constitution.Treason: The offence of attempting to overthrow the government of thestate to which the offender owes allegiance.Tryst: A meeting or meeting place that has been agreed upon.

CHECKYOURPROGRESS

31

exerc

ises 1 Here are some false statements. Identify the mistake in each case

and rewrite these correctly based on what you have read in thischapter.a Leaders of the freedom movement had an open mind about whether

the country should be democratic or not after independence.b Members of the Constituent Assembly of India held the same views

on all provisions of the Constitution.c A country that has a constitution must be a democracy.d Constitution cannot be amended because it is the supreme law of

a country.

2 Which of these was the most salient underlying conflict in the mak-ing of a democratic constitution in South Africa?a Between South Africa and its neighboursb Between men and womenc Between the white majority and the black minorityd Between the coloured minority and the black majority

3 Which of these is a provision that a democratic constitution does nothave?a Powers of the head of the stateb Name of the head of the statec Powers of the legislatured Name of the country

4 Match the following leaders with their roles in the making of theConstitution:a Motilal Nehru i President of the Constituent Assemblyb B.R. Ambedkar ii Member of the Constituent Assemblyc Rajendra Prasad iii Chairman of the Drafting Committeed Sarojini Naidu iv Prepared a Constitution for India in 1928

5 Read again the extracts from Nehru’s speech ‘Tryst with Destiny’and answer the following:a Why did Nehru use the expression “not wholly or in full measure”in the first sentence?b What pledge did he want the makers of the Indian Constitution totake?c “The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipeevery tear from every eye”. Who was he referring to?

6 Here are some of the guiding values of the Constitution and theirmeaning. Rewrite them by matching them correctly.a Sovereign i Government will not favour any religion.b Republic ii People have the supreme right to make decisions.c Fraternity iii Head of the state is an elected person.d Secular iv People should live like brothers and sisters.



exercises7 How did your school celebrate the Constitution Day on November26th? Prepare a brief report.

8 Here are different opinions about what made India a democracy.How much importance would you give to each of these factors?a Democracy in India is a gift of the British rulers. We received training

to work with representative legislative institutions under the Britishrule.

b Freedom Struggle challenged the colonial exploitation and denialof different freedoms to Indians. Free India could not be anythingbut democratic.

c We were lucky to have leaders who had democratic convictions.The denial of democracy in several other newly independentcountries shows the important role of these leaders.

9 Read the following extract from a conduct book for ‘married women’,published in 1912. ‘God has made the female species delicate and fragileboth physically and emotionally, pitiably incapable of self-defence. They aredestined thus by God to remain in male protection – of father, husband and son– all their lives. Women should, therefore, not despair, but feel obliged that theycan dedicate themselves to the service of men’. Do you think the valuesexpressed in this para reflected the values underlying ourconstitution? Or does this go against the constitutional values?

10 Read the following statements about a constitution. Give reasonswhy each of these is true or not true.a The authority of the rules of the constitution is the same as that of

any other law.b Constitution lays down how different organs of the government will

be formed.c Rights of citizens and limits on the power of the government are

laid down in the constitution.d A constitution is about institutions, not about values

Follow the newspapers for any report on a discussion on any constitutionalamendment or demand for any constitutional amendment. You could, forexample, focus on the demand for constitutional amendment for reservationfor women in legislatures. Was there a public debate? What reasons wereput forward in favour of the amendment? How did different parties react tothe constitutional amendment? Did the amendment take place?

33

Neh

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ial M

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m a

nd L

ibra

ry, N

ew D

elhi


OVERVIEW

In Chapter 1 we have seen that in a democracy it is neither possible nornecessary for people to govern directly. The most common form ofdemocracy in our times is for the people to govern through theirrepresentatives. In this chapter we will look at how these representativesare elected. We begin by understanding why elections are necessary anduseful in a democracy. We try to understand how electoral competitionamong parties serves the people. We then go on to ask what makes anelection democratic. The basic idea here is to distinguish democraticelections from non-democratic elections.

The rest of the chapter tries to assess elections in India in the light ofthis yardstick. We take a look at each stage of elections, from the drawingof boundaries of different constituencies to the declaration of results. Ateach stage we ask what should happen and what does happen in elections.Towards the end of the chapter, we turn to an assessment of whetherelections in India are free and fair. Here we also examine the role of theElection Commission in ensuring free and fair elections.

CHAPTER 3

ElectoralPolitics

35

3.1 WHY ELECTIONS?government would waive the loansof farmers and small businessmen.He promised that this would be thefirst action of his government.

The people were unhappy with theexisting government. They were alsoattracted by Devi Lal’s promise. So,when elections were held, they votedoverwhelmingly in favour of Lok Daland its allies. Lok Dal and itspartners won 76 out of 90 seats inthe State Assembly. Lok Dal alonewon 60 seats and thus had a clearmajority in the Assembly. TheCongress could win only 5 seats.

Once the election results wereannounced, the sitting ChiefMinister resigned. The newly electedMembers of Legislative Assembly(MLAs) of Lok Dal chose Devi Lal astheir leader. The Governor invitedDevi Lal to be the new ChiefMinister. Three days after theelection results were declared, hebecame the Chief Minister. As soonas he became the Chief Minister, hisGovernment issued a GovernmentOrder waiving the outstanding loansof small farmers, agriculturallabourers and small businessmen.His party ruled the State for fouryears. The next elections were heldin 1991. But this time his party didnot win popular support. TheCongress won the election andformed the government.

A s s e m b l y E l e c t i o n i nA s s e m b l y E l e c t i o n i nA s s e m b l y E l e c t i o n i nA s s e m b l y E l e c t i o n i nA s s e m b l y E l e c t i o n i nHHHHHa ra ra ra ra ryyyyyanaanaanaanaana

Do most leadersfulfil their election

promises?

Jagdeep and Navpreet read this story and drew the following conclusions. Can you say which ofthese are right or wrong (or if the information given in the story is inadequate to call them right orwrong): Elections can lead to changes in the policy of the government. The Governor invited Devi Lal to become the Chief Minister because he was impressed with his

speeches. People are unhappy with every ruling party and vote against it in the next election. The par ty that wins the election forms the government. This election led to a lot of economic development in Haryana. The Congress Chief Minister need not have resigned after his party lost elections.

CHECKYOUR

PROGRESS

This newspaper report is about theState assembly election in Haryanain 1987. The State had been ruled bya Congress party led governmentsince 1982. Chaudhary Devi Lal, thenan opposition leader, led a movementcalled ‘Nyaya Yudh’ (Struggle forJustice) and formed a new party, LokDal. His party joined other oppositionparties to form a front against theCongress in the elections. In theelection campaign, Devi Lal said thatif his party won the elections, his

The time is after midnight. An expectantcrowd sitting for the past five hours in achowk of the town is waiting for its leaderto come. The organisers assure and reas-sure the crowd that he would be here anymoment. The crowd stands up whenevera passing vehicle comes that way. Itarouses hopes that he has come.

The leader is Mr. Devi Lal, chief ofthe Haryana Sangharsh Samiti, who wasto address a meeting in Karnal on Thurs-day night. The 76-year-old leader, is avery busy man these days. His day startsat 8 a.m. and ends after 11 p.m. … hehad already addressed nine electionmeetings since morning… been con-stantly addressing public meetings forthe past 23 months and preparing for thiselection.

ELECTORAL POLITICS


A C T I V I T Y

Do you know when the last Assembly electionwas held in your state? Which other electionshave taken place in your locality in the last fiveyears? Write down the level of elections (National,Assembly, Panchayat, etc.), when were they heldand the name and designation (MP, MLA, etc.) ofthe persons who got elected from your area.

WWWWWhhhhhy do wy do wy do wy do wy do we neee neee neee neee need eled eled eled eled eleccccctions?tions?tions?tions?tions?Elections take place regularly inany democracy. There are more thanone hundred countries in the worldin which elections take place tochoose people’s representatives. Wealso read that elections are held inmany countries that are notdemocratic.

But why do we need elections?Let us try to imagine a democracywithout elections. A rule of thepeople is possible without anyelections if all the people can sittogether everyday and take all thedecisions. But as we have alreadyseen in Chapter 1, this is notpossible in any large community.Nor is it possible for everyone tohave the time and knowledge totake decisions on all matters.Therefore in most democraciespeople rule through theirrepresentatives.

Is there a democratic way ofselecting representatives withoutelections? Let us think of a placewhere representatives are selectedon the basis of age and experience.Or a place where they are chosenon the basis of education orknowledge. There could be somedifficulty in deciding on who is moreexperienced or knowledgable. But letus say the people can resolve thesedifficulties. Clearly, such a placedoes not require elections.

But can we call this place ademocracy? How do we find out ifthe people like their representativesor not? How do we ensure that theserepresentatives rule as per thewishes of the people? How to makesure that those who the people don’tlike do not remain theirrepresentatives? This requires amechanism by which people canchoose their representatives atregular intervals and change themif they wish to do so. Thismechanism is called election.Therefore, elections are consideredessential in our times for anyrepresentative democracy.

In an election the voters makemany choices: They can choose who will make

laws for them. They can choose who will form the

government and take majordecisions.

They can choose the party whosepolicies will guide the governmentand law making.

WWWWWh ah ah ah ah at makt makt makt makt makes an elees an elees an elees an elees an eleccccctiontiontiontiontiondemocrdemocrdemocrdemocrdemocraaaaatic?tic?tic?tic?tic?Elections can be held in many ways.All democratic countries holdelections. But most non-democraticcountries also hold some kind ofelections. How do we distinguishdemocratic elections from any otherelection? We have discussed thisquestion briefly in Chapter 1. Wediscussed many examples ofcountries where elections are heldbut they can’t really be calleddemocratic elections. Let us recallwhat we learnt there and start witha simple list of the minimumconditions of a democratic election: First, everyone should be able to

choose. This means that everyoneshould have one vote and everyvote should have equal value.

We have seen whydemocracies needto have elections.But why do rulersin non-democraticcountries need tohold elections?

37

Second, there should besomething to choose from. Partiesand candidates should be free tocontest elections and should offersome real choice to the voters.

Third, the choice should be offeredat regular intervals. Elections mustbe held regularly after every fewyears.

Fourth, the candidate preferred bythe people should get elected.

Fifth, elections should beconducted in a free and fairmanner where people can chooseas they really wish.These might look like very simple

and easy conditions. But there aremany countries where these are notfulfilled. In this chapter we will applythese conditions to the elections heldin our own country to see if we cancall these democratic elections.

IIIIIs it good ts it good ts it good ts it good ts it good to hao hao hao hao havvvvve politicale politicale politicale politicale politicalcccccompetition?ompetition?ompetition?ompetition?ompetition?Elections are thus all about politicalcompetition. This competition takesvarious forms. The most obvious formis the competition among politicalparties. At the constituency level, ittakes the form of competition amongseveral candidates. If there is nocompetition, elections will becomepointless.

But is it good to have politicalcompetition? Clearly, an electoralcompetition has many demerits. Itcreates a sense of disunity and‘factionalism’ in every locality. Youwould have heard of peoplecomplaining of ‘party-politics’ in yourlocality. Different political parties andleaders often level allegations againstone another. Parties and candidatesoften use dirty tricks to win elections.Some people say that this pressureto win electoral fights does not allowsensible long-term policies to beformulated. Some good people who

may wish to serve the country do notenter this arena. They do not like theidea of being dragged into unhealthycompetition.

Our Constitution makers wereaware of these problems. Yet theyopted for free competition inelections as the way to select ourfuture leaders. They did so becausethis system works better in the longrun. In an ideal world all politicalleaders know what is good for thepeople and are motivated only by adesire to serve them. Politicalcompetition is not necessary in suchan ideal world. But that is not whathappens in real life. Political leadersall over the world, like all otherprofessionals, are motivated by adesire to advance their politicalcareers. They want to remain inpower or get power and positions forthemselves.They may wish to servethe people as well, but it is risky todepend entirely on their sense ofduty. Besides even when they wishto serve the people, they may notknow what is required to do so, ortheir ideas may not match what thepeople really want.

How do we deal with this real lifesituation? One way is to try andimprove the knowledge and characterof political leaders. The other andmore realistic way is to set up asystem where political leaders arerewarded for serving the people andpunished for not doing so. Whodecides this reward or punishment?The simple answer is: the people.This is what electoral competitiondoes. Regular electoral competitionprovides incentives to politicalparties and leaders. They know thatif they raise issues that people wantto be raised, their popularity andchances of victory will increase inthe next elections. But if they fail tosatisfy the voters with their workthey will not be able to win again.

Ah! So, electionsare like exams

where politiciansand parties know ifthey have passedor failed. But who

are the examiners?

ELECTORAL POLITICS


Can we say that Indian elections aredemocratic? To answer this question,let us take a look at how elections areheld in India. Lok Sabha and VidhanSabha (Assembly) elections are heldregularly after every five years. Afterfive years the term of all the electedrepresentatives comes to an end. TheLok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha stands‘dissolved’. Elections are held in allconstituencies at the same time,either on the same day or within afew days. This is called a generalelection. Sometimes election is heldonly for one constitutency to fill thevacancy caused by death orresignation of a member. This is

called a by-election. In this chapterwe will focus on general elections.

EleEleEleEleElecccccttttto ro ro ro ro ral cal cal cal cal constituenciesonstituenciesonstituenciesonstituenciesonstituenciesYou read about the people ofHaryana electing 90 MLAs. You mayhave wondered how they did that.Did every person in Haryana vote forall the 90 MLAs? You perhaps knowthat this is not the case. In ourcountry we follow an area basedsystem of representation. Thecountry is divided into differentareas for purposes of elections.These areas are called electoralconstitutencies. The voters who livein an area elect one representative.

So if a political party is motivatedonly by desire to be in power, eventhen it will be forced to serve thepeople. This is a bit like the waymarket works. Even if a shopkeeperis interested only in his profit, he isforced to give good service to the

customers. If he does not, thecustomer will go to some other shop.Similarly, political competition maycause divisions and some ugliness,but it finally helps to force politicalparties and leaders to serve thepeople.

3.2 WHAT IS OUR SYSTEM OF ELECTIONS?

Read these two cartoons carefully. Write the message of each of them inyour own words. Have a discussion in class on which of the two is closerto the reality in your own locality. Draw a cartoon to depict what elections

do to the relationship between voters and political leaders.



Irfan

Kha

n

39

GULBARGA LOK SABHA CONSTITUENCY

For Lok Sabha elections, the countryis divided into 543 constituencies.The representative elected from eachconstituency is called a Member ofParliament or an MP. One of thefeatures of a democratic election isthat every vote should have equalvalue. That is why our Constitutionrequires that each constituencyshould have a roughly equalpopulation living within it.

Similarly, each state is divided intoa specific number of Assemblyconstituencies. In this case, theelected representative is called theMember of Legislative Assembly oran MLA. Each Parliamentary

GULBARGA (KALABURAGI) DISTRICTIN KARNATAKA

constituency has within it severalassembly constituencies. The sameprinciple applies for Panchayat andMunicipal elections. Each village ortown is divided into several ‘wards’that are like constituencies. Eachward elects one member of thevillage or the urban local body.Sometimes these constituencies arecounted as ‘seats’, for eachconstituency represents one seat inthe assembly. When we say that ‘LokDal won 60 seats’ in Haryana, itmeans that candidates of Lok Dalwon in 60 assembly constituenciesin the state and thus Lok Dal had60 MLAs in the state assembly.

ELECTORAL POLITICS

Why is the boundary of the Gulbarga Lok Sabhaconstituency not the same as the districtboundary of Gulbarga (Kalaburagi)? Draw asimilar map for your own Lok Sabhaconstituency.

How many Assembly constituencies are therein the Gulbarga Lok Sabha constituency? Is itthe same in your own Lok Sabhaconstituency?


RRRRR e s e re s e re s e re s e re s e r vvvvv eeeee d Cd Cd Cd Cd Co n s t i t u e n c i e so n s t i t u e n c i e so n s t i t u e n c i e so n s t i t u e n c i e so n s t i t u e n c i e sOur Constitution entitles everycitizen to elect her/his representativeand to be elected as a representative.The Constitution makers, however,were worried that in an openelectoral competition, certainweaker sections may not stand a goodchance to get elected to the Lok Sabhaand the state Legislative Assemblies.They may not have the requiredresources, education and contacts tocontest and win elections againstothers. Those who are influential andresourceful may prevent them fromwinning elections. If that happens,our Parliament and Assemblieswould be deprived of the voice of asignificant section of our population.That would make our democracy lessrepresentative and less democratic.

So, the makers of our Constitutionthought of a special system ofreserved constituencies for theweaker sections. Some constituenciesare reserved for people who belongto the Scheduled Castes [SC] andScheduled Tribes [ST]. In a SCreserved constituency only someonewho belongs to the ScheduledCastes can stand for election.Similarly only those belonging to theScheduled Tribes can contest anelection from a constituencyreserved for ST. Currently, in theLok Sabha, 84 seats are reserved forthe Scheduled Castes and 47 for theScheduled Tribes (as on 26 January2019). This number is in proportionto their share in the total population.Thus the reserved seats for SC andST do not take away the legitimateshare of any other social group.

This system of reservationwas extended later to otherweaker sections at the district andlocal level. In many states, seatsin rural (panchayat) and urban(municipalities and corporations)

local bodies are now reserved forOther Backward Classes (OBC) aswell. However, the proportion ofseats reserved varies from state tostate. Similarly, one-third of theseats are reserved in rural andurban local bodies for womencandidates.

VVVVVo to to to to tersersersersers’’’’’ list list list list listOnce the constituencies are decided,the next step is to decide who canand who cannot vote. This decisioncannot be left to anyone till the lastday. In a democratic election, the listof those who are eligible to voteis prepared much before theelection and given to everyone. Thislist is officially called the ElectoralRoll and is commonly known as theVoters’ List.

This is an important step for it islinked to the first condition of ademocratic election: everyoneshould get an equal opportunity tochoose representatives. Earlier, weread about the principle ofuniversal adult franchise. Inpractice it means that everyoneshould have one vote and each voteshould have equal value. No oneshould be denied the right to votewithout a good reason. Differentcitizens differ from one another inmany ways: some are rich, some arepoor; some are highly educated,some are not so educated or noteducated at all; some are kind,others are not so kind. But all ofthem are human beings with theirown needs and views. That is whyall of them deserve to have an equalsay in decisions that affect them.

In our country, all the citizens aged18 years and above can vote in anelection. Every citizen has the rightto vote, regardless of his or her caste,religion or gender. Some criminalsand persons with unsound mind can

Like in Panchayats,should we not haveat least one-thirdseats in theparliament andassembliesreserved forwomen?

41

TOTAL CONSTITUENCIES 543

GENERAL 412

RESERVED (SC) 84

RESERVED (ST) 47

LOK SABHA CONSTITUENCIES

ELECTORAL POLITICS

STATES CONSTITUENCIES

Andhra Pradesh 25Arunachal Pradesh 2Assam 14Bihar 40Chhattisgarh 11Goa 2Gujarat 26Haryana 10Himachal Pradesh 4Jharkhand 14Karnataka 28Kerala 20Madhya Pradesh 29Maharashtra 48Manipur 2Meghalaya 2Mizoram 1Nagaland 1Odisha 21Punjab 13Rajasthan 25Sikkim 1Tamil Nadu 39

Telangana 17Tripura 2Uttar Pradesh 80Uttarakhand 5West Bengal 42

UNION TERRITORIES

Andaman & NicobarIslands 1

Jammu & Kashmir 5

Ladakh 1Chandigarh 1Dadra & Nagar Haveli 1Daman & Diu 1Delhi 7Lakshadweep 1Puducherry 1

See the map above and answer the following questions. What is the number of Lok Sabha constituencies in your UT and the

neighbouring two states? Which states have more than 30 Lok Sabha constituencies? Why do some states have such a large number of constituencies? Why are some constituencies small in area while others are very big? Are the constituencies reserved for the SCs and STs evenly spread all

over the entire country or are there more in some areas?

Ele

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be denied the right to vote, but onlyin rare situations. It is theresponsibility of the government toget the names of all the eligiblevoters put on the voters’ list. As newpersons attain voting age names areadded to the voters’ list. Names ofthose who move out of a place orthose who are dead are deleted. Acomplete revision of the list takesplace every five years. This is doneto ensure that it remains up to date.In the last few years a new systemof Election Photo Identity Card[EPIC] has been introduced. Thegovernment has tried to give thiscard to every person on the voterslist. The voters are required to carrythis card when they go out to vote,so that no one can vote for someoneelse. But the card is not yetcompulsory for voting. For voting,the voters can show many otherproofs of identity like the ration cardor the driving licence.

NNNNNominaominaominaominaomination of candidation of candidation of candidation of candidation of candidattttte se se se se sWe noted above that in a democraticelection people should have a realchoice. This happens only whenthere are almost no restrictions onanyone to contest an election. Thisis what our system provides. Any-one who can be a voter can also be-come a candidate in elections. Theonly difference is that in order to bea candidate the minimum age is 25years, while it is only 18 years forbeing a voter. There are some otherrestrictions on criminals etc. butthese apply in very extreme cases.Political parties nominate their can-didates who get the party symboland support. Party’s nomination isoften called party ‘ticket’.

Every person who wishes tocontest an election has to fill a‘nomination form’ and give somemoney as ‘security deposit’.

Recently, a new system ofdeclaration has been introduced ondirection from the Supreme Court.Every candidate has to make a legaldeclaration, giving full details of : Serious criminal cases pending

against the candidate;Details of the assets and liabilities

of the candidate and his or herfamily; and

Educational qualifications of thecandidate.This information has to be made

public. This provides an opportunityto the voters to make their decisionon the basis of the informationprovided by the candidates.

Why are thecandidatesrequired to give adetailed statementof their property?

Educational qualifications forcandidates

Why is there no educational qualification forholding such an important position when somekind of educational qualification is needed for anyother job in the country? Educational qualifications are not relevant to

all kinds of jobs. The relevant qualification forselection to the Indian cricket team, forexample, is not the attainment of educationaldegrees but the ability to play cricket well.Similarly the relevant qualification for being anMLA or an MP is the ability to understandpeople’s concerns, problems and to representtheir interests. Whether they can do so or notis examined by lakhs of examiners — theirvoters — after every five years.

Even if education was relevant, it should belef t to the people to decide how muchimpor tance they give to educationalqualifications.

In our countr y putting an educationalqualification would go against the spirit ofdemocracy for yet another reason. It wouldmean depriving a majority of the country’scitizens the right to contest elections. If, forexample, a graduate degree like B.A., B.Comor B.Sc was made compulsory for candidates,more than 90 per cent of the citizens willbecome ineligible to contest elections.

43ELECTORAL POLITICS


E l e c t i o n C a m p a i g nE l e c t i o n C a m p a i g nE l e c t i o n C a m p a i g nE l e c t i o n C a m p a i g nE l e c t i o n C a m p a i g nThe main purpose of election is togive people a chance to choose therepresentatives, the government andthe policies they prefer. Therefore itis necessary to have a free and opendiscussion about who is a betterrepresentative, which party willmake a better government or whatis a good policy. This is what happensduring election campaigns.

In our country such campaignstake place for a two-week periodbetween the announcement of thefinal list of candidates and the dateof polling. During this period thecandidates contact their voters,political leaders address electionmeetings and political partiesmobilise their supporters. This isalso the period when newspapersand television news are full ofelection related stories and debates.But election campaign is not limitedto these two weeks only. Politicalparties start preparing for electionsmonths before they actually takeplace.

A C T I V I T Y

What was the election campaign like in yourconstituency in the last Lok Sabha elections?Prepare a list of what the candidates and par tiessaid and did.

In election campaigns, politicalparties try to focus public attentionon some big issues. They want toattract the public to that issue andget them to vote for their party on thatbasis. Let us look at some of thesuccessful slogans given by differentpolitical parties in various elections. The Congress party led by Indira

Gandhi gave the slogan of GaribiHatao (Remove poverty) in theLok Sabha elections of 1971. Theparty promised to reorient all thepolicies of the government toremove poverty from the country.

Save Democracy was the slogangiven by Janata Party under theleadership of Jayaprakash Narayan,in the Lok Sabha election held in1977. The party promised to undothe excesses committed duringEmergency and restore civilliberties.

The Left Front used the slogan ofLand to the Tiller in the WestBengal Assembly elections held in1977.

‘Protect the Self-Respect of theTelugus’ was the slogan used by N.T. Rama Rao, the leader of theTelugu Desam Party in AndhraPradesh Assembly elections in1983.In a democracy it is best to leave

political parties and candidates freeto conduct their election campaignsthe way they want to. But it issometimes necessary to regulate

Match the following features of our electoral system with the principles they reflect.Principles Features of election system

Each constituency has roughly the same population

Everyone who is 18 years of age or older has a right to vote

Anyone can form a party or contest elections

Reservation of seats for the SCs and the STs

Universal adult franchise

Representation ofweaker sections

Open political competition

One vote one value

CHECKYOURPROGRESS

45

campaigns to ensure that everypolitical party and candidate gets afair and equal chance to compete.According to our election law, noparty or candidate can:Bribe or threaten voters;Appeal to them in the name of

caste or religion;Use government resources for

election campaign; andSpend more than ` 25 lakh in a

constituency for a Lok Sabha electionor ̀10 lakh in a constituency in anAssembly election.If they do so, their election can be

rejected by the court even after theyhave been declared elected. Inaddition to the laws, all the politicalparties in our country have agreedto a Model Code of Conduct forelection campaigns. According tothis, no party or candidate can:Use any place of worship for

election propaganda;

Use government vehicles, aircraftsand officials for elections; and

Once elections are announced,Ministers shall not lay foundationstones of any projects, take any bigpolicy decisions or make anypromises of providing public facilities.

PPPPPolling and colling and colling and colling and colling and counounounounounting of vting of vting of vting of vting of vototototote se se se se sThe final stage of an election is theday when the voters cast or ‘poll’their vote. That day is usually calledthe election day. Every person whosename is on the voters’ list can go toa nearby ‘polling booth’, situatedusually in a local school or agovernment office. Once the votergoes inside the booth, the electionofficials identify her, put a mark onher finger and allow her to cast hervote. An agent of each candidate isallowed to sit inside the pollingbooth and ensure that the votingtakes place in a fair way.

ELECTORAL POLITICS

Are the elections too expensivefor our country?

A large amount of money is spent in conductingelections in India. For instance, the governmentspent about ̀ 3,500 crores in conducting Lok Sabhaelections in 2014. That works out to about ̀ 40 perperson on the voters’ list. The amount spent byparties and candidates was more than what thegovernment spent. Roughly speaking, theexpenditure made by government, par ties andcandidates was around `30,000 crores or `500per voter.

Some people say that elections are a burdenon our people, that our poor country cannot affordto hold elections once every five years. Let uscompare this expenditure with some other figures: In 2005, our government decided to buy six

nuclear submarines from France. Each subma-rine cost about ̀ 3,000 crores.

Delhi hosted the Commonwealth Games in2010. The estimate for its cost is around`20,000 crores.

Are the elections too expensive? You decide.

Draw a cartoon here about the Model Code of Conductfor the guidance of political parties and candidatesduring elections.


Earlier the voters used to indicatewho they wanted to vote for by puttinga stamp on the ballot paper. A ballotpaper is a sheet of paper on whichthe names of the contestingcandidates along with party nameand symbols are listed. Nowadayselectronic voting machines (EVM) areused to record votes. The machineshows the names of the candidatesand the party symbols. Independentcandidates too have their ownsymbols, allotted by election commission.All that the voter has to do is to pressthe button against the name of thecandidate she wants to give her vote.

Once the polling is over, all theEVMs are sealed and taken to a

Why are partyagents present inthe polling boothand the countingcentre?

Election result in GulbargaLet us go back to our example of Gulbarga. In 2014, a total of 8 candidates contested elections in thatconstituency. The total eligible voters were 17.21 lakhs. Of these 9.98 lakh voters had cast their votes.The candidate of the Congress party, Mallikarjun Kharge secured about 5.07 lakh votes. This was 50.82percent of the total votes polled. But since he had secured more votes than anyone else, he wasdeclared elected a Member of Parliament from Gulbarga Lok Sabha constituency.

Election Result of Gulbarga constituency, GENERAL ELECTION TO LOK SABHA, 2014CANDIDATE PARTY VOTES POLLED % OF VOTESD.G. Sagar JD(S) 1.57Mallikarjun Kharge INC 50.82Danni Mahadev B. BSP 1.14Revunaik Belamagi BJP 43.33B.T. Lalitha Naik AAAP 0.91S.M. Sharma SUCI 0.50Shankar Jadhav BHPP 0.29Ramu IND 0.41None of the Above NOTA 0.99

CHECKYOURPROGRESS

Identify the fair and the unfair electoral practices among the following: A minister flags off a new train in his constituency a week before polling day. A candidate promises that she will get a new train for her constituency if she is elected. Supporters of a candidate take the voters to a temple and make them take an oath that they

will vote for him. The supporters of a candidate distribute blankets in slums in return for a promise for vote.

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43246090744943287740859888

secure place. A few days later, on afixed date, all the EVMs from aconstituency are opened and thevotes secured by each candidate arecounted. The agents of all candidatesare present there to ensure that thecounting is done properly. Thecandidate who secures the highestnumber of votes from a constituencyis declared elected. In a generalelection, usually the counting of votesin all the constituencies takes placeat the same time, on the same day.Television channels, radio andnewspapers report this event. Withina few hours of counting, all the resultsare declared and it becomes clear asto who will form the next government.

What is the percentage of voters who had actually cast their votes? To win an election is it necessary for a person to secure more than half the votes polled?

47

3.3 WHAT MAKES ELECTIONS IN INDIADEMOCRATIC?

Election Commissioner (CEC) isappointed by the President of India.But once appointed, the ChiefElection Commissioner is notanswerable to the President or thegovernment. Even if the ruling partyor the government does not like whatthe Commission does, it is virtuallyimpossible for it to remove the CEC.

Very few election commissions inthe world have such wide-rangingpowers as the Election Commissionof India.EC takes decisions on every aspect

of conduct and control of electionsfrom the announcement ofelections to the declaration ofresults.

It implements the Code ofConduct and punishes anycandidate or party that violates it.

During the election period, the ECcan order the government to followsome guidelines, to prevent useand misuse of governmental powerto enhance its chances to winelections, or to transfer somegovernment officials.

When on election duty, govern-ment officers work under the con-trol of the EC and not the govern-ment.In the last 25 years or so, the

Election Commission has begun toexercise all its powers and evenexpand them. It is very common nowfor the Election Commission toreprimand the government andadministration for their lapses. Whenelection officials come to the opinionthat polling was not fair in some boothsor even an entire constituency, theyorder a repoll. The ruling parties oftendo not like what the EC does. But theyhave to obey. This would not havehappened if the EC was notindependent and powerful.

ELECTORAL POLITICS

We get to read a lot about unfairpractices in elections. Newspapersand television reports often refer tosuch allegations. Most of thesereports are about the following: Inclusion of false names and

exclusion of genuine names in thevoters’ list;

Misuse of government facilitiesand officials by the ruling party;

Excessive use of money by richcandidates and big parties; and

Intimidation of voters and riggingon the polling day.Many of these reports are correct.

We feel unhappy when we read orsee such reports. But fortunatelythey are not on such a scale so as todefeat the very purpose of elections.This becomes clear if we ask a basicquestion: Can a party win anelection and come to power notbecause it has popular support butthrough electoral malpractices? Thisis a vital question. Let us carefullyexamine various aspects of thisquestion.

IndependenIndependenIndependenIndependenIndependent Elet Elet Elet Elet EleccccctiontiontiontiontionCCCCCommissionommissionommissionommissionommissionOne simple way of checking whetherelections are fair or not is to look atwho conducts the elections. Are theyindependent of the government? Orcan the government or the ruling partyinfluence or pressurise them? Do theyhave enough powers to be able toconduct free and fair elections? Dothey actually use these powers?

The answer to all these questionsis quite positive for our country. Inour country elections are conductedby an independent and very powerfulElection Commission (EC). It enjoysthe same kind of independence thatthe judiciary enjoys. The Chief

Why does theElection

Commission haveso much powers?

Is this good fordemocracy?

For more details about

the Election Commission

of India,

visit

https://eci.gov.in


EC accepts new Haryana DGP

EC issues notification constituting 14thLok Sabha

Photo I-cards not mandatory in Biharpolls

EC tightens norms for poll expenses

EC to visit Gujarat again, review poll

arrangements

EC will seek power to censurepolitical ads

HC asks EC to bar ‘criminal’ netasEC says no immediate plan to banExit Polls

EC shoots down HM advice onpoll reformsEC orders repoll in 398 more booths

EC to keep closer eye on hiddenpoll costs

Read these headlines carefully and identify which powers are used by the Election Commission in eachinstance to ensure free and fair elections.

PPPPPo p u l a r p a ro p u l a r p a ro p u l a r p a ro p u l a r p a ro p u l a r p a rt i c i p at i c i p at i c i p at i c i p at i c i p at i o nt i o nt i o nt i o nt i o nAnother way to check the quality ofthe election process is to seewhether people participate in it withenthusiasm. If the election processis not free or fair, people will notcontinue to participate in theexercise. Now, read these chartsand draw some conclusions aboutparticipation in India:

CHECKYOURPROGRESS

1991 2015

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

56

66

5862 60

78

72

59

66

ELECTION YEAR

VOTE

R TU

RNOU

T (%

)

UKINDIA

1 VOTER TURNOUT IN INDIA AND THE UK

1 People’s participation in electionis usually measured by voterturnout figures. Turnout indicatesthe per cent of eligible voters whoactually cast their vote. Over thelast fifty years, the turnout inEurope and North America hasdeclined. In India the turnout haseither remained stable or actuallygone up.

49

2 In India the poor, illiterate andunderprivileged people vote inlarger proportion as compared tothe rich and privileged sections.This is in contrast to westerndemocracies. For example in theUnited States of America, poorpeople, African Americans andHispanics vote much less than therich and the white people.

3 Common people in India attach alot of importance to elections.They feel that through electionsthey can bring pressure onpolitical parties to adopt policiesand programmes favourable tothem. They also feel that their votematters in the way things are runin the country.

2 VOTER TURNOUT IN INDIA AND US BY SOCIAL GROUPS, 2004

SOCIAL GROUPS

UpperCaste

OBC SC ST White Black Hispanic

56 58 60 61 6056

28

Source: Figures for Indiafrom National Election

Study 2004, CSDS.Figures for US from

National Election Study2004, University of

Michigan.

I N D I A U S

VOTE

R TU

RNOU

T (%

)

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

A C T I V I T Y

Ask the eligible voters in your family whether theyvoted in the last election to the Lok Sabha or tothe state assembly. If they did not, ask them whydid they not vote. If they did, ask them which partyand candidate they voted for and why. Also askthem whether they had participated in any otherelection-related activity like attending an electionmeeting or rally etc.

A c c e p t a n c e o f e l e c t i o nA c c e p t a n c e o f e l e c t i o nA c c e p t a n c e o f e l e c t i o nA c c e p t a n c e o f e l e c t i o nA c c e p t a n c e o f e l e c t i o no u t c o m eo u t c o m eo u t c o m eo u t c o m eo u t c o m eOne final test of the free and fairnessof election has in the outcome itself.If elections are not free or fair, theoutcome always favours the powerful.In such a situation, the ruling partiesdo not lose elections. Usually, the

ELECTORAL POLITICS

67%

3 DO YOU THINK YOUR VOTE MAKES A DIFFERENCE?

15%

18%Has effect

Has no effect

Don’t knowSource: National Election

Study 2004, CSDS.

1996 1998 1999 2004

8 13

21

32

(%)

10

20

30

40

4 THOSE WHO PARTICIPATED IN ANYELECTION RELATED ACTIVITY IN INDIASource: National Election Study 1996-2004, CSDS.

4 The interest of voters in election-related activities has beenincreasing over the years. Duringthe 2004 elections, more than one-third voters took part in acampaign-related activities. Morethan half of the people identifiedthemselves as being close to oneor the other political party. Oneout of every seven voters is amember of a political party.

ELECTION YEAR


losing party does not accept theoutcome of a rigged election.

The outcome of India’s electionsspeaks for itself: The ruling parties routinely lose

elections in India both at thenational and state level. In fact inevery two out of the three electionsheld in the last 25 years, theruling party lost.

In the US, an incumbent or ‘sitting’elected representative rarely losesan election. In India about half ofthe sitting MPs or MLAs loseelections.

Candidates who are known to havespent a lot of money on ‘buyingvotes’ and those with knowncriminal connections often loseelections.

Barring very few disputedelections, the electoral outcomesare usually accepted as ‘people’sverdict’ by the defeated party.

CCCCChallenges thallenges thallenges thallenges thallenges to fro fro fro fro free and fairee and fairee and fairee and fairee and faire leeleeleeleeleccccctionstionstionstionstionsAll this leads to a simple conclusion:elections in India are basically freeand fair. The party that wins an elec-tion and forms government does sobecause people have chosen it overits rivals. This may not be true forevery constituency. A few candidatesmay win purely on the basis ofmoney power and unfair means. Butthe overall verdict of a general elec-tion still reflects popular preference.There are very few exceptions to thisrule in the last 60 years in ourcountry. This is what makes Indianelections democratic.

Yet the picture looks different if weask deeper questions: Are people’spreferences based on real knowledge?Are the voters getting a real choice?Is election really level playing fieldfor everyone? Can an ordinarycitizen hope to win elections?

Questions of this kind bring themany limitations and challenges ofIndian elections to our attention.These include :

The leader is coming out of a pressconference: “What was the need to say that wehave distributed tickets only amongst suitableand winnable family relations?” Do you thinkthat family politics is confined to only a few

states or parties?

Titled ‘ElectoralCampaigns’, this

cartoon was drawn inthe Latin Americancontext. Does this

apply to Indiaand to otherdemocraciesin the world?

©N

erili

con,

El E

cono

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ta, C

agle

Car

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Irfan

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51

Candidates and parties with a lotof money may not be sure of theirvictory but they do enjoy a big andunfair advantage over smallerparties and independents.

In some parts of the country,candidates with criminal connectionhave been able to push others out ofthe electoral race and to secure a‘ticket’ from major parties.

Some families tend to dominatepolitical parties; tickets aredistributed to relatives from thesefamilies.

Very often elections offer littlechoice to ordinary citizens, forboth the major parties are quite

ELECTORAL POLITICS

similar to each other both inpolicies and practice.

Smaller parties and independentcandidates suffer a hugedisadvantage compared to biggerparties.These challenges exist not just in

India but also in many establisheddemocracies. These deeper issuesare a matter of concern for those whobelieve in democracy. That is whycitizens, social activists andorganisations have been demandingreforms in our electoral system. Canyou think of some reforms? Whatcan an ordinary citizen do to facethese challenges?



Is this an accuratepicture of what

happens to the voterbefore and after

elections? Must thisalways happen in a

democracy? Can youthink of exampleswhen this did not

happen?

CHECKYOUR

PROGRESS

Here are some facts on Indian elections. Comment on each of these to say whether they reflect thestrength or the weakness of our electoral system:

The 16th Lok Sabha has 12 per cent women members. The Election Commission often refuses to accept the government’s advice about when the elections

should be held. The 16th Lok Sabha has more than 440 members whose assets are more than Rs.1 crore. After losing an election the Chief Minister said: “I respect the people’s verdict”.

R.K

. Lax

man

, The

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f Ind

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GLOSSARYCode of Conduct: A set of norms and guidelines to be followed bypolitical parties and contesting candidates during election time.Constituency: Voters in a geographical area who elect a representative tothe legislative bodies.Incumbent: The current holder of a political office. Usually the choice forthe voters in elections is between the incumbent party or candidate andthose who oppose them.Level playing field: Condition in which all parties and candidatescontesting in an election have equal opportunities to appeal for votes andto carry out election campaign.Rigging: Fraud and malpractices indulged by a party or candidate toincrease its votes. It includes stuffing ballot boxes by a few persons usingthe votes of others; recording multiple votes by the same person; andbribing or coercing polling officers to favour a candidate.Turnout: The percentage of eligible voters who cast their votes in an election.

1 Which of the following statements about the reasons for conductingelections are false?a Elections enable people to judge the performance of thegovernment.b People select the representative of their choice in an election.c Elections enable people to evaluate the performance of thejudiciary.d People can indicate which policies they prefer.

2 Which of these is not a good reason to say that Indian elections aredemocratic?a India has the largest number of voters in the world.b India’s Election Commission is very powerful.c In India, everyone above the age of 18 has a right to vote.d In India, the losing parties accept the electoral verdict.

3 Match the following :

a It is necessary to keep the voterslist up to date because

b Some constituencies arereserved for SCs and STs sothat

c Everyone has one and only onevote so that

d Party in power is not allowed touse government vehiclesbecause

exercises

i there is a fair representation ofall sections of our society

ii everyone has equalopportunity to elect theirrepresentative

iii all candidates must have a fairchance of competing inelections

iv some people may have movedaway from the area where theyvoted last

53

4 List all the different election related activities mentioned in the chapterand arrange them in a time sequence, beginning with the first activityand ending with the last. Some of these activities are given below:releasing election manifestos; counting of votes; making of voters’list; election campaign; declaration of election results; casting of votes;ordering of re-poll; announcing election schedule; filing nomination.

5 Surekha is an officer in-charge of ensuring free and fair elections inan assembly constituency in a state. Describe what should she focuson for each of the following stages of election:a Election campaignb Polling dayc Counting day

6 The table below gives the proportion of different communities amongthe candidates who won elections to the US Congress. Compare theseto the proportion of these communities in the population of the US.Based on this, would you suggest a system of reservations in the USCongress? If yes, why and for which communities? If no, why not?

7 Can we draw the following conclusions from the information givenin this chapter? Give two facts to support your position for each ofthese.a Election Commission of India does not have enough powers to

conduct free and fair elections in the country.b There is a high level of popular participation in the elections in

our country.c It is very easy for the party in power to win an election.d Many reforms are needed to make our elections completely free

and fair.

8 Chinappa was convicted for torturing his wife for dowry. Satbir washeld guilty of practicing untouchability. The court did not allow eitherof them to contest elections. Does this decision go against theprinciples of democratic elections?

9 Here are some reports of electoral malpractices from different parts ofthe world. Is there anything that these countries can learn from Indiato improve their elections? What would you suggest in each case?a During an election in Nigeria, the officer in charge of counting

votes deliberately increased the votes of one candidate and declared

Proportion of the community(in per cent) in the

House ofrepresentatives

85

86

Population of US

131370

BlacksHispanicsWhites

ELECTORAL POLITICS

exerc

ises


exerciseshim elected. The court later found out that more than five lakhvotes cast for one candidate were counted in favour of another.

b Just before elections in Fiji, a pamphlet was distributed warningvoters that a vote for former Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhrywill lead to bloodshed. This was a threat to voters of Indian origin.

c In the US, each state has its own method of voting, its ownprocedure of counting and its own authority for conductingelections. Authorities in the state of Florida took many controversialdecisions that favoured Mr. Bush in the presidential elections in2000. But no one could change those decisions.

10 Here are some reports of malpractices in Indian elections. Identifywhat the problem in each case is. What should be done to correct thesituation?a Following the announcement of elections, the minister promised

to provide financial aid to reopen the closed sugar mill.b Opposition parties alleged that their statements and campaign

was not given due attention in Doordarshan and All India Radio.c An inquiry by the Election Commission showed that electoral rolls

of a state contain name of 20 lakh fake voters.d The hoodlums of a political party were moving with guns, physically

preventing supporters of other political parties to meet the votersand attacking meetings of other parties.

11 Ramesh was not in class when this chapter was being taught. Hecame the next day and repeated what he had heard from his father.Can you tell Ramesh what is wrong with these statements?a Women always vote the way men tell them to. So what is the point

of giving them the right to vote?b Party politics creates tension in society. Elections should be decided

by consensus not by competition.c Only graduates should be allowed to stand as candidates for

elections.

Assembly elections are usually held every year in a few states of thecountry. You can collect information about the elections that take placeduring this session. While collecting news items, divide these into threeparts:

Important events that took place before the election – main agendadiscussed by political parties; information about people’s demand;role of the Election Commission.

Important events on the day of the election and counting – turnoutin elections; reports of malpractice; re-polls; the types of predictionsmade; and the final outcome.

Post elections – reasons offered by political parties for winning orlosing elections; analysis of the election verdict by the media;selection of the Chief Minister.

55

Is Electoral Literacy Club (ELC) functioning inyour school? For details about Systematic Voters’Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP)programme of the Election Commission of India,visit http://ecisveep.nic.in

How did your school celebrate the National Voters’ Dayon 25th January? Did you take the NVD Pledge?

National Voters’ Day (NVD) Pledge

We, the citizens of India, having abiding faith indemocracy, hereby pledge to uphold the democratictraditions of our country and the dignity of free, fairand peaceful elections, and to vote in every electionfearlessly and without being influenced by

considerations of religion, race, caste, community,language or any inducement.

The tableau of the Election Commission of India passes through the Rajpath, New Delhi, on the occasionof the 67th Republic Day Parade in 2016.


OVERVIEW

Democracy is not just about people electing their rulers. In a democracythe rulers have to follow some rules and procedures. They have to workwith and within institutions. This chapter is about the working of suchinstitutions in a democracy. We try to understand this by looking at themanner in which major decisions are taken and implemented in ourcountry. We also look at how disputes regarding these decisions areresolved. In this process we come across three institutions that play a keyrole in major decisions – legislature, executive and judiciary.

You have already read something about these institutions in earlierclasses. Here we shall quickly summarise those and move on to askinglarger questions. In the case of each institution we ask: What does thisinstitution do? How is this institution connected to other institutions?What makes its functioning more or less democratic? The basic objectivehere is to understand how all these institutions together carry on thework of government. Sometimes we compare these with similar institutionsin other democracies. In this chapter we take our examples from theworking of the national level government called Central Government, UnionGovernment, or just Government of India. While reading this chapter, youcan think of and discuss examples from the working of the government inyour state.

CHAPTER 4

Working ofInstitutions

57

4.1 HOW IS A MAJOR POLICY DECISION TAKEN?Pensions, signed the Order. It wasquite short, barely one page. Itlooked like any ordinary circular ornotice that you may have seen inschool. The government issues hun-dreds of orders every day on differ-ent matters. But this one was veryimportant and became a source ofcontroversy for several years. Let ussee how the decision was taken andwhat happened later.

A G o v e r n m e n t O r d e rA G o v e r n m e n t O r d e rA G o v e r n m e n t O r d e rA G o v e r n m e n t O r d e rA G o v e r n m e n t O r d e rOn August 13, 1990, the Governmentof India issued an Order. It wascalled an Office Memorandum. Likeall government orders, it had a num-ber and is known by that: O. M. No.36012/31/90-Est (SCT), dated13.8.1990. The Joint Secretary, anofficer in the Department of Person-nel and Training in the Ministry ofPersonnel, Public Grievances and

WORKING OF INSTITUTIONS


This Order announced a majorpolicy decision. It said that 27 percent of the vacancies in civil postsand services under the Governmentof India are reserved for the Sociallyand Educationally Backward Classes(SEBC). SEBC is another name for allthose people who belong to castesthat are considered backward by thegovernment. The benefit of job res-ervation was till then available onlyto Scheduled Castes and ScheduledTribes. Now a new third categorycalled SEBC was introduced. Onlypersons who belong to backwardclasses were eligible for this quotaof 27 per cent jobs. Others could notcompete for these jobs.

TTTTThe Dhe Dhe Dhe Dhe Deeeeecision Mcision Mcision Mcision Mcision Ma ka ka ka ka kersersersersersWho decided to issue thisMemorandum? Clearly, such a bigdecision could not have been takenby the person who signed thatdocument. The officer was merelyimplementing the instructions givenby the Minister of Personnel, PublicGrievances and Pensions, of whichthe Department was a part. We canguess that such a major decisionwould have involved other majorfunctionaries in our country. Youhave already read in the previousclass about some of them. Let us goover some of the main points thatyou covered then: President is the head of the state

and is the highest formal authorityin the country.

Prime Minister is the head of thegovernment and actually exercisesall governmental powers. He takesmost of the decisions in theCabinet meetings.

Parliament consists of thePresident and two Houses, LokSabha and Rajya Sabha. The PrimeMinister must have the support ofa majority of Lok Sabha members.

So, were all these people involvedin this decision regarding the OfficeMemorandum? Let us find out.

A C T I V I T Y

Which points, other than the ones mentionedabove, do you recall about these institutionsfrom the previous class? Discuss in class.

Can you think of a major decision made byyour state government? How were the Gover-nor, the Council of Ministers, the state assem-bly and the courts involved in that decision?

This Office Memorandum was theculmination of a long chain ofevents. The Government of India hadappointed the Second BackwardClasses Commission in 1979. It washeaded by B.P. Mandal. Hence it waspopularly called the MandalCommission. It was asked todetermine the criteria to identify thesocially and educationally backwardclasses in India and recommendsteps to be taken for theiradvancement. The Commission gaveits Report in 1980 and made manyrecommendations. One of these wasthat 27 per cent of government jobsbe reserved for the socially andeducationally backward classes.The Report and recommendationswere discussed in the Parliament.

For several years, manyparliamentarians and parties keptdemanding the implementation ofthe Commission’s recommendations.Then came the Lok Sabha electionof 1989. In its election manifesto,the Janata Dal promised that if votedto power, it would implement theMandal Commission report. TheJanata Dal did form the governmentafter this election. Its leader V. P.Singh became the Prime Minister.Several developments took placeafter that:

Now I can seeclearly! That is why

they talk ofMandalisation of

politics. Don’t they?

Is every OfficeMemorandum amajor politicaldecision? If not,what made thisone different?

59

were full of different views andopinions on this issue. It led towidespread protests and counter-protests, some of which were violent.People reacted strongly because thisdecision affected thousands of jobopportunities. Some felt thatexistence of inequalities amongpeople of different castes in Indianecessitated job reservations. Theyfelt, this would give a fairopportunity to those communitieswho so far had not adequately beenrepresented in governmentemployment.

Others felt that this was unfair asit would deny equality of opportunityto those who did not belong tobackward communities. They wouldbe denied jobs even though theycould be more qualified. Some feltthat this would perpetuate castefeelings among people and hampernational unity. In this chapter wewon’t discuss whether the decisionwas good or not. We only take thisexample to understand how majordecisions are taken andimplemented in the country.

Who resolved this dispute? Youknow that the Supreme Court and theHigh Courts in India settle disputesarising out of governmental decisions.Some persons and associationsopposed to this order filed a numberof cases in the courts. They appealedto the courts to declare the orderinvalid and stop its implementation.The Supreme Court of India bunchedall these cases together. This case wasknown as the ‘Indira Sawhney andothers Vs Union of India case’. Elevenjudges of the Supreme Court heardarguments of both sides. By amajority, the Supreme Court judgesin 1992 declared that this order of theGovernment of India was valid. Atthe same time the Supreme Courtasked the government to modify its


The President of India in hisaddress to the Parliamentannounced the intention of thegovernment to implement therecommendations of the MandalCommission.

On 6 August 1990, the UnionCabinet took a formal decision toimplement the recommendations.

Next day Prime Minister V.P. Singhinformed the Parliament aboutthis decision through a statementin both the Houses of Parliament.

The decision of the Cabinet wassent to the Department of Personneland Training. The senior officers ofthe Department drafted an order inline with the Cabinet decision andtook the minister’s approval. Anofficer signed the order on behalf ofthe Union Government. This washow O.M. No. 36012/ 31/90 wasborn on 13 August 1990.For the next few months, this was

the most hotly debated issue in thecountry. Newspapers and magazines

Reservation debatewas such an

important issue during1990-91 that

adver tisers used thistheme to sell theirproducts. Can you

spot some referencesto political events anddebates in these Amul

Butter hoardings?

©GCMMF India


imaimaimaimaimagegegegege


Who did what in this case of reservations for backward classes?

Made formal announcement about this decision

Implemented the decision by issuing an order

Took the decision to give 27% job reservations

Upheld reservations as valid

CHECKYOURPROGRESS

original order. It said that well-to-do persons among the backwardclasses should be excluded fromgetting the benefit of reservation.Accordingly, the Department of

Which institutionsare at work in therunning of yourschool? Would itbe better if oneperson alone tookall the decisionsregardingmanagement ofyour school?

Personnel and Training issuedanother Office Memorandum on8 September 1993. The disputethus came to an end and this policyhas been followed since then.

NNNNNeeeeeeeeeed fd fd fd fd for Por Por Por Por Political Institutionsolitical Institutionsolitical Institutionsolitical Institutionsolitical InstitutionsWe have seen one example of howthe government works. Governing acountry involves various suchactivities. For example, thegovernment is responsible forensuring security to the citizens andproviding facilities for educationand health to all. It collects taxesand spends the money thus raisedon administration, defence anddevelopment programmes. Itformulates and implements severalwelfare schemes. Some persons haveto take decisions on how to go aboutthese activities. Others have toimplement these decisions. Ifdisputes arise on these decisions orin their implementation, there shouldbe someone to determine what isright and what is wrong. It isimportant that everyone shouldknow who is responsible for doingwhat. It is also important that theseactivities keep taking place even ifthe persons in key positions change.

So, to attend to all these tasks,several arrangements are made inall modern democracies. Sucharrangements are called institutions.A democracy works well when theseinstitutions perform functionsassigned to them. The Constitutionof any country lays down basicrules on the powers and functions

of each institution. In the exampleabove, we saw several suchinstitutions at work. The Prime Minister and the

Cabinet are institutions that takeall important policy decisions.

The Civil Servants, workingtogether, are responsible fortaking steps to implement theministers’ decisions.

Supreme Court is an institutionwhere disputes between citizensand the government are finallysettled.

Can you think of some other insti-tutions in this example? What istheir role?

Working with institutions is noteasy. Institutions involve rules andregulations. This can bind the handsof leaders. Institutions involvemeetings, committees and routines.This often leads to delays andcomplications. Therefore dealingwith institutions can be frustrating.One might feel that it is much betterto have one person take all decisionswithout any rules, procedures andmeetings. But that is not the spiritof democracy. Some of the delaysand complications introduced byinstitutions are very useful. Theyprovide an opportunity for a widerset of people to be consulted in anydecision. Institutions make it

Supreme Court

Cabinet

PresidentGovernment Officials

61

difficult to have a good decisiontaken very quickly. But they alsomake it equally difficult to rush

class and try to imagine whatParliament could have done if it didnot approve of the Cabinet’sdecision.

WWWWWhhhhhy do wy do wy do wy do wy do we neee neee neee neee need ad ad ad ad aPPPPPa ra ra ra ra rliamenliamenliamenliamenliament ?t ?t ?t ?t ?In all democracies, an assembly ofelected representatives exercisessupreme political authority onbehalf of the people. In India such anational assembly of electedrepresentatives is called Parliament.At the state level this is calledLegislature or Legislative Assembly.The name may vary in differentcountries, but such an assemblyexists in every democracy. Itexercises political authority onbehalf of the people in many ways:

1 Parliament is the final authority formaking laws in any country. Thistask of law making or legislationis so crucial that these assembliesare called legislatures. Parliamentsall over the world can make newlaws, change existing laws, orabolish existing laws and makenew ones in their place.

2 Parliaments all over the worldexercise some control over thosewho run the government. In somecountries like India this control isdirect and full. Those who run thegovernment can take decisionsonly so long as they enjoy supportof Parliament.

3 Parliaments control all the moneythat governments have. In mostcountries the public money canbe spent only when Parliamentsanctions it.

through a bad decision. That is whydemocratic governments insist oninstitutions.

4.2 PARLIAMENT

In the example of the OfficeMemorandum, do you rememberthe role of Parliament? Perhaps not.Since this decision was not takenby Parliament, you might think thatParliament had no role in it. But letus go back to the story and seewhether Parliament figures in it. Letus recall the points made earlier bycompleting the following sentences:The Report of the Mandal

Commission was discussed …The President of India mentioned

this in his …The Prime Minister made a …

The decision was not directly takenin Parliament. But Parliamentarydiscussions on the Report influencedand shaped the decision of thegovernment. They brought pressureon the government to act on theMandal recommendation. IfParliament was not in favour of thisdecision, the Government could nothave gone ahead with it. Can youguess why? Recall what you readabout Parliament in the earlier


Irfan

Kha

n


4 Parliament is the highest forum ofdiscussion and debate on publicissues and national policy in anycountry. Parliament can seekinformation about any matter.

TTTTTwwwww o Ho Ho Ho Ho Houses of Pouses of Pouses of Pouses of Pouses of Pa ra ra ra ra rl iamenl iamenl iamenl iamenl iamentttttSince Parliament plays a centralrole in modern democracies, mostlarge countries divide the role andpowers of Parliament in two parts.They are called Chambers orHouses. One House is usuallydirectly elected by the people andexercises the real power on behalfof the people. The second House isusually elected indirectly andperforms some special functions.The most common work for thesecond House is to look after theinterests of various states, regionsor federal units.

In our country, Parliamentconsists of two Houses. The twoHouses are known as the Council ofStates (Rajya Sabha) and the Houseof the People (Lok Sabha). ThePresident of India is a part ofParliament, although she is not amember of either House. That is whyall laws made in the Houses comeinto force only after they receive theassent of the President.

You have read about the IndianParliament in earlier classes. Fromthe Chapter 3 you know how LokSabha elections take place. Let usrecall some key differences betweenthe composition of these two Housesof Parliament. Answer the followingfor the Lok Sabha and the RajyaSabha:What is the total number of

members? …Who elects the members? …What is the length of the term (in

years)? …Can the House be dissolved or is

it permanent? …

What is the point inhaving so muchdebate anddiscussion in theParliament whenwe know that theview of the rulingparty is going toprevail?

Which of the two Houses is morepowerful? It might appear that theRajya Sabha is more powerful, forsometimes it is called the ‘UpperChamber’ and the Lok Sabha the‘Lower Chamber’. But this does notmean that Rajya Sabha is morepowerful than Lok Sabha. This isjust an old style of speaking and notthe language used in ourConstitution.

Our Constitution does give theRajya Sabha some special powersover the states. But on most matters,the Lok Sabha exercises supremepower. Let us see how:1 Any ordinary law needs to be

passed by both the Houses. But ifthere is a difference between thetwo Houses, the final decision istaken in a joint session in whichmembers of both the Houses sittogether. Because of the largernumber of members, the view ofthe Lok Sabha is likely to prevailin such a meeting.

2 Lok Sabha exercises more powersin money matters. Once the LokSabha passes the budget of thegovernment or any other moneyrelated law, the Rajya Sabhacannot reject it. The Rajya Sabhacan only delay it by 14 days orsuggest changes in it. The LokSabha may or may not acceptthese changes.

A C T I V I T Y

When Parliament is in session, there is a specialprogramme everyday on Doordarshan about theproceedings in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Watchthe proceedings or read about it in the newspapersand note the following: Powers of the two Houses of Parliament. Role of the Speaker. Role of the Opposition.

63WORKING OF INSTITUTIONS

A day in the life of the Lok Sabha

Railways in addition to that sanctioned in theRailway Budget.

The Minister of Human Resource Developmentintroduced the National Commission for MinorityEducational Institutions Bill, 2004. He also gave astatement explaining why the government had tobring an ordinance for this.

12:14 Several members highlightedsome issues, including:

The vindictiveness of the Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) in registering cases againstsome leaders in the Tehelka case.

Need to include Rajasthani as an officiallanguage in the Constitution.

Need to renew the insurance policies offarmers and agricultural workers of AndhraPradesh.

2:26 Two bills proposed by thegovernment were considered andpassed. These were:

The Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill The Enforcement of Security Interest and

Recovery of Debts Laws (Amendment) Bill

4:00 Finally, there was a longdiscussion regarding the foreignpolicy of the government and theneed to continue an independentforeign policy in the context of thesituation in Iraq.

7:17 Discussion concluded. Houseadjourned for next day.

3 Most importantly, the Lok Sabhacontrols the Council of Ministers.Only a person who enjoys thesupport of the majority of themembers in the Lok Sabha isappointed the Prime Minister. If the

majority of the Lok Sabha memberssay they have ‘no confidence’ in theCouncil of Ministers, all ministersincluding the Prime Minister, haveto quit. The Rajya Sabha does nothave this power.

7 December 2004 was an ordinary day in the life ofthe Fourteenth Lok Sabha. Let us take a look at whathappened in the course of that day. Identify the roleand powers of the parliament on the basis of theproceedings for the day as given below. You canalso enact this day in your classroom.

11:00 Various ministries gavewritten answers to about 250questions that were asked bymembers. These included:

What is the government’s policy on talking tomilitant groups in Kashmir?

What are the figures of atrocities againstScheduled Tribes, including those inflicted bythe police?

What is the government doing about over-pricing of medicines by big companies?

12:00 A large number of officialdocuments were presented and wereavailable for discussion. Theseincluded:

Recruitment rules for the Indo-Tibetan BorderPolice Force

Annual Repor t of the Indian Institute ofTechnology, Kharagpur

Report and accounts of Rashtriya Ispat NigamLimited, Visakhapatnam

12:02 The Minister of Developmentof North Eastern Region made astatement regarding Revitalisation ofthe North Eastern Council.

The Minister of State for Railways presented astatement showing the grant needed by the


4.3 POLITICAL EXECUTIVE

Do you remember the story of theOffice Memorandum with which westarted this chapter? We found outthat the person who signed thedocument did not take thisdecision. He was only executing thepolicy decision taken by someoneelse. We noted the role of the PrimeMinister in taking that decision. Butwe also know that he could nothave taken that decision if he didnot have support from the Lok Sabha.In that sense he was only executingthe wishes of the Parliament.

Thus, at different levels of anygovernment we find functionarieswho take day-to-day decisions butdo not exercise supreme power onbehalf of the people. All thosefunctionaries are collectively knownas the executive. They are calledexecutive because they are in chargeof the ‘execution’ of the policies ofthe government. Thus, when we talkabout ‘the government’ we usuallymean the executive.

PPPPPolitical and Political and Political and Political and Political and Pe re re re re rmanenmanenmanenmanenmanentttttEEEEExxxxxeeeeecccccutivutivutivutivutiveeeeeIn a democratic country, twocategories make up the executive.One that is elected by the people fora specific period, is called thepolitical executive. Political leaderswho take the big decisions fall in thiscategory. In the second category,people are appointed on a long-termbasis. This is called the permanentexecutive or civil services. Personsworking in civil services are calledcivil servants. They remain in officeeven when the ruling party changes.These officers work under politicalexecutive and assist them incarrying out the day-to-dayadministration. Can you recall therole of political and non-political

executive in the case of the OfficeMemorandum?

You might ask: Why does thepolitical executive have more powerthan the non-political executive?Why is the minister more powerfulthan the civil servant? The civilservant is usually more educatedand has more expert knowledge ofthe subject. The advisors working inthe Finance Ministry know moreabout economics than the FinanceMinister. Sometimes the ministersmay know very little about thetechnical matters that come undertheir ministry. This could easilyhappen in ministries like Defence,Industry, Health, Science andTechnology, Mines, etc. Why shouldthe minister have the final say onthese matters?

The reason is very simple. In ademocracy the will of the people issupreme. The minister is an electedrepresentative of the people andthus empowered to exercise the willof the people on their behalf. She isfinally answerable to the people forall the consequences of herdecision. That is why the ministertakes all the final decisions. Theminister decides the overallframework and objectives in whichdecisions on policy should bemade. The minister is not, and is notexpected to be, an expert in thematters of her ministry. Theminister takes the advice of expertson all technical matters. But veryoften experts hold different opinionsor place before her more than oneoption. Depending on what theoverall objective is, the ministerdecides.

Actually this happens in any largeorganisation. Those who understandthe overall picture take the most

65

important decisions, not theexperts. The experts can tell theroute, but someone with a largerview decides the destination. In ademocracy elected ministersperform this role.

PPPPPrrrrr ime Mime Mime Mime Mime Ministinistinistinistinister and Cer and Cer and Cer and Cer and Councilouncilouncilouncilouncilof Mof Mof Mof Mof MinistinistinistinistinistersersersersersPrime Minister is the mostimportant political institution in thecountry. Yet there is no directelection to the post of the PrimeMinister. The President appoints thePrime Minister. But the Presidentcannot appoint anyone she likes.The President appoints the leaderof the majority party or the coalitionof parties that commands a majorityin the Lok Sabha, as Prime Minister.In case no single party or alliancegets a majority, the Presidentappoints the person most likely tosecure a majority support. ThePrime Minister does not have a fixedtenure. He continues in power solong as he remains the leader of themajority party or coalition.

After the appointment of the PrimeMinister, the President appointsother ministers on the advice of thePrime Minister. The Ministers areusually from the party or thecoalition that has the majority in theLok Sabha. The Prime Minister isfree to choose ministers, as long asthey are members of Parliament.Sometimes, a person who is not amember of Parliament can alsobecome a minister. But such aperson has to get elected to one ofthe Houses of Parliament within sixmonths of appointment as minister.

Council of Ministers is the officialname for the body that includes allthe Ministers. It usually has 60 to80 Ministers of different ranks.Cabinet Ministers are usually top-

level leaders of the ruling party orparties who are in charge of themajor ministries. Usually theCabinet Ministers meet to takedecisions in the name of theCouncil of Ministers. Cabinet isthus the inner ring of the Councilof Ministers. It comprises about 25ministers.

Ministers of State with indepen-dent charge are usually in-chargeof smaller Ministries. Theyparticipate in the Cabinet meet-ings only when specially invited.

Ministers of State are attached toand required to assist CabinetMinisters.Since it is not practical for all

ministers to meet regularly anddiscuss everything, the decisions aretaken in Cabinet meetings. That iswhy parliamentary democracy inmost countries is often known as theCabinet form of government. TheCabinet works as a team. Theministers may have different viewsand opinions, but everyone has to ownup to every decision of the Cabinet.


The race to becomeminister is not new.Here is a cartoon

depicting ministerialaspirants waiting to

get a berth in Nehru’sCabinet after the

1962 elections. Whydo you think political

leaders are so keen tobecome ministers?

©S

hank

ar. D

on’t

Spar

e M

e




No minister can openly criticiseany decision of the government,even if it is about another Ministryor Department. Every ministry hassecretaries, who are civil servants.The secretaries provide thenecessary background informationto the ministers to take decisions.The Cabinet as a team is assistedby the Cabinet Secretariat. Thisincludes many senior civil servantswho try to coordinate the working ofdifferent ministries.

A C T I V I T Y

List the names of five Cabinet Ministers andtheir ministries each at the Union level and inyour state.

Meet the Mayor or Municipal Chairperson ofyour town or the President of Zilla Parishad ofyour district and ask him or her about how thecity, town or district is administered.

PPPPPooooowwwwwers of theers of theers of theers of theers of thePPPPPrrrrrime Mime Mime Mime Mime Ministinistinistinistiniste re re re re rThe Constitution does not say verymuch about the powers of the PrimeMinister or the ministers or theirrelationship with each other. But ashead of the government, the PrimeMinister has wide ranging powers.He chairs Cabinet meetings. Hecoordinates the work of differentDepartments. His decisions are finalin case disagreements arise betweenDepartments. He exercises generalsupervision of different ministries.All ministers work under hisleadership. The Prime Ministerdistributes and redistributes workto the ministers. He also has thepower to dismiss ministers. Whenthe Prime Minister quits, the entireministry quits.

Thus, if the Cabinet is the mostpowerful institution in India, withinthe Cabinet it is the Prime Minister

who is the most powerful. Thepowers of the Prime Minister in allparliamentary democracies of theworld have increased so much inrecent decades that parliamentarydemocracies are some times seen asPrime Ministerial form ofgovernment. As political parties havecome to play a major role in politics,the Prime Minister controls theCabinet and Parliament through theparty. The media also contributes tothis trend by making politics andelections as a competition betweentop leaders of parties. In India toowe have seen such a tendencytowards the concentration of powersin the hands of the Prime Minister.Jawaharlal Nehru, the first PrimeMinister of India, exercisedenormous authority because he hadgreat influence over the public.Indira Gandhi was also a verypowerful leader compared to hercolleagues in the Cabinet. Of course,the extent of power wielded by aPrime Minister also depends on thepersonality of the person holdingthat position.

However, in recent years the riseof coalition politics has imposedcertain constraints on the power ofthe Prime Minister. The Prime

This cartoon depictsa cabinet meetingchaired by Prime

Minister Indira Gandhiin early 1970s, at thepeak of her popularity.Do you think similarcartoons could bedrawn about other

prime ministers whofollowed her?



©R

.K. L

axm

an, T

he T

imes

of I

ndia

67

Minister of a coalition governmentcannot take decisions as he likes.He has to accommodate differentgroups and factions in his party aswell as among alliance partners. Healso has to heed to the views andpositions of the coalition partnersand other parties, on whose supportthe survival of the governmentdepends.

TTTTThe Phe Phe Phe Phe PrrrrresidenesidenesidenesidenesidentttttWhile the Prime Minister is the headof the government, the President isthe head of the State. In our politicalsystem the head of the State exercisesonly nominal powers. The Presidentof India is like the Queen of Britainwhose functions are to a large extentceremonial. The President supervisesthe overall functioning of all thepolitical institutions in the countryso that they operate in harmony toachieve the objectives of the State.

The President is not elected directlyby the people. The elected Members

of Parliament (MPs) and the electedMembers of the LegislativeAssemblies (MLAs) elect her. Acandidate standing for President’spost has to get a majority of votes towin the election. This ensures thatthe President can be seen torepresent the entire nation. At thesame time the President can neverclaim the kind of direct popularmandate that the Prime Ministercan. This ensures that she remainsonly a nominal executive.

The same is true of the powers ofthe President. If you casually read theConstitution you would think thatthere is nothing that she cannot do.All governmental activities take placein the name of the President. All lawsand major policy decisions ofthe government are issued in hername. All major appointments aremade in the name of the President.These include the appointment of

Why does thisbook refer to the

President as ‘she’?Have we ever had

a woman Presidentin our country?

Did you protestwhen the bookreferred to the

Prime Minister as‘he’? Have we not

had a womanPrime Minister?Why should we

assume that all theimportant positions

are held by men?


The President,Shri Pranab Mukherjee

administering the oath ofoffice of the Prime Ministerto Shri Narendra Modi, at aSwearing-in Ceremony, at

Rashtrapati Bhavan on26 May 2014.

Pre

ss In

form

atio

n B

urea

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CHECKYOURPROGRESS

the Chief Justice of India, theJudges of the Supreme Court andthe High Courts of the states, theGovernors of the states, the ElectionCommissioners, ambassadors toother countries, etc. All internationaltreaties and agreements are made inthe name of the President. ThePresident is the supremecommander of the defence forces ofIndia.

But we should remember that thePresident exercises all these powersonly on the advice of the Council ofMinisters. The President can ask theCouncil of Ministers to reconsider itsadvice. But if the same advice isgiven again, she is bound to actaccording to it. Similarly, a billpassed by the Parliament becomesa law only after the President givesassent to it. If the President wants,she can delay this for some time andsend the bill back to Parliament forreconsideration. But if Parliamentpasses the bill again, she has tosign it.

So you may wonder what does thePresident really do? Can she doanything on her own at all? There isone very important thing she shoulddo on her own: appoint the PrimeMinister. When a party or coalitionof parties secures a clear majorityin the elections, the President, hasto appoint the leader of the majorityparty or the coalition that enjoysmajority support in the Lok Sabha.

When no party or coalition gets amajority in the Lok Sabha, thePresident exercises her discretion.The President appoints a leader whoin her opinion can muster majoritysupport in the Lok Sabha. In such acase, the President can ask thenewly appointed Prime Minister toprove majority support in the LokSabha within a specified time.

The Presidential System

Presidents all over the world are not always nomi-nal executives like the President of India. In manycountries of the world, the President is both thehead of the state and the head of the government.The President of the United States of America isthe most well known example of this kind of Presi-dent. The US President is directly elected by thepeople. He personally chooses and appoints allMinisters. The law making is still done by the leg-islature (called the Congress in the US), but thepresident can veto any law. Most importantly, thepresident does not need the support of the major-ity of members in the Congress and neither is heanswerable to them. He has a fixed tenure of fouryears and completes it even if his par ty does nothave a majority in the Congress.

This model is followed in most of the countriesof Latin America and many of the ex-Soviet Unioncountries. Given the centrality of the President,this system of government is called the Presiden-tial form of government. In countries like ours thatfollow the British model, the parliament is su-preme. Therefore our system is called the parlia-mentary system of government.

Eliamma, Annakutti and Marymol read the section on the President. Each of them had a question. Canyou help them in answering these questions?Eliamma: What happens if the President and the Prime Minister disagree about some policy? Does the

view of the Prime Minister always prevail?Annakutti: I find it funny that the President is the Supreme Commander of Armed Forces. I doubt if the

President can even lift a heavy gun. What is the point in making the President the Com-mander?

Marymol: I would say, what is the point in having a President at all if all the real powers are with thePrime Minister?


imaimaimaimaimagegegegege

What is better for ademocracy: APrime Minister whocan do whateverhe wishes or aPrime Minister whoneeds to consultother leaders andparties?

69

4.4 THE JUDICIARY

A C T I V I T Y

Follow the news about any major cour t case in aHigh Cour t or the Supreme Court. What was theoriginal verdict? Did the High Cour t or theSupreme Court change it? What was the reason?

This is why an independent andpowerful judiciary is consideredessential for democracies. All thecourts at different levels in a countryput together are called the judiciary.The Indian judiciary consists of aSupreme Court for the entire nation,High Courts in the states, DistrictCourts and the courts at local level.India has an integrated judiciary. Itmeans the Supreme Court controlsthe judicial administration in thecountry. Its decisions are binding onall other courts of the country. It cantake up any disputeBetween citizens of the country;Between citizens and government;Between two or more state

governments; andBetween governments at the union

and state level.It is the highest court of appeal in

civil and criminal cases. It can hearappeals against the decisions of theHigh Courts.

Independence of the judiciarymeans that it is not under thecontrol of the legislature or theexecutive. The judges do not act onthe direction of the government oraccording to the wishes of the partyin power. That is why all moderndemocracies have courts that areindependent of the legislature andthe executive. India has achievedthis. The judges of the SupremeCourt and the High Courts areappointed by the President on theadvice of the Prime Minister and in


Let us return, one final time, to thestory of Office Memorandum that westarted with. This time let us notrecall the story, but imagine howdifferent the story could have been.Remember, the story came to asatisfactory end because theSupreme Court gave a verdict thatwas accepted by everyone. Imaginewhat would have happened in thefollowing situations: If there was nothing like a

Supreme Court in the country.Even if there was a Supreme

Court, if it had no power to judgeactions of the government.

Even if it had the power, if no onetrusted the Supreme Court to givea fair verdict.

Even if it gave a fair judgement, ifthose who appealed against theGovernment Order did not acceptthe judgement.

It is quite common inthe US for judges tobe nominated on thebasis of well-knownpolitical opinions and

affiliations. Thisfictitious

advertisementappeared in the US in2005 when PresidentBush was consideringvarious candidates fornomination to the USsupreme court. Whatdoes this cartoon say

about theindependence of thejudiciary? Why dosuch cartoons not

appear in ourcountry? Does this

demonstrate theindependence of our

judiciary?

©M

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consultation with the Chief Justiceof the Supreme Court. In practice itnow means that the senior judgesof the Supreme Court select the newjudges of the Supreme Court and theHigh Courts. There is very little scopefor interference by the politicalexecutive. The senior most judge ofthe Supreme Court is usuallyappointed the Chief Justice. Oncea person is appointed as judge of theSupreme Court or the High Court itis nearly impossible to remove himor her from that position. It is asdifficult as removing the Presidentof India. A judge can be removedonly by an impeachment motionpassed separately by two-thirdsmembers of the two Houses of theParliament. It has never happenedin the history of Indian democracy.

The judiciary in India is also oneof the most powerful in the world.The Supreme Court and the HighCourts have the power to interpretthe Constitution of the country. Theycan declare invalid any law of thelegislature or the actions of theexecutive, whether at the Unionlevel or at the state level, if they findsuch a law or action is against the

Constitution. Thus they candetermine the Constitutionalvalidity of any legislation or actionof the executive in the country,when it is challenged before them.This is known as the judicial review.The Supreme Court of India has alsoruled that the core or basicprinciples of the Constitution cannotbe changed by the Parliament.

The powers and the independenceof the Indian judiciary allow it to actas the guardian of the FundamentalRights. We shall see in the nextchapter that the citizens have aright to approach the courts to seekremedy in case of any violation oftheir rights. In recent years theCourts have given severaljudgments and directives to protectpublic interest and human rights.Any one can approach the courts ifpublic interest is hurt by the actionsof government. This is called publicinterest litigation. The courtsintervene to prevent the misuse ofthe government’s power to makedecisions. They check malpracticeson the part of public officials. That iswhy the judiciary enjoys a high levelof confidence among the people.

Give one reason each to argue that Indian judiciary is independent with respect to:Appointment of judges: …Removal of judges: …Powers of the judiciary: …

CHECKYOURPROGRESS

Why are peopleallowed to go tocourts against thegovernment’sdecisions?

The Chief Justice of India, Shri JusticeJ.S. Khehar administering the oath of theoffice of the President of India to Shri RamNath Kovind, at a swearing-in ceremonyin the Central Hall of Parliament in NewDelhi on 25 July 2017.

71

GLOSSARY

Coalition government: A government formed by an alliance of two or morepolitical parties, usually when no single party enjoys majority support of

the members in a legislature.Executive: A body of persons having authority to initiate major policies,

make decisions and implement them on the basis of the Constitution andlaws of the country.Government: A set of institutions that have the power to make, implementand interpret laws so as to ensure an orderly life. In its broad sense,government administers and supervises over citizens and resources of acountry.Judiciary: An institution empowered to administer justice and provide amechanism for the resolution of legal disputes. All the courts in the countryare collectively referred to as judiciary.Legislature: An assembly of people’s representatives with the power toenact laws for a country. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures haveauthority to raise taxes and adopt the budget and other money bills.Office Memorandum: A communication issued by an appropriate authoritystating the policy or decision of the government.Political Institution: A set of procedures for regulating the conduct ofgovernment and political life in the country.Reservations: A policy that declares some positions in governmentemployment and educational institutions ‘reserved’ for people andcommunities who have been discriminated against, are disadvantaged andbackward.State: Political association occupying a definite territory, having anorganised government and possessing power to make domestic and foreignpolicies. Governments may change, but the state continues. In commonspeech, the terms country, nation and state are used as synonyms.

1 If you are elected as the President of India which of the followingdecision can you take on your own?a Select the person you like as Prime Minister.b Dismiss a Prime Minister who has a majority in Lok Sabha.c Ask for reconsideration of a bill passed by both the Houses.d Nominate the leaders of your choice to the Council of Ministers.

2 Who among the following is a part of the political executive?a District Collectorb Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairsc Home Ministerd Director General of Police

3 Which of the following statements about the judiciary is false?a Every law passed by the Parliament needs approval of the Supreme

Courtb Judiciary can strike down a law if it goes against the spirit of the

Constitutionc Judiciary is independent of the Executived Any citizen can approach the courts if her rights are violated


exercises


4 Which of the following institutions can make changes to an existinglaw of the country?a The Supreme Courtb The Presidentc The Prime Ministerd The Parliament

5 Match the ministry with the news that the ministry may have released:

exerc

ises

a A new policy is being made toincrease the jute exports fromthe country.

b Telephone services will be mademore accessible to rural areas.

c The price of rice and wheat soldunder the Public DistributionSystem will go down.

d A pulse polio campaign will belaunched.

e The allowances of the soldiersposted on high altitudes willbe increased.

i Ministry of Defence

ii Ministry of Agriculture, Foodand Public Distribution

iii Ministry of Health

iv Ministry of Commerceand Industry

v Ministry of Communicationsand Information Technology

6 Of all the institutions that we have studied in this chapter, name theone that exercises the powers on each of the following matters.a Decision on allocation of money for developing infrastructure like

roads, irrigation etc. and different welfare activities for the citizensb Considers the recommendation of a Committee on a law to regulate

the stock exchangec Decides on a legal dispute between two state governmentsd Implements the decision to provide relief for the victims of an

earthquake.

7 Why is the Prime Minister in India not directly elected by the people?Choose the most appropriate answer and give reasons for your choice.a In a Parliamentary democracy only the leader of the majority party

in the Lok Sabha can become the Prime Minister.b Lok Sabha can remove the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers

even before the expiry of their term.c Since the Prime Minister is appointed by the President there is no

need for it.d Direct election of the Prime Minister will involve lot of expenditure

on election.

8 Three friends went to watch a film that showed the hero becomingChief Minister for a day and making big changes in the state. Imransaid this is what the country needs. Rizwan said this kind of a personal

73

exercises rule without institutions is dangerous. Shankar said all this is afantasy. No minister can do anything in one day. What would beyour reaction to such a film?

9 A teacher was making preparations for a mock parliament. She calledtwo students to act as leaders of two political parties. She gave theman option: Each one could choose to have a majority either in themock Lok Sabha or in the mock Rajya Sabha. If this choice was givento you, which one would you choose and why?

10 After reading the example of the reservation order, three studentshad different reactions about the role of the judiciary. Which view,according to you, is a correct reading of the role of judiciary?a Srinivas argues that since the Supreme Court agreed with the

government, it is not independent.b Anjaiah says that judiciary is independent because it could have

given a verdict against the government order. The Supreme Courtdid direct the government to modify it.

c Vijaya thinks that the judiciary is neither independent norconformist, but acts as a mediator between opposing parties. Thecourt struck a good balance between those who supported andthose who opposed the order.

Collect newspapers for the last one week and classify the news related tothe working of any of the institutions discussed in this chapter into fourgroups:

Working of the legislaturesWorking of the political executiveWorking of the civil servicesWorking of the judiciary



OVERVIEW

In the previous two chapters we have looked at two major elements of ademocratic government. In Chapter 3 we saw how a democraticgovernment has to be periodically elected by the people in a free and fairmanner. In Chapter 4 we learnt that a democracy must be based oninstitutions that follow certain rules and procedures. These elements arenecessary but not sufficient for a democracy. Elections and institutionsneed to be combined with a third element – enjoyment of rights – to makea government democratic. Even the most properly elected rulers workingthrough the established institutional process must learn not to cross somelimits. Citizens’ democratic rights set those limits in a democracy.

This is what we take up in this final chapter of the book. We begin bydiscussing some real life cases to imagine what it means to live withoutrights. This leads to a discussion on what we mean by rights and why dowe need them. As in the previous chapters, the general discussion isfollowed by a focus on India. We discuss one by one the FundamentalRights in the Indian Constitution. Then we turn to how these rights canbe used by ordinary citizens. Who will protect and enforce them? Finallywe take a look at how the scope of rights has been expanding.

CHAPTER 5

DEMOCRATICRIGHTS

75

Dear Mr Tony Blair,

Firstly, how are you? I sent aletter two years ago, why didn’tyou reply?!? I was waiting for along time but you did not reply.Please can you give me an answerto my question? Why is my dad inprison? Why is he far away inthat Guantánamo Bay?! I miss mydad so much. I have not seen mydad for three years. I know mydad has not done anything,because he is a good man. I heareverybody speak about my dad ina nice way. Your children spendChristmas with you, but me andmy brothers, and sisters havespent Eid alone without our dadfor 3 years. What do you thinkabout that?I hope you will answer me thistime.Thank you,

From: Anas Jamil El-Banna,9 years old.7/12/2005

5.1 LIFE WITHOUT RIGHTS

were quite central to theConstitution because …Chapter 3: Every adult citizen ofIndia has the right to ... and to be ...Chapter 4: If a law is against theConstitution, every citizen has theright to approach …Let us now begin with threeexamples of what it means to live inthe absence of rights.

PPPPPrrrrr ison in Gison in Gison in Gison in Gison in Guanuanuanuanuantanamo Btanamo Btanamo Btanamo Btanamo BaaaaayyyyyAbout 600 people were secretlypicked up by the US forces from allover the world and put in a prisonin Guantanamo Bay, an area nearCuba controlled by Amercian Navy.Anas’s father, Jamil El-Banna, wasamong them. The Americangovernment said that they wereenemies of the US and linked to theattack on New York on 11September 2001. In most cases thegovernments of their countries werenot asked or even informed abouttheir imprisonment. Like otherprisoners, El-Banna’s family got toknow that he was in that prison onlythrough the media. Families ofprisoners, media or even UNrepresentatives were not allowed tomeet them. The US army arrestedthem, interrogated them anddecided whether to keep them thereor not. There was no trial before anymagistrate in the US. Nor couldthese prisoners approach courts intheir own country.

Amnesty International, aninternational human rightsorganisation, collected informationon the condition of the prisoners inGuantanamo Bay and reported thatthe prisoners were being tortured inways that violated the US laws. They

In this book we have mentionedrights again and again. If youremember, we have discussed rightsin each of the four precedingchapters. Can you fill in the blanksby recalling the rights dimension ineach chapter?

Chapter 1: A comprehensivedefinition of democracy includes …

Chapter 2: Our Constitution makersbelieved that fundamental rights

DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS


were being denied the treatmentthat even prisoners of war must getas per international treaties. Manyprisoners had tried protesting againstthese conditions by going on a hungerstrike. Prisoners were not releasedeven after they were officially declarednot guilty. An independent inquiryby the UN supported these findings.The UN Secretary General said theprison in Guantanamo Bay should beclosed down. The US governmentrefused to accept these pleas.

CCCCCitizitizitizitizitizensensensensens’’’’’ R R R R Righighighighights ints ints ints ints inSSSSSaudi Aaudi Aaudi Aaudi Aaudi ArrrrrabiaabiaabiaabiaabiaThe case of Guantanamo Bay lookslike an exception, for it involves thegovernment of one country denyingrights to citizens of another country.Let us therefore look at the case ofSaudi Arabia and the position of thecitizens with regard to theirgovernment. Consider these facts: The country is ruled by a

hereditary king and the peoplehave no role in electing orchanging their rulers.

The king selects the legislature aswell as the executive. He appointsthe judges and can change any oftheir decisions.

Citizens cannot form political par-ties or any political organisations.Media cannot report anything thatthe monarch does not like.

There is no freedom of religion.Every citizen is required to beMuslim. Non-Muslim residentscan follow their religion in private,but not in public.

Women are subjected to manypublic restrictions. The testimonyof one man is considered equal tothat of two women.This is true not just of Saudi

Arabia. There are many countries inthe world where several of theseconditions exist.

EEEEEthnic massacrthnic massacrthnic massacrthnic massacrthnic massacre in Ke in Ke in Ke in Ke in KosoosoosoosoosovvvvvoooooYou might think that this is possiblein an absolute monarchy but notin countries which choose theirrulers. Just consider this story fromKosovo. This was a province ofYugoslavia before its split. In thisprovince the population wasoverwhelmingly ethnic Albanian.But in the entire country, Serbswere in majority. A narrow mindedSerb nationalist Milosevic(pronounced Miloshevich) had wonthe election. His government wasvery hostile to the KosovoAlbanians. He wanted the Serbs todominate the country. Many Serbleaders thought that Ethnicminorities like Albanians shouldeither leave the country or acceptthe dominance of the Serbs.

This is what happened to anAlbanian family in a town in Kosovoin April 1999:

“74-year-old Batisha Hoxha wassitting in her kitchen with her 77-year–old husband, Izet, stayingwarm by the stove. They had heardexplosions but did not realise thatSerbian troops had already enteredthe town. The next thing she knew,five or six soldiers had burst throughthe front door and were demanding

“Where are your children?”“… they shot Izet three times in the

chest” recalled Batisha. With herhusband dying before her, thesoldiers pulled the wedding ring offher finger and told her to get out. “Iwas not even outside the gate when theyburned the house” … She was standingon the street in the rain with nohouse, no husband, no possessionsbut the clothes she was wearing.”

This news report was typical ofwhat happened to thousands ofAlbanians in that period. Do

If you were a Serb,would you supportwhat Milosevic didin Kosovo? Do youthink his project ofestablishing Serbdominance wasgood for theSerbs?

77

remember that this massacre wasbeing carried out by the army oftheir own country, working underthe direction of a leader who cameto power through democraticelections. This was one of the worstinstances of killings based on ethnicprejudices in recent times. Finallyseveral other countries intervenedto stop this massacre. Milosevic lostpower and was tried by theInternational Court of Justice forcrimes against humanity.

For each of the three cases of life without rights, mention an example from India. These could include thefollowing: Newspaper repor ts on custodial violence. Newspaper repor ts on force-feeding of prisoners who go on hunger strike. Ethnic massacre in any part of our country. Reports regarding unequal treatment of women.

List the similarities and differences between the earlier case and the Indian example. It is not necessarythat for each of these cases you must find an exact Indian parallel.

CHECKYOUR

PROGRESS

DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS

A C T I V I T Y

Write a letter to Anas Jamil in UK, describingyour reactions after reading his letter to TonyBlair.

Write a letter from Batisha in Kosovo to awoman who faced a similar situation inIndia.

Write a memorandum on behalf of women inSaudi Arabia to the Secretary General of theUnited Nations.

Think of all the examples that wehave discussed so far. Think of thevictims in each example: theprisoners in Guantanamo Bay,women in Saudi Arabia, Albaniansin Kosovo. If you were in theirposition, what would you havewished? If you could, what wouldyou do to ensure that such thingsdo not happen to anyone?

You would perhaps desire asystem where security, dignity andfair play are assured to everyone.You might want, for example, thatno one should be arrested withoutproper reason and information. Andif someone is arrested, he or sheshould have a fair chance to defendthemselves. You might agree thatsuch assurance cannot apply to

everything. One has to be reasonablein what one expects and demands ofeveryone else, for one has to grantthe same to everyone. But you mightinsist that the assurance does notremain on paper, that there issomeone to enforce theseassurances, that those who violatethese are punished. In other words,you might want a system where atleast a minimum is guaranteed toeveryone – powerful or weak, richor poor, majority or minority. Thisis the spirit behind thinking aboutrights.

What are rights?What are rights?What are rights?What are rights?What are rights?Rights are claims of a person overother fellow beings, over the societyand over the government. All of us

5.2 RIGHTS IN A DEMOCRACY


want to live happily, without fearand without being subjected todegraded treatment. For this weexpect others to behave in such away that does not harm us or hurtus. Equally, our actions should notalso harm or hurt others. So a rightis possible when you make a claimthat is equally possible for others.You cannot have a right that harmsor hurts others. You cannot have aright to play a game in such a waythat it breaks the neighbour’swindow. The Serbs in Yugoslaviacould not have claimed the wholecountry for themselves. The claimswe make should be reasonable.They should be such that can bemade available to others in an equalmeasure. Thus, a right comes withan obligation to respect other rights.

Just because we claim some thingit does not become our right. It hasto be recognised by the society welive in. Rights acquire meaning onlyin society. Every society makescertain rules to regulate ourconduct. They tell us what is rightand what is wrong. What isrecognised by the society as rightfulbecomes the basis of rights. That iswhy the notion of rights changesfrom time to time and society tosociety. Two hundred years agoanyone who said that women shouldhave right to vote would havesounded strange. Today not grantingthem vote in Saudi Arabia appearsstrange.

When the socially recognisedclaims are written into law theyacquire real force. Otherwise theyremain merely as natural or moralrights. The prisoners inGuantanamo Bay had a moral claimnot to be tortured or humiliated. Butthey could not go to anyone toenforce this claim. When lawrecognises some claims they become

enforceable. We can then demandtheir application. When fellowcitizens or the government do notrespect these rights we call itviolation or infringement of ourrights. In such circumstancescitizens can approach courts toprotect their rights. So, if we wantto call any claim a right, it has tohave these three qualities. Rightsare reasonable claims of personsrecognised by society andsanctioned by law.

WWWWWhhhhhy do wy do wy do wy do wy do we neee neee neee neee need rd rd rd rd righighighighights in ats in ats in ats in ats in ademocrdemocrdemocrdemocrdemocra ca ca ca ca cy ?y ?y ?y ?y ?Rights are necessary for the verysustenance of a democracy. In ademocracy every citizen has to havethe right to vote and the right tobe elected to government. Fordemocratic elections to take place, itis necessary that citizens shouldhave the right to express theiropinion, form political parties andtake part in political activities.

Rights also perform a very specialrole in a democracy. Rights protectminorities from the oppression ofmajority. They ensure that themajority cannot do whatever it likes.Rights are guarantees which can beused when things go wrong. Thingsmay go wrong when some citizensmay wish to take away the rights ofothers. This usually happens whenthose in majority want to dominatethose in minority. The governmentshould protect the citizens’ rights insuch a situation. But sometimeselected governments may notprotect or may even attack the rightsof their own citizens. That is whysome rights need to be placed higherthan the government, so that thegovernment cannot violate them. Inmost democracies the basic rightsof the citizen are written down in theconstitution.

What are theexamples ofelectedgovernments notprotecting or evenattacking the rightsof their owncitizens? Why dothey do that?

79

5.3 RIGHTS IN THE INDIAN CONSTITUTIONRRRRR i g hi g hi g hi g hi g ht tt tt tt tt to Eo Eo Eo Eo Eq u a l i tq u a l i tq u a l i tq u a l i tq u a l i tyyyyyThe Constitution says that thegovernment shall not deny to anyperson in India equality before the lawor the equal protection of the laws. Itmeans that the laws apply in the samemanner to all, regardless of a person’sstatus. This is called the rule of law.Rule of law is the foundation of anydemocracy. It means that no personis above the law. There cannot be anydistinction between a political leader,government official and an ordinarycitizen.

Every citizen, from the PrimeMinister to a small farmer in a remotevillage, is subjected to the same laws.No person can legally claim anyspecial treatment or privilege justbecause he or she happens to be animportant person. For example, a fewyears ago a former Prime Minister ofthe country faced a court case oncharges of cheating. The court finallydeclared that he was not guilty. Butas long as the case continued, he hadto go to the court, give evidence andfile papers, just like any other citizen.

This basic position is furtherclarified in the Constitution byspelling out some implications of theRight to Equality. The governmentshall not discriminate against anycitizen on grounds only of religion,race, caste, sex or place of birth. Everycitizen shall have access to publicplaces like shops, restaurants, hotels,and cinema halls. Similarly, thereshall be no restriction with regard tothe use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats,roads, playgrounds and places ofpublic resorts maintained bygovernment or dedicated to the useof general public. This might appearvery obvious, but it was necessary to

DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS

In India, like most otherdemocracies in the world, theserights are mentioned in theConstitution. Some rights which arefundamental to our life are given aspecial status. They are calledFundamental Rights. We havealready read in Chapter 2 thepreamble to our Constitution. Ittalks about securing for all itscitizens equality, liberty and justice.Fundamental Rights put thispromise into effect. They are animportant basic feature of India’sConstitution.

You already know our Constitutionprovides for six Fundamental Rights.Can you recall these? What exactlydo these rights mean for an ordinarycitizen? Let us look at these one byone.

Everyone knowsthat the rich can

have better lawyersin the courts. What

is the point intalking about

equality beforelaw?

F U N D A M E N T A L R I G H T S

Right to Constitutional Remedies

Right toEquality

Right toFreedom

Right toFreedom

ofReligion

Right against Exploitation

Cultural and EducationalRights


incorporate these rights in theConstitution of our country where thetraditional caste system did not allowpeople from some communities toaccess all public places.

The same principle applies topublic jobs. All citizens have equalityof opportunity in matters relating toemployment or appointment to anyposition in the government. Nocitizen shall be discriminatedagainst or made ineligible foremployment on the groundsmentioned above. You have read inChapter 4 that the Government ofIndia has provided reservations forScheduled Castes, ScheduledTribes and Other Backward Classes.Various governments have differentschemes for giving preference towomen, poor or physicallyhandicapped in some kinds of jobs.Are these reservations against theright to equality? They are not. Forequality does not mean givingeveryone the same treatment, nomatter what they need. Equalitymeans giving everyone an equalopportunity to achieve whatever oneis capable of. Sometimes it isnecessary to give special treatmentto someone in order to ensure equalopportunity. This is what jobreservations do. Just to clarify this,the Constitution says thatreservations of this kind are not aviolation of the Right to Equality.

The principle of non-discriminationextends to social life as well. TheConstitution mentions one extremeform of social discrimination, thepractice of untouchability, andclearly directs the government to putan end to it. The practice ofuntouchability has been forbiddenin any form. Untouchability heredoes not only mean refusal to touchpeople belonging to certain castes.It refers to any belief or social

A C T I V I T Y

Go to the playground of the school or any sta-dium and watch a 400 metre race on any track.Why are the competitors in the outer lane placedahead of those in the inner lane at the startingpoint of the race? What would happen if all thecompetitors start the race from the same line?Which of these two would be an equal and fairrace? Apply this example to a competition forjobs.

Observe any big public building. Is there a rampfor physically handicapped? Are there any otherfacilities that make it possible for physicallyhandicapped to use the building in the sameway as any one else? Should these special fa-cilities be provided, if it leads to extra expendi-ture on the building? Do these special provi-sions go against the principle of equality?

practice which looks down uponpeople on account of their birth withcertain caste labels. Such practicedenies them interaction with othersor access to public places as equalcitizens. So the Constitution madeuntouchability a punishable offence.

81

RRRRR i g hi g hi g hi g hi g ht tt tt tt tt to Fo Fo Fo Fo Frrrrr e ee ee ee ee ed o md o md o md o md o mFreedom means absence ofconstraints. In practical life it meansabsence of interference in our affairsby others – be it other individualsor the government. We want to livein society, but we want to be free.We want to do things in the way wewant to do them. Others should notdictate us what we should do. So,under the Indian Constitution allcitizens have the right toFreedom of speech and expressionAssembly in a peaceful mannerForm associations and unionsMove freely throughout the

countryReside in any part of the country,

andPractice any profession, or to carry

on any occupation, trade orbusiness.

You should remember that everycitizen has the right to all thesefreedoms. That means you cannotexercise your freedom in such a

manner that violates others’ right tofreedom. Your freedoms should notcause public nuisance or disorder.You are free to do everything whichinjures no one else. Freedom is notunlimited licence to do what onewants. Accordingly, the governmentcan impose certain reasonablerestrictions on our freedoms in thelarger interests of the society.

Freedom of speech andexpression is one of the essentialfeatures of any democracy. Our ideasand personality develop only when weare able to freely communicate withothers. You may think differentlyfrom others. Even if a hundredpeople think in one way, you shouldhave the freedom to think differentlyand express your views accordingly.You may disagree with a policy ofgovernment or activities of anassociation. You are free to criticisethe government or the activities ofthe association in yourconversations with parents, friendsand relatives. You may publiciseyour views through a pamphlet,magazine or newspaper. You can doit through paintings, poetry orsongs. However, you cannot use thisfreedom to instigate violence againstothers. You cannot use it to incitepeople to rebel against government.

Many Forms of Untouchability

In 1999, P. Sainath wrote a series of newsreportsin The Hindu describing untouchability and castediscrimination that was still being practicedagainst Dalits or persons belonging to ScheduledCastes. He travelled to various parts of the coun-try and found that in many places: Tea stalls kept two kinds of cups, one for Dalits

one for others; Barbers refused to serve dalit clients; Dalit students were made to sit separately in the

classroom or drink water from separate picher; Dalit grooms were not allowed to ride a horse

in the wedding procession; and Dalits were not allowed to use common

handpump or if they did, the handpump waswashed to purify it.

All these fall under the definition of untouchability.Can you think of some examples from your ownarea?

DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS

Should thefreedom ofexpression beextended to thosewho are spreadingwrong and narrow-minded ideas?Should they beallowed to confusethe public?

Irfan

Kha

n


Neither can you use it to defameothers by saying false and meanthings that cause damage to aperson’s reputation.

Citizens have the freedom tohold meetings, processions, ralliesand demonstrations on any issue.They may want to discuss aproblem, exchange ideas, mobilisepublic support to a cause, or seekvotes for a candidate or party in anelection. But such meetings have tobe peaceful. They should not leadto public disorder or breach of peacein society. Those who participate inthese activities and meetings shouldnot carry weapons with them.Citizens also can form associations.For example workers in a factory canform a workers’ union to promotetheir interests. Some people in atown may come together to form anassociation to campaign againstcorruption or pollution.

As citizens we have the freedom totravel to any part of the country.We are free to reside and settle in anyparty of the territory of India. Let ussay a person who belongs to the stateof Assam wants to start a businessin Hyderabad. He may not have anyconnection with that city, he may nothave even seen it ever. Yet as a citizenof India he has the right to set up basethere. This right allows lakhs ofpeople to migrate from villages totowns and from poorer regions of thecountries to prosperous regions andbig cities. The same freedom extendsto choice of occupations. No one canforce you to do or not to do a certainjob. Women cannot be told that somekinds of occupations are not for them.People from deprived castes cannotbe kept to their traditionaloccupations.

The Constitution says that noperson can be deprived of his life orpersonal liberty except according to

procedure established by law. Itmeans that no person can be killedunless the court has ordered a deathsentence. It also means that agovernment or police officer cannotarrest or detain any citizen unlesshe has proper legal justification.Even when they do, they have tofollow some procedures:A person who is arrested and

detained in custody will have to beinformed of the reasons for sucharrest and detention.

A person who is arrested anddetained shall be produced beforethe nearest magistrate within aperiod of 24 hours of arrest.

Such a person has the right toconsult a lawyer or engage alawyer for his defence.

Irfan

Kha

nIrf

an K

han

83

CHECKYOUR

PROGRESS

CHECKYOUR

PROGRESS

Let us recall the cases ofGuantanamo Bay and Kosovo. Thevictims in both these cases faced a

threat to the most basic of allliberties, the protection ofindividual life and personal liberty.

Are these cases instances of violation of right to freedom? If yes, which constitutional provision doeseach of these violate? The government of India banned Salman Rushdie’s book Satanic Verses on the ground that it was

disrespectful to Prophet Mohammed and was likely to hur t the feelings of Muslim community. Every film has to be approved by the Censor Board of the government before it can be shown to

the public. But there is no such restriction if the same story is published in a book or a magazine. The government is considering a proposal that there will be industrial zones or sectors of economy

where workers will not be allowed to form unions or go on strike. City administration has imposed a ban on use of public microphones after 10 p.m. in view of the

approaching secondary school examinations.

RRRRR i g hi g hi g hi g hi g ht against Et against Et against Et against Et against Explo i taxplo i taxplo i taxplo i taxplo i tat iont iont iont iont ionOnce the right to liberty and equalityis granted, it follows that everycitizen has a right not to beexploited. Yet the Constitutionmakers thought is was necessary towrite down certain clear provisionsto prevent exploitation of the weakersections of the society.

The Constitution mentions threespecific evils and declares theseillegal. First, the Constitutionprohibits ‘traffic in human beings’.Traffic here means selling andbuying of human beings, usuallywomen, for immoral purposes.Second, our Constitution alsoprohibits forced labour or begar in

any form. Begar is a practice wherethe worker is forced to render serviceto the ‘master’ free of charge or at anominal remuneration. When thispractice takes place on a life-longbasis, it is called the practice ofbonded labour.

Finally, the Constitution alsoprohibits child labour. No one canemploy a child below the age offourteen to work in any factory ormine or in any other hazardouswork, such as railways and ports.Using this as a basis many laws havebeen made to prohibit children fromworking in industries such as beedimaking, firecrackers and matches,printing and dyeing.

DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS

On the basis of these news reports write a letter to the editor or a petition to a court highlighting theviolation of right against exploitation:

A petition was filed in theMadras High Court. Thepetitioner said a large numberof children aged betweenseven and 12 were taken fromvillages in Salem district andsold at auctions at Olur Nagarin Kerala’s Thrissur district.The petitioner requested thecourts to order the governmentto check these facts.(March 2005)

Children, from the age of five,were employed in the iron oremines in the Hospet, Sandur andthe Ikal areas in Karnataka.Children were forced to carry outdigging, breaking stones, loading,dumping, transporting andprocessing of iron ore with nosafety equipment, fixed wages andworking hours. They handled ahigh-level of toxic wastes andwere exposed to mine dust, whichwas above the permissible level.The school dropout rate in theregion was very high. (May 2005)

The latest annual surveyconducted by the NationalSample Survey Organisationfound that the number of femalechild labourers was growing bothin rural and urban areas. Thesurvey revealed there were 41female child labourers perthousand worker population inrural areas as against theprevious figure of 34 perthousand. The figure for malechild had remained at 31. (April2005)


A C T I V I T Y

Do you know what the minimum wages in yourstate are? If not, can you find out? Speak to fivepeople doing different types of work in yourneighbourhood and find out if they are earningthe minimum wages or not. Ask them if they knowwhat the minimum wages are. Ask them if menand women are getting the same wages.

RRRRR ighighighighight tt tt tt tt to Fo Fo Fo Fo Frrrrre ee ee ee ee edom of Rdom of Rdom of Rdom of Rdom of ReligioneligioneligioneligioneligionRight to freedom includes right tofreedom of religion as well. In this casetoo, the Constitution makers werevery particular to state it clearly. Youhave already read in Chapter 2 thatIndia is a secular state. Most peoplein India, like anywhere else in theworld, follow different religions. Somemay not believe in any religion.Secularism is based on the idea thatthe state is concerned only withrelations among human beings, andnot with the relation between humanbeings and God. A secular state is onethat does not establish any onereligion as official religion. Indiansecularism practices an attitude of aprincipled and equal distance fromall religions. The state has to beneutral and impartial in dealing withall religions.

Every person has a right toprofess, practice and propagatethe religion he or she believes in.Every religious group or sect is freeto manage its religious affairs. Aright to propagate one’s religion,however, does not mean that aperson has right to compel anotherperson to convert into his religion bymeans of force, fraud, inducement orallurement. Of course, a person is freeto change religion on his or her ownwill. Freedom to practice religiondoes not mean that a person can dowhatever he wants in the name of

religion. For example, one cannotsacrifice animals or human beingsas offerings to supernatural forcesor gods. Religious practices whichtreat women as inferior or those thatinfringe women’s freedom are notallowed. For example, one cannotforce a widow to shave head or wearwhite clothes.

A secular state is one that does notconfer any privilege or favour on anyparticular religion. Nor does it pun-ish or discriminate against peopleon the basis of religion they follow.Thus the government cannot com-pel any person to pay any taxes forthe promotion or maintenance ofany particular religion or religiousinstitution. There shall be noreligious instruction in the govern-ment educational institutions. Ineducational institutions managed byprivate bodies no person shall becompelled to take part in anyreligious instruction or to attend anyreligious worship.

CCCCCulturulturulturulturultural and Eal and Eal and Eal and Eal and EducaducaducaducaducationaltionaltionaltionaltionalRRRRR ighighighighight st st st st sYou might wonder why theConstitution makers were soparticular in providing writtenguarantees of the rights of theminorities. Why are there no specialguarantees for the majority? Well, forthe simple reason that the workingof democracy gives power to themajority. It is the language, cultureand religion of minorities that needsspecial protection. Otherwise, theymay get neglected or underminedunder the impact of the language,religion and culture of the majority.

That is why the Constitution speci-fies the cultural and educationalrights of the minorities:Any section of citizens with a

distinct language or culture havea right to conserve it.

The Constitutiondoes not givepeople theirreligion. Then howcan it give peoplethe right to practisetheir religion?

85

CHECKYOUR

PROGRESS

Admission to any educationalinstitution maintained bygovernment or receivinggovernment aid cannot be deniedto any citizen on the ground ofreligion or language.

All minorities have the right to es-tablish and administer educa-tional institutions of their choice.Here minority does not mean onlyreligious minority at the national

level. In some places people speakinga particular language are in majority;people speaking a different languageare in a minority. For example,Telugu speaking people form amajority in Andhra Pradesh. But theyare a minority in the neighbouringState of Karnataka. Sikhs constitutea majority in Punjab. But they are aminority in Rajasthan, Haryana andDelhi.

Read these news repor ts and identify the right that is being debated in each of these cases:

An emergency session of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) rejected theproposal to form a separate body to manage the affairs of Sikh shrines in Haryana. It warned thegovernment that the Sikh community would not tolerate any interference in their religious affairs.(June 2005)

The Allahabad High Court quashed the Central law, which gave Aligarh Muslim University its minoritystatus, and held illegal the reservation of seats for Muslims in its postgraduate medical courses.(January 2006)

The Rajasthan Government has decided to enact an anti-conversion law. Christian leaders have saidthat the Bill would aggravate the sense of insecurity and fear in the minds of minorities. (March 2005)

DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS

H o w c a n w e s e c u r eH o w c a n w e s e c u r eH o w c a n w e s e c u r eH o w c a n w e s e c u r eH o w c a n w e s e c u r et h e s e r i g h t s ?t h e s e r i g h t s ?t h e s e r i g h t s ?t h e s e r i g h t s ?t h e s e r i g h t s ?If rights are like guarantees, they areof no use if there is no one to honourthem. The fundamental rights in theConstitution are important becausethey are enforceable. We have a rightto seek the enforcement of the abovementioned rights. This is called theRight to Constitutional Remedies.This itself is a Fundamental Right.This right makes other rightseffective. It is possible thatsometimes our rights may beviolated by fellow citizens, privatebodies or by the government. Whenany of our rights are violated we canseek remedy through courts. If it is aFundamental Right we can directlyapproach the Supreme Court or theHigh Court of a state. That is why Dr.Ambedkar called the Right toConstitutional Remedies, ‘the heartand soul’ of our Constitution.

Can the Presidentof India stop you

from approachingthe Supreme Court

to secure yourfundamental

rights?

Fundamental Rights areguaranteed against the actions ofthe Legislatures, the Executive, andany other authorities instituted bythe government. There can be no lawor action that violates theFundamental Rights. If any act of theLegislature or the Executive takesaway or limits any of theFundamental Rights it will beinvalid. We can challenge such lawsof the central and stategovernments, the policies andactions of the government or thegovernmental organisations like thenationalised banks or electricityboards. Courts also enforce theFundamental Rights against privateindividuals and bodies. TheSupreme Court and High Courtshave the power to issue directions,orders or writs for the enforcementof the Fundamental Rights. They canalso award compensation to the


National Human Rights CommissionThe NHRC cannot by itself punish the guilty.

That is the responsibility of courts. The NHRC isthere to make independent and credible inquiryinto any case of violation of human rights. It alsoinquires into any case of abetment of suchviolation or negligence in controlling it by anygovernment officer and takes other general stepsto promote human rights in the country. TheCommission presents its f indings andrecommendations to the government or intervenein the court on behalf of the victims. It has wideranging powers to carry out its inquiry. Like anycour t it can summon witnesses, question anygovernment official, demand any official paper,visit any prison for inspection or send its ownteam for on-the-spot inquiry.

Any citizen of India can write a letter to thisaddress to complain against the violation ofhuman r ights: National Human RightsCommission, G.P.O. Complex, INA, New Delhi110023. There is no fee or anyformal procedureto approach the NHRC. Like NHRC, there areState Human RightsCommissions in 26 statesof the country (as on 10 December 2018). Formore details, visit http://www.nhrc.nic.in

Do you notice references to the National HumanRights Commission (NHRC) in the news collageon this page? These references reflect the growingawareness of human rights and struggles for humandignity. Many cases of human rights violations indiverse fields, for instance, Gujarat riots, are beingbrought to the public notice from across India.Human rights organisations and the media oftencriticise government agencies for not seriouslypursuing these cases or catching the culprits.

Someone had to intervene on behalf of thevictims. This is where the National Human RightsCommission stepped in. This is an independentcommission set up by law in 1993. Likejudiciary, the Commission is independent of thegovernment. The Commission is appointed by thePresident and includes retired judges, officers andeminent citizens. Yet it does not have the burden ofdeciding court cases. So it can focus on helpingthe victims secure their human rights. Theseinclude all the rights granted to the citizens by theConstitution. For NHRC human rights also includethe rights mentioned in the UN sponsoredinternational treaties that India has signed.

87

victims and punishment to theviolators. We have already seen inChapter 4 that the judiciary in ourcountry is independent of thegovernment and the parliament. Wealso noted that our judiciary is verypowerful and can do whatever isneeded to protect the rights of thecitizens.

In case of any violation of aFundamental Right the aggrievedperson can go to a court for remedy.But now, any person can go to courtagainst the violation of theFundamental Right, if it is of socialor public interest. It is called PublicInterest Litigation (PIL). Under the

PIL any citizen or group of citizenscan approach the Supreme Court ora High Court for the protection ofpublic interest against a particularlaw or action of the government. Onecan write to the judges even on apostcard. The court will take up thematter if the judges find it in publicinterest.

A C T I V I T Y

Is there a State Human Rights Commission inyour state? Find out about its activities.Write a petition to the NHRC if you know anyinstances of human rights violation in your area.

5.4 EXPANDING SCOPE OF RIGHTS

We began this chapter by discussingthe significance of rights. In muchof the chapter we have focussed onlyon Fundamental Rights in theConstitution. You might think thatFundamental Rights granted by theConstitution are the only rightscitizen have. This is not true. WhileFundamental Rights are the sourceof all rights, our Constitution andlaw offers a wider range of rights.Over the years the scope of rightshas expanded.

Sometimes it leads to expansionin the legal rights that the citizen canenjoy. From time to time, the courtsgave judgments to expand the scopeof rights. Certain rights like right tofreedom of press, right toinformation, and right to educationare derived from the FundamentalRights. Now school education hasbecome a right for Indian citizens.The governments are responsible forproviding free and compulsoryeducation to all children up to theage of 14 years. Parliament hasenacted a law giving the right to

information to the citizens. This Actwas made under the FundamentalRight to freedom of thought andexpression. We have a right to seekinformation from governmentoffices. Recently the Supreme Courthas expanded the meaning of theright to life to include the right tofood. Also, rights are not limited onlyto Fundamental Rights asenumerated in the Constitution.Constitution provides many morerights, which may not be FundamentalRights. For example the right toproperty is not a Fundamental Rightbut it is a constitutional right. Right tovote in elections is an importantconstitutional right.

Sometimes the expansion takesplace in what is called human rights.These are universal moral claims thatmay or may not have been recognisedby law. In that sense these claims arenot rights going by the definition thatwe presented earlier. With theexpansion of democracy all over theworld, there is greater pressure ongovernments to accept these claims.

DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS

Are these rightsonly for adults?Which of these

rights are availableto children?


GLOSSARY

Some international covenants havealso contributed to the expansion ofrights.

Thus the scope of rights has beenexpanding and new rights areevolving over time. They are resultof struggle of the people. New rightsemerge as societies develop or asnew constitutions are made. TheConstitution of South Africa guaranteesits citizens several kinds of new rights:Right to privacy, so that citizens

or their home cannot be searched,their phones cannot be tapped,their communication cannot beopened.

Right to an environment that is notharmful to their health or well-being;

Right to have access to adequatehousing.

Right to have access to health careservices, sufficient food and water;no one may be refused emergencymedical treatment.Many people think that the right to

work, right to health, right to minimumlivelihood and right to privacyshould be made fundamental rightsin India as well. What do you think?

International Covenant onEconomic, Social and CulturalRights

This international covenant recognises manyrights that are not directly a par t of theFundamental Rights in the Indian Constitution.This has not yet become an international treaty.But human right activists all over the world seethis as a standard of human rights. These include: right to work: opportunity to everyone to earn

livelihood by working right to safe and healthy working conditions,

fair wages that can provide decent standard ofliving for the workers and their families

right to adequate standard of living includingadequate food, clothing and housing

right to social security and insurance right to health: medical care during illness,

special care for women during childbirth andprevention of epidemics

right to education: free and compulsory primaryeducation, equal access to higher education.

Amnesty International: An international organisation of volunteers whocampaign for human rights. This organisation brings out independentreports on the violation of human rights all over the world.Claim: Demand for legal or moral entitlements a person makes on fellowcitizens, society or the government.Covenant: Promise made by individuals, groups or countries to uphold arule or principle. It is legally binding on the signatories to the agreementor statement.Dalit: A person who belongs to the castes which were considered low andnot touchable by others. Dalits are also known by other names such asthe Scheduled Castes, Depressed Classes etc.Ethnic group: An ethnic group is a human population whose membersusually identify with each other on the basis of a common ancestry. Peopleof an ethnic group are united by cultural practices, religious beliefs andhistorical memories.Traffic: Selling and buying of men, women or children for immoralpurposes.Summon: An order issued by a court asking a person to appear before it.Writ: A formal document containing an order of the court to thegovernment issued only by High Court or the Supreme Court.

89

exerc

ises 1 Which of the following is not an instance of an exercise of a

fundamental right?a Workers from Bihar go to the Punjab to work on the farmsb Christian missions set up a chain of missionary schoolsc Men and women government employees get the same salaryd Parents’ property is inherited by their children

2 Which of the following freedoms is not available to an Indian citizen?a Freedom to criticise the governmentb Freedom to participate in armed revolutionc Freedom to start a movement to change the governmentd Freedom to oppose the central values of the Constitution

3 Which of the following rights is available under the IndianConstitution?a Right to workb Right to adequate livelihoodc Right to protect one’s cultured Right to privacy

4 Name the Fundamental Right under which each of the following rightsfalls:a Freedom to propagate one’s religionb Right to lifec Abolition of untouchabilityd Ban on bonded labour

5 Which of these statements about the relationship between democracyand rights is more valid? Give reasons for your preference.a Every country that is a democracy gives rights to its citizens.b Every country that gives rights to its citizens is a democracy.c Giving rights is good, but it is not necessary for a democracy.

6 Are these restrictions on the right to freedom justified? Give reasonsfor your answer.a Indian citizens need permission to visit some border areas of the

country for reasons of security.b Outsiders are not allowed to buy property in some areas to protect

the interest of the local population.c The government bans the publication of a book that can go against

the ruling party in the next elections.

7 Manoj went to a college to apply for admission into an MBA course.The clerk refused to take his application and said “You, the son of asweeper, wish to be a manager! Has anyone done this job in yourcommunity? Go to the municipality office and apply for a sweeper’sposition”. Which of Manoj’s fundamental rights are being violated inthis instance? Spell these out in a letter from Manoj to the districtcollector.

DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS


exercises8 When Madhurima went to the property registration office, theRegistrar told her, “You can’t write your name as Madhurima Banerjeed/o A. K. Banerjee. You are married, so you must give your husband’sname. Your husband’s surname is Rao. So your name should bechanged to Madhurima Rao.” She did not agree. She said “If myhusband’s name has not changed after marriage, why should mine?”In your opinion who is right in this dispute? And why?

9 Thousands of tribals and other forest dwellers gathered at Piparia inHoshangabad district in Madhya Pradesh to protest against theirproposed displacement from the Satpura National Park, Bori WildlifeSanctuary and Panchmarhi Wildlife Sanctuary. They argue that sucha displacement is an attack on their livelihood and beliefs. Governmentclaims that their displacement is essential for the development ofthe area and for protection of wildlife. Write a petition on behalf ofthe forest dwellers to the NHRC, a response from the governmentand a report of the NHRC on this matter.

10 Draw a web interconnecting different rights discussed in this chapter.For example right to freedom of movement is connected to the freedomof occupation. One reason for this is that freedom of movement enablesa person to go to place of work within one’s village or city or to anothervillage, city or state. Similarly this right can be used for pilgrimage,connected with freedom to follow one’s religion. Draw a circle foreach right and mark arrows that show connection between or amongdifferent rights. For each arrow, give an example that shows thelinkage.

In every chapter we have done an exercise on reading the newspaper. Letus now try to write for the newspaper. Take any example from the reportsdiscussed in this chapter or any other local example that you are familiarwith and write the following:

Letter to the editor highlighting a case of human rights violation.Press release by a human rights organisation.A headline and a news item concerning a Supreme Court order

related to Fundamental Rights.Editorial on growing incidents of custodial violence.

Put these together and make a newspaper for your school notice board.

Electoral Politics in the Erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir


In this Chapter attempt is made to comprehend the electoral process and its nature in Erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir since pre-independence. The discussion will include electoral trends and electoral behaviour.

The Electoral process is the life line of modern political societies. Modern day democracy drives its strength and inspiration from electoral processes. A step to electoral processes in

the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir found its expression in the pre-1947 period with Glancy Commissions Recommendations. It prompted Maharaja Hari Singh to adopt Legislative Assembly (Praja Sabha) comprising 75 members. The first ever Legislative Assembly of 1934 had limited electoral component with only 33

CHAPTER-6

Democratic Politics

elected members, out of which 21 seats were reserved for Muslim representation. The regulation reserved 10 seats for Hindus, 2 for Sikhs and 30 seats reserved as special nominations of Maharaja (in which 12 nominations were restricted to state bureaucracy/official members).

Potent urge for electoral process in the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir surfaced with the resolutions passed by Muslim Conference (Established 4th June 1932). The Party demanded wider franchise to accommodate public demand for representation & accountable Government responsible on the floor of Legislative Assembly. With this agenda Muslim Conference gained popularity and after the completion of 4 years term

Important FactsThe 1934 election restricted franchise to Village and District Headmen, Priests, Managers of Religious Property, Title Holders , Medical Practitioners, Pensioned Officers/ Veteran Bureaucrats and those who had passed middle school examination or equivalent. Women in general were excluded except for those with required qualification. The election was intended to enfranchise about 10% adult population.

92


of Legislative Assembly (Praja Sabha) ended on 31st December 1937 Muslim Conference was able to capture 19 seats out of 21 seats reserved for Muslim representation. On 27th March 1938, Muslim Conference was converted into National Conference.

Accession of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir to the Union of India on 26th October 1947 motivated Sadar-e-Riyasat Dr. Karan Singh (the then Head of the Jammu and Kashmir State) on 1st May 1951 to issue a proclamation directing the formation of constituent Assembly cum legislative assembly. Constituent Assembly was to draft constitution of the erstwhile State of J&K. Elections to the Constituent Assembly were fully conducted on the basis of adult suffrage. The Legislative Assembly was initially composed of 100 members and later its number was increased to 111 members by virtue of an amendment to the constitution through Jammu and Kashmir Act of 1988 (Twentieth Amend-ment).The total contestable and filled seats of the Assembly were 87 and rest were reserved for PoJK. Out of 87 constituencies, 07 Assembly Constituencies were reserved for scheduled Castes (SC). All these 7 seats fall in Jammu region – 3 in Jammu dis-trict and one each in Samba, Kathua, Udhampur and Ramban districts till 2019.

Legislative Assembly Constituencies of Erstwhile State of J&K

Assembly Constituency

Number

AssemblyConstituency Name

Assembly Constituency

Number

Assembly Constituency Name

Assembly Constitu-ency Number

Assembly Constituency Name

01 Karnah 31 Tral 61 Chenani02 Kupwara 32 Pampore 62 Ram Nagar03 Lolab 33 Pulwama 63 Bani04 Handwara 34 Rajpora 64 Basohli05 Langate 35 Wachi 65 Kathua06 Uri 36 Shopian 66 Billawar07 Rafiabad 37 Noorabad 67 Hiranagar08 Sopore 38 Kulgam 68 Samba09 Gurez 39 Hom Shali

Bugh 69 Vijaypur

10 Bandipora 40 Anantnag 70 Nagrota

92

Democratic Politics

11 Sonawari 41 Devsar 71 Gandhinagar12 Sangrama 42 Dooru 72 Jammu East13 Baramulla 43 Kokernag 73 Jammu West14 Gulmarg 44 Shangus 74 Bishnah15 Pattan 45 Bijbehara 75 Ranbir Singh Pura16 Kangan 46 Pahalgam 76 Suchetgarh17 Ganderbal 47 Nubra 77 Marh18 Hazratbal 48 Leh 78 Raipur Domana19 Zadibal 49 Kargil 79 Akhnoor20 Eidgah 50 Zanskar 80 Chhamb21 Khanyar 51 Kishtwar 81 Nowshera22 Habba Kadal 52 Inderwal 82 Darhal23 Amira Kadal 53 Doda 83 Rajouri24 Sonawar 54 Bhaderwah 84 Surankote25 Batmaloo 55 Ramban 85 Kalakote26 Chadoora 56 Banihal 86 Mendhar27 Budgam 57 Gulabgarh 87 Poonch Haveli

28 Beerwah 58 Reasi29 Khan Sahib 59 Gool Arnas30 Charari Sharief 60 Udhampur

93

Electoral Politics in the Erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir 94

Electors data summary of Erstwhile State of J&K: Year 2014

1. NO OF CONSTITUENCIES

TYPE OF CONSTITUENCY GEN SC ST TOTALNO OF CONSTITUENCIES 80 7 0 87

2. ELECTORS

MALE FEMALE THIRD

GENDER

TOTAL

i. NO. OF ELECTORS

(Including Service Electors)

3854791 3462092 63 7316946

ii. NO. OF ELECTORSWHO VOTED AT POLLINGSTATIONS

2499904 2294469 1 4794374

iii. POLLING PERCENTAGE 64.85 % 66.27 % 2 % 65.52 %

3. NO. OF VALID VOTES (EVM Valid+Postal Valid) : 47688524. NO. OF VOTES REJECTED (Postal) 33905. NO. OF VOTES NOT RETRIEVED FROM EVM,TEST VOTES,REJECTED VOTES DUE TO OTHER REASON AND NOTA VOTES

50534

6. NO. OF POLLING STATIONS : 100357. AVERAGE NO. OF ELECTORS PER POLLING STATION 729

8. PERFORMANCE OF CONTESTING CANDIDATES

MALE FEMALE THIRD

GENDER

TOTAL

i. NO. OF CONTESTANTS 803 28 0 831ii. ELECTED 85 2 0 87iii. FORFEITED DEPOS-ITS

602 25 0 627

Source: Election Commission of India

Democratic Politics95

Electoral Behaviour:Trends in Jammu and Kashmir

The elections of the Constituent Assembly were held in 1951, National Confer-ence secured all the 75 seats, 73 of its candidates were elected unopposed.

The first Assembly elections were held in 1957 under the new Constitution ad-opted in 1956. National Conference contested elections under Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad. It won 68 seats with 41 unopposed. Out of the remaining 7 seats, 5 went to Praja Parishad, one to Harijan Mandal and one to an independent can-didate.

In the year 1967, Assembly elections were held when Ghulam Mohammad Sadiq was Chief Minister and National Conference at that time had got merged with Indian National Congress. The ruling Congress won 61 seats. The Jan Sangh (transformed from Praja Parishad) won 3 seats and National Conference faction led by Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad won 8 seats and remaining 3 went to indepen-dent candidates. The total voting percentage recorded was 58.79%

In 1972 Assembly elections were held during the Chief Ministership of Syed Mir Qasim. The ruling Congress won with two-third majority capturing 58 seats ( 30 out of 43 in Kashmir and 28 out of 32 in Jammu) . The Jan Sangh won 3 seats and Jamait-i-Islami, a new entrant, won 5 seats (All from Kashmir valley) and re-maining seats went to independent candidates. The Praja Socialist Party & Com-munist Party of India got no seat. The total voting percentage in the Assembly elections recorded was 62.17%

In 1977 Assembly elections, Indian National Congress won 10 seats, Janata Party won 13 seats, the independent won 4 seats, Jamait-i-Islami won one seat. All the remaining 47 seats went to National Conference after its revival. The total voting percentage recorded was 67.70%

In the Assembly elections of 1983, National Conference won 47 seats while Congress (I) won 26 seats. The Muslim United Front won 2 seats and one went to Jamait-i-Islami. The total voting percentage of this election was 73.24%.

In the Assembly elections 1987, National Conference had electoral alliance with Congress. In this Assembly election, National Conference captured 40 seats. The total voting Percentage recorded was 74.88%.

The Assembly election of 1996, National Conference again won 57 seats out of 87 total seats. The voting Percentage recorded was 53.92%.


In 2002 Assembly elections, Indian National Congress won 20 seats, PDP won 16 seats, Panthers Party won 04 seats, BJP won 01 seat, and the overall voting percentage was 45%.

In 2008 , National Conference won 28 seats, PDP won 21 seats, Congress won 17 seats, BJP won 11 seats and Panthers Party won 03 seats with overall voting percentage of 60.5%.

In 2014 Assembly elections, PDP won 28 seats, BJP won 25 seats, National Conference won 15 seats, Congress won 12 seats and the overall voting percentage was 65.52%.

Voting percentage 1967-2014 Assembly Elections

Year Voting %age

1967 58.791972 62.171977 67.701983 73.241987 74.881996 53.922002 45.02008 60.52014 65.52

96

Source: Election Commission of India

As observed, the electoral process of Jammu and Kashmir has moved from single party dominance to coalition politics thereby widening the political participation of diverse political stakeholders.

Democratic Politics97

Glossary

Universal Adult Suffrage:- The Right of all adults to vote in the elections.

Amendment:- A minor change in the Constitution through legis-lation.

Alliance:- An alliance is a relationship resorted to among people, groups , political parties or States to join together for mutual benefit or to achieve a com-mon purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them.

Proclamation:- A public or official announcement dealing with matter of great importance.

Elector:- A person who has right to vote in an election, espe-cially one for members of a legislature.


exer

cise

88

1. Collect information about any of the elections held inthe erstwhile state of J&K.

2. Match the following:

The first ever (Praja Sabha) Legisla-tive Assembly through the regula-tions of Maharaja Hari Singh were conducted

May 1st,1951

The proclamation for the formation of Constituent Assembly was issued on

After 1987 elections

Legistative Assembly suspecded for Six years

in 1934

3. Your friend was not in the class room when this chapter was taught. When he came next day and repeated what he heard from classmates. Can you tell him what is wrong with these statements.

a) Maharaja Hari Singh ruled J&K till accession of the state with India. So there is no need of Praja Sabha (Elected Legislative Assembly) in 1934;

b) For Praja Sabha elections, the right to vote was not on the basis of Universal Adult Franchise. Does it mean that practice should continue in present time also?

Social ScienceTextbook of Political Science

for Class IX

Jammu & Kashmir Board Of School Education

what is democracy? why democracy? constitutional … · 2020. 8. 12. · democracy consists of...

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