An Alternate Agenda for Self-Governance
Indian democracy is sixty-four year old and has basically withstood , weathered many a storm and has forged ahead and is functional within the limitations imposed on it.The Constitution of India which came in to existence from 26th January 1950 has checks and balances to ensure proper and democratic functioning of the State machinery, self-governing mechanisms which have not been implemented in the right spirit in which these were envisaged.
Therefore there is a need to have a fresh look at the very basic and core structures, especially those relating to the administration of our country, democratic institutions and their functioning etc.It has become all the more necessary to usher in participative democracy so as to narrow down the difference between the rulers and the ruled. As Noam Chomsky says in his book “ Media Control”, 'Responsible men(read 'rulers'), carry out the functions and ,the bewildered herd(read 'the citizens') who have to be mere spectators is the methodology adopted by the ruling classes everywhere to deprive their citizens of the right of participation in governance. This makes a mockery of democratic institutions as citizens get more and more alienated & insulated from the institutions over which they are supposed to be masters of.
The will of the People of India needs to be re-emphasised and asserted through appropriate mechanisms for achieving which some suggestions to widen the self-governing,participative democratic process in our country are provided herein below.
The districts in India be reorganised so as to have a population of about 20 lakhs within it and comprising of 100 taluks or blocks with a population of not more than 20000 .Thus the electorate
will be in a position to directly influence their elected representatives meaningfully.
Every district will have 100 councillors directly elected from each of the taluks to form the District Council which will elect an Executive Committee with a Chairman and four Vice-chairmen for the conduct of its' financial & administrative functions and also supervise and co-ordinate with the functioning of the District Collector.In turn each of the taluks will have a committee of five members, directly elected by the people.
There shall be ten Assembly segments in each of the districts by combining ten contiguous taluks and the electorate in these conglomerates will elect members to the State Assembly.
Each district will be deemed to be a Parliamentary Constituency and the electorate in that district numbering about 20 lakhs will elect their representative to the Lok Sabha. Thus we will have about 650 districts with a population of 20 laks each thus encompassing the total population of India, 1.30 billion approximately.
The elections from the Taluk to National levels shall be held simultaneously and each of the elected bodies will have a fixed term of five years.If an elected Government loses majority support it is incumbent on the representatives to elect a new Government in its place simultaneously so that no vacuum exists.
Already there are suggestions to have state-funding of elections which should be implemented. Further political parties must be made more accountable by making it mandatory for them to have elections from base level to national level committees. The election Commission may be expanded to be able to supervise such elections. All political parties must submit themselves to proper audit of their accounts .The laws should be made more stringent so as to debar people who have been charge sheeted in a criminal case from contesting the elections.
The funding of district-level projects shall be done by the State Governments concerned who will also appoint a team of three auditors in consultation with the Accountant General (AG) of the concerned state, to perform concurrent audit of the books of accounts of the District Councils to ensure accountability and transparency.
It is suggested that the civil society groups, government ,constitutional experts and political parties initiate dialogue first amongst themselves and expand it to the people at large to arrive at a viable,workable solution to usher in participative democracy.
The above structural modifications would require constitutional amendments for which a special session of parliament may be convened by the President.
