politics as every voters lever of change
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My choice of how I look at voting in 2014.This is the background presentation for my talk given at Azim Premji University's Kaapi aur Charcha series on 14th April 2014.TRANSCRIPT
Kaapi Aur Charcha, Azim Premji University,
14th April 2014
Sridhar Pabbisetty,
Centre for Inclusive Governance
[email protected]://www.facebook.com/CentreForInclusiveGovernance9916298421
Lok Sabha 2014 In more ways than one, the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 are
a tipping point in Indian Democracy.
Largest elections ever conducted in the world with 814.5 million voters will come together to choose 543 representatives
Entry of 101.5 million first time voters. This is about 2/3rds of the number of votes the UPA (153,482,356) got in the 2009 elections and close to BJPs 2009 tally of 102,689,312.
Interesting Anti-incumbency winds for UPA, a high decibel campaign by BJP and the guerilla campaign by AAP. The regional parties will have their own share of influence given the shallow pre poll alliances
Emotional?
Issue Based?
Track record?
Want a new framework?
How does one make a voting choice?
Emotional? If your choice has been made based
Har haath shakthi, har haath tarakki
Abki baar Modi Sarkaar
AAP ka Sarkaar
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/full-text-bjp-manifesto-for-2014-lok-sabha-elections/463184-37-64.html
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/full-text-bjp-manifesto-for-2014-lok-sabha-elections/463184-37-64.html
http://inc.in/manifesto/
Still unable to decide?
http://media.salon.com/2000/10/ignore_the_undecided-293x307.jpg
Issue Based? Price rise
Demographic Dividend
Corruption and Crony Capitalism
China, Pakistan or maybe even Nepal
Personal liberty – Article 377
Safety – Nirbhaya
Criminalization?
Money Power?
Growth Vs Development
Criminalization
Red Alert Constituencies*: 94 constituencies have at least 3 candidates with declared criminal cases. Beed Constituency, Maharashtra has the most number of candidates with criminal cases, i.e. 9 with criminal cases against them. *Red Alert Constituencies are those which have 3 or more candidates with criminal cases contesting elections.
www.adrindia.org
Track record? Is it enough to claim in manifesto?
What is the track record on other issues?
Coalgate, 2G, Commonwealth heck why only these- anyone remember the coffin scam and jeep scams?
Circa 1948 - Rs 80 lakh with a foreign firm for the purchase of 4603 army jeeps.
MP Track by PRS Legislative Research gives us option to see our MPs contribution in parliament
Daksh ADR survey - largest ever survey in India with over 250,000 respondents in 525 constituencies of the Lok Sabhagives - voter priorities, Rating of MPs and Role of caste, religion, crime and money power in elections -http://adrindia.org/content/adr-daksh-national-voters-survey
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeep_scandal_case
Collective Failure The 15th Lok Sabha met for an average of around 60 days a
year in comparison to around 120 days that the previous 14 Lok Sabhas did. The Winter Session of December 2013 was only for 4 hours and 31 minutes, or 6% of the schedule time. The 15th Lok Sabha has only passed 118 bills till date and of these only 27 of them (23%) were discussed for 2-3 hours. About 20 bills were passed with discussions of less than 5 minutes. As on 11th Feb, 130 bills are pending in this last session of the current Lok Sabha. Despite all this, the LokSabha met for only 15 minutes on the 07 Feb 2014 and was adjourned due to the Telengana issue.
We the citizens must come together and demand that our MPs bring out an annual report card clearly outlining their performance.
http://rbalu.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/understanding-the-lok-sabha-and-our-members-of-parliament/
Want a new framework?
Still unable to decide?
John Dalberg-Acton If there is any presumption
it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
While opposing - moves to promulgate the doctrine of papal infallibility
CDMA of Governance American economist Robert Klitgaard summarised
the factors encouraging corruption
Corruption = Monopoly + Discretion
- Accountability
http://www.smh.com.au/news/editorial/monopoly--discretion--accountability--corruption/2006/12/03/1165080809865.html
IMR 46
Kenya
Iran
Iraq
Korea, Northhttp://www.indexmundi.com/map/?v=29
number of deaths of infants under one year old per 1,000 live births
Crony capitalism Crony capitalism is a term
describing an economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between business people and government officials. It may be exhibited by favoritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, or other forms of state interventionism
In 2012 India has ranked 94th out of 176 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_Map_Index_of_perception_of_corruption.svg
Karnataka formation In 1903, addressing a meeting
at the Sangha, Alur VenkataRao spoke about the need to integrate Kannada regions of Madras Province and north Karnataka.
1946 Sardas assures In January 1953, the
movement entered its last leg when at the Congress session in Hyderabad, a resolution was also passed favouring just the creation of Andhra Pradesh but not Karnataka
A J Dodmeti resigns, hunger strike, hubli riots follow
Hubli-Dharwad by elections that followed, the Congress suffered thumping defeat while the Karnataka Ekikarana Paksha's candidate won by a landslide
Nehru wakes up and fazal Ali Committee is formed
VP Singh 1980 – Made CM of UP
Cleans up the dacoitymenace and gains national popularity by offering to resign
1984 – Finance Minister under Rajiv
License Raj
Gold Smuggling
DA and AB raids force him to Defence Ministry
Boy what was Rajiv thinking?
National Front – centrist forces come together 1989
PM from 2 December 1989 to 10 November 1990
Forces mandal commission
Social Justice is taken over by Ram Mandir
Atal Bihari Vajpayee VP Singh stops the kar-seva and the govt falls
Ram mandir becomes a major boost for their fortunes
Win in Gujurat, Maharashtra and good performance in Karnataka
3 non consecutive terms
13 days, 13 months and 13 years?
Golden Quadrilateral, Customs, Unleashing growth based on PVNs trajectory
Transparency RTI Killings
Pendency of requests
Accountability Coal gate files go missing
Who will bell the cat ?
Remote control PM?
Decentralization BBMP lame duck
Mayor is looking forward to ending ceremony before he ends the inception
73rd and 74th Amendment ? What is it?
Participatory Public Consultation when and how
Real estate and other lobbies over citizens
Ward committees what are they?
Representative Democracy I have gotten out of the Myth of voting for the winning
candidate or “the PM party”?
Let us choose the one who will represent us better rather than wanting to vote for the winning guy
Our forefathers wisely choose Representative over Presidential and let us put the best man in.
In Bangalore North, I do have a wide choice and thanks to the data sources mentioned, I can rank them.
After all my vote is not to make a CANDIDATE win but make my causes and concerns represented in Parliament. Thats how I will win in Indian democracy
Thank You
References (all accessed 14 April 2014) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton
http://www.nationalreview.com/agenda/374495/indias-thatcher-reihan-salam
http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/RfmvWQWF6Unf9ZreeKcMAI/From-representative-democracy.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._P._Singh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_of_Karnataka
http://en.wikipedia.org