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BJP for wide-ranging electoral reforms: Jaitley

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI JULY 9. It was not just the recent Supreme Court judgment which had forced the Government to take a decision on bringing in legislation to deal with some areas of badly-needed electoral reforms, although the court directive had certainly helped to ``flag'' the concerns.

Saying this, the Bharatiya Janata Party today tried to control the damage done by the public perception that on Monday, all parties, led by the Government, got together to try and find a way to nullify the Supreme Court order and the Election Commission's effort to clean up the electoral system.

The BJP spokesperson, Arun Jaitley, emphasised that the National Democratic Alliance Government had already introduced legislation in Parliament in several areas as part of the desire to bring in wide-ranging electoral reforms to cleanse the system of the adverse effect of black money, muscle-power and criminalisation of politics.

One legislation already introduced related to transparency in funding of political parties. It would allow donations by cheques and give tax benefits to donors while making compulsory the auditing of accounts of political parties. "This step was taken by the Government to eliminate the influence of black money in elections,'' Mr. Jaitley said.

Yet another piece of legislation pending before Parliament would give proxy voting rights to members of the armed forces. Currently, although they enjoy the right to vote through postal ballot, the system was not found satisfactory and in effect those posted on the borders were often unable to vote.

The BJP was also concerned about the increasing use of money power, especially in the Rajya Sabha elections, where the electoral college is limited to the Members of the Legislative Assembly of the State from where a vacancy arises.

The party was in favour of ``open voting'' rather than secret ballot, but this proposal has not yet been cleared by the standing committee, Mr Jaitley said.

However, what he did not say was that the argument against this is that a ``secret ballot'' is the essence of democracy.

If cross-voting occurs because of money-power, that is a problem the parties should themselves deal with by ensuring better discipline in their ranks.

The danger of allowing an "open vote'' for the Rajya Sabha elections is that similar demands will then be made in relation to the voting for the President, the Vice-President or other positions.

Mr. Jaitley admitted that the Supreme Court order had helped to "flag'' certain public concerns related to corruption and criminalisation of politics. What the BJP wanted to underline was that "even correct measures required for cleansing politics have to be taken by the correct constitutional process''.

In short, legislation must be done by Parliament, and those powers cannot be allowed to be encroached upon either by the Court or by bodies like the Election Commission.

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