The Hindu : Go into causative factors for ills, says Governor

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 23, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Go into causative factors for ills, says Governor

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI June 22. The Governor, P.S.Ramamohan Rao, today said the causative factors for the ills afflicting the electoral system, rather than the symptoms, should be looked into.

Inaugurating a southern regional conference on ``electoral reforms'' organised by the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) here, he asked: ``Are we looking at the electoral reforms from the angle of consequences from symptoms and not from the angle of causative factors''? The aberrations in the system were only well known and if one looked at the symptoms, perhaps one would miss the bus. The causative factors should be looked at and solutions found.

Mr. Rao prefaced his speech, saying the subject of the conference was ``topical, but contentious''.

A plethora of studies on reforming the electoral process had been done in the past and the latest was the one by the Venkatachaliah Commission. The ``incentives that make political parties'' distort the electoral process should be analysed.

The Governor also wanted the audience to discuss why there was a great multiplicity of parties and reasons for instability of governments. Unstable governments were not restricted to smaller States but the problem plagued bigger ones also. This was due to multiplicity of parties, each of which with its numbers in the Assemblies and Parliament could make or undo a government.

Mr. Rao said the basic need was for the parties to reform themselves. Whether overlapping of the legislature and the executive was one of the reasons for the multiplicity of parties and whether the existing system was conducive to evolution or development of good leaders and statesmen should be looked into.

P.L. Sanjeev Reddy, Director, IIPA, New Delhi, said a strong political will to usher in changes, voter awareness campaigns, a massive undoing of mischief and a comprehensive national debate to form credible innovations were needed as part of the efforts at electoral reforms.

The institute chairman, Tamil Nadu regional branch, K.Malaisamy, MP, said the country witnessed free and fair elections in the first two decades after Independence. Later, the situation changed with various factors, including ``money power, muscle power and media power, raising their ugly heads''. Political parties should play an important role in the electoral reforms, he noted.

The vice-chairman, E. Dasaradhan, and the secretary, N. Sethuraman, spoke.

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