A report by Bagish Jha in the Times of India, published on 28th August 2024, states that residents of more than 100 villages in Sohna and Tauru in Haryana held a Maha Panchayat and decided to oppose candidates from outside of their constituency, the Sohna assembly constituency. It was pointed out that none of the candidates who were elected as MLAs from this constituency from the year 1972 to date have been actual residents of the area. The meeting deplored the fact that none of the major political parties, whether ‘national’ or ‘regional’, give tickets to candidates who reside in the constituency.
Shri Deshraj Goyal, who chaired the meeting, said that “we want a representative who belongs to this place and lives among us”. The meeting decided to hold another meeting just before the last date for filing nominations to the election (September 12th, 2024) to select a candidate who would work for the development of the region.
This highlights some of the very pressing problems faced by citizens in India in respect of political power and representation. Elections at the national, state and even municipal and local levels are dominated by political parties that are backed by big money power. As is well known, such parties have fielded candidates with records of committing serious crimes, and some have not just been elected but also become ministers and the like.[i] Persons who have worked for the welfare of the people in any area, confronting the powers that be if need be, are usually not preferred as candidates by these parties, since their objective is to get elected in maximum number of constituencies by hook or by crook.
Before the voting, candidates appeal to the citizens of the constituency to vote for them, promising to take care of their interests. After the voting is over, though, the voters have absolutely no control over those who they have elected to represent them.
Those who get elected on the ticket of any political party, are bound by diktats known as ‘whips’ to toe exactly the party line on any matter being voted upon in the legislatures at all levels. The councillors, MLAs or MPs as the case may be, are not at all bound, except perhaps morally, to act in the best interests of the people who elected them to office! In practice, though some representatives may meet or mingle occasionally with the people of their constituencies, individually they have very little power to work in the best interests of their constituencies. In practice, people have absolutely no control those who are supposed to represent them, once they have cast their votes. They are really powerless.
If the fact that the legislatures themselves are not the ones controlling political power, is also considered, then the situation is even worse. As discussed in another piece on this website[ii] political power is not in the hands of the elected representatives as a whole, but in the hands of the executive.
One of the steps which could be taken to move towards empowerment of the people is similar to that suggested by the meeting of the 100+ villages in Sohna. It is the people of a constituency who must be able to decide who could contest elections to represent them. In other words, they must be able to select a set of candidates who can then contest the election.
Other steps such as giving the electorate the right to recall their representatives if they do not meet the expectations of the people of the constituency, do not perform their duties properly etc, could also be taken to move towards empowerment of the people
The fact that people from over a hundred villages in the Sohna area of Haryana got together to demand that only a person who lives amongst them can represent them is commendable. To address the problem of the near-complete political powerlessness of the people of India, it is necessary for all those who believe in peoples’ empowerment to vigorously discuss and fight for measures which will tackle this vexed problem.
BA and Venkatesh Sundaram
[i] 251 of newly elected Lok Sabha MPs face criminal cases, 27 convicted: ADR | Lok Sabha Elections News – Business Standard (business-standard.com)
[ii] https://lokraj.org.in/2024/07/07/on-the-concentration-of-powers-in-the-executive/
