Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Thank you Moonlight. Lot of people are pushing for the option of 'none of the above' on all ballot papers in elections. I do not think that it is going to solve the problem. Fewer and fewer people are bothering to cast their votes the world over. In India too educated and middle class people, especially under 30 years of age, have decided that elections are irrelevant because the choice is between different criminals who will continue with the same stupid policies. In India I do not think there is any minimum number that is required to get an MP elected. Theoretically there could be a situation where ninety out of only hundred people vote for a particular politician while five hundred thousand exercise the option of 'none of the others' but the politician will claim a landslide with ninety percent of the vote. No sharam or izzat. In our party system the party which controls the legislature forms the executive. The judiciary though independent is swamped with over 30 million cases still waiting to be heard. Moreover lawyers in India are completely without any ethics, know very little law and routinely take money to lose a cases. Only those students who cannot get into any good course take up law which means that the vast majority are rubbish and will do anything to survive. Besides this Westminster style of government was set up some four hundred years ago and needs to be updated. I think we need a fourth organ whose only assets will be its members and will be independent of politicians. Call them trade unions, citizens councils, whatever. There will be four or five such unions structured like companies with a CEO and a board elected from its members. Run out of space.

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