Degeneration of Indian Democracy (Part V)

The Indian Democracy is plagued by some important maladies in the course of the elections whether it be general election meant for parliament or an assembly or even for a local body like Corporation,Municipality, village panchayat or even a ward etc.There is a general apathy among the eligible voters who wantonly desist from voting in the election, because of ignorance due to illiteracy, lack of awareness, for fear of facing any violence, etc.Sustained campaign among the people to raise their awareness,ensuring law and order to dispel any such fear from them etc will remove these maladies to a large extent.

Some of the most disturbing features  during an election in a democracy like  India are booth capturing and bogus voting etc.The Election Commission in India is doing its yeomen service to ensure free and fair elctions and the issue of ID cards to voters with their photographs and revising the voters list appended with the photographs of the voters will largely get rid of such maladies and will be a nightmare to those mischief-mongers who specialise in large scale bogus voting with the blessing of political parties.It is disheartening to note that there are some ministers in Tamil Nadu who are specialists in bogus voting and  they would be deputed to the concerned constituencies where the chances are bleak for a ruling party !

It is a most horrible factor and difficult to digest, for instance, during the elections held to the Corporation of Chennai recently, the political  parties especially the ruling party managed to secure a number of anti-social elements  released from prisons on parole so as to create terror among the people either to keep them at home or to indulge in all sorts of  malpractices in the course of the elections like bogus voting, booth capturing and voting en mass in favour of a party.It is also well known that the entire opposition boycotted the said elections, though the ruling party ordered for re-election bowing to the criticisms of the high court in a public interest litigation filed by an activist. In order to avoid such serious crimes and ensure free and fair poll, it is the duty of election commission to plug such serious loopeholes, by imposing a total ban of releasing the anti-social elements on parole from the prisons  prior to and in the course of the elections.