Election Commissioner Hari Shankar Brahma, in a conversation with Bureaucracy Today talks about the need to cleanse politics of money and muscle powerCleansing politics has been one of themost talked-about subjects for such a long time that one doesn’t really remember when did it kick-start. Today, especially when elections come knocking at our doorstep all of us, including civil societies, suddenlywake up and talk all over again of the need to curb the use of money andmuscle power during polls. Our eyes collectively dart towards the Election Commission expecting it to produce some kind of magic wand andmake all the ills that plague the poll process disappear,whilewe comfortably sit at home and do nothing about it.
Election Commissioner of India Hari Shankar Brahma, however, feels that if we want to clean politics of money and muscle power it will then have to be a people’s movement. He said, “The ElectionCommission is doing its best to curb the use of money andmuscle power during elections, but the result can only be limited, so people have to play a major role if it is to bemade effective.” Talking to Bureaucracy Today during his whirlwind tour of Shillong, Brahma said, “The Election Commission is hoping that this Government will table a Bill in Parliament to debar people with criminal antecedents from fighting the elections”.
PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT
Giving an example of how people’s movement for “clean politics” can have an impact, Brahma reminded of the last Mizoram Assembly elections when youths and the church played a major role in curbing both money and muscle power. He said, “The Election Commission received a complaint from Mizoram that youths and church leaders were stopping candidates of all political parties from house-to-house campaigning.”
He said the Election Commission took the complaint seriously as such obstruction was viewed against the law. A team was deputed from the Commission to Mizoram. But when the team reported to its New Delhi office that youths and church leaders were stopping the distribution of money and alcohol to families, the Commission just kept quiet.
Mizoram youths and church leaders had constructed a common platform in the bazaar and asked all the candidates to canvass there. Brahma said, “You see candidates used to distribute money and liquor during house-to- house campaigning, so when this was stopped enticing voters by giving them cash also stopped.” Brahma conceded that the Election Commission’s effort to put a stop on the use of money during elections by putting a slab had very little impact as “money and muscle power continues to play a major role” in Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Brahma felt that if citizens in other States are really concerned about the use of money and muscle power, they should also follow the Mizoram model. He was of the opinion that whenever the people rise in protest against some “misdoing” it has an immediate impact.
