& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

"For a Sixth Republic" Some comments

Article 70 has to be suitably amended so as to enable the MPs to speak out whatever they genuinely feel necessary to be spoken in the interest of the country (not filthy attack on each other).

M. Hafizuddin Khan
SYED Badrul Ahsan's identification of five Republics based on the history of evolution of the country's constitutional and political process appears to be plausible. Barring the free and fair elections held under the caretaker governments in the Fifth Republic one factor is common throughout all the Republics, which is lack of governance and gradual deterioration in the quality of politics. Establishment and stabilisation of democratic norms and culture has suffered all through. Despite our having four free, fair and credible elections in the Fifth Republic we rarely see prevalence of democratic governance.
What we have in the Fifth Republic is an elected dictatorship. All powers and authority lie in the hands of the prime minister. A democracy is essentially a government by consensus and presence of pluralism, but these are totally absent here. The political parties do not practice democracy in their composition and functioning. Naturally, we cannot expect a democratic behavioural pattern and democratic governance from them. So far, all sugges-tions/recommendations offered by the civil society and the international community have not yielded any result. Rather, almost all the state functionaries and institutions have deteriorated so much that some of them have become virtually rotten and cannot serve the purpose for which they exist.
The process of their becoming dysfunctional is constantly being willfully helped by the machinations of our political parties and their leadership without caring for the interest of the country and without realising that in the long run it will be totally detrimental to their own interest. This is because almost all the parties are myopic in their attitude; they don't see anything beyond their immediate gain.
Some important reforms in the electoral system - in the laws, regulations etc governing the election -introduced by the immediate past Election Commission after thorough discussion with the civil society and the political parties are yet to be implemented. The past Commission could not implement some of its own reform proposals due to the mounting pressure on it to hold the election for the ninth parliament as early as possible without insisting on implementation of their proposals in full.
We expected that the present Commission would take up those unimplemented proposals and, in addition, would also initiate implementation of other recommendations which the past Commission formulated on the basis of its experience and left for its successor to take up. All these were aimed at making the electoral process free from the rule of corruption, muscle, money and other malpractices which are now vitiating the elections.
Mr. Ahsan's proposal for a proportional representation system will definitely eliminate many of the current mal- practices which are not only eating into the vitals of the electoral system but also hindering the growth of sound democratic culture and governance. But given the attitude of our present political leadership it will be a far cry to expect that they will voluntarily opt for replacing the first-past-the-post system with the proportional representation one. Because doing so will warrant total change in their mindset, they will have to sacrifice their present tendency to grab political power or remain in power by any means -fair or foul - no matter how damaging the consequences for the country might be. What we can propose and launch movement for the following:
Firstly, the Election Commission, the Judiciary and the Public Service Commission should be constituted by a process of selection through parliamentary scrutiny in a transparent process, as has been advocated by Mr.Ahsan.
Secondly, to establish balance of power the president of the Republic should be elected by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of the Parliament, the Zila Parishads, Upazila Parishads, City Corporations/Municipalities and Union Parishads if not through direct election by adult franchise. This will provide some inherent strength to the office of the president. Mr. Ahsan's suggestion for direct election of the president on the basis of adult franchise may be difficult to sell to our politicians. However, the power of the president has to be increased so that a real balance of power and the rule of pluralism, a basic necessity for a democratic system, are established.
Thirdly, we totally agree with him that an MP should lose his seat in the parliament for absence from sittings without any credible cause for a maximum period of ten days. I propose that, in addition, in case of organised boycott of parliament sessions the MPs resorting to such practice should be unseated forthwith.
Fourthly, the principle of devolution of power between the central and the local governments and allocation of resources between them should not depend upon the whims of the rulers but on constitutional provisions. The elections of the local bodies should also be a constitutional responsibility of the EC, not dependent on the direction of the Local Government Division.
Finally, Article 70 has to be suitably amended so as to enable the MPs to speak out whatever they genuinely feel necessary to be spoken in the interest of the country (not filthy attack on each other). The Speaker, on being elected, should resign from the political party to which he belonged. Moreover, the prime minister should not simultaneously be the leader of the House and president of the political party to which he/she belongs.
How about reformulating his prescriptions for the Sixth Republic on the basis of the above suggestions?
The writer is a former adviser to a caretaker government.