The Rediff Interview/ Ramaswamy Venkataraman
'I think the only solution for the present crisis is a national government'
But that is not good for the country.
No, it is not good for the country. I have a number of solutions
to offer. But who will accept it (laughs) One is that the party
which gets the least number of votes in the general election
must be eliminated. Then, five parties will become four and four
parties will become three, and in the next election, the three
parties will become two.
For this solution, you must also not
allow future registration of any parties. You should also provide
that the party which gets the least number votes in each general
election must be disbanded until the number is reduced to two parties.
These are my suggestions. Some people may say that it
offends Article 19 of the Constitution, the Freedom of Association.
Today, the electorate does not realise that at a general election,
they are electing a government for themselves. They look upon
it as an occasion to exercise patronage in favour of a particular
caste, co-religionist, a neighbour and so on.
If an electorate
refuses to elect a criminal, if an electorate refuses to elect
a person who grasshoppers from party to party, if an electorate
refuses to elect a person with a bad reputation, a corrupt man
or a bad man, then politics will be cleansed. But the electorate
continues to elect a person who is a criminal, continues to elect
a person who has the reputation as a corrupt man.
So what is really
required is the education of the electorate. They should realise
that they are electing a government for themselves and they are
not distributing a favour. It will take a long time to educate
the electorate. We are talking about United Kingdom and Europe,
but they had also gone through all these trials and tribulations
for 800 years. A prime minister like Walpole said, every
man has his price. From that position, they have reached maturity.
Now a Walpole cannot be elected.
Now we see regional parties with a regional outlook coming
to the Centre. Is it because a party like the Congress which has
a national perspective has deteriorated that people are voting
for regional parties at the Centre?
As I said earlier, the electorate must feel that they must
have a strong Centre. Today, the electorate is feeling that more
power should be given to the state, from there to the panchayat
and so on. So long as this attitude stays, it will be very difficult
to have a strong Centre.
The electorate must be able to synthesise
these two ideas. Decentralisation with a strong Centre to defend
the country, manage foreign affairs, manage the currency,
manage the economy through planning is needed. In other matters
like education, health etc, the states should have more power.
Even politicians are not clear about this. Either they swing to
one side or to the other.
What we conceived at the time of framing
the Constitution was a centralised federalism, a federalism in
which the Centre is strong. That is not realised by our people.
You said you are a pessimist and foresee a fresh election.
Suppose no single party gets a majority, will this not be repeated?
You should go on holding elections.
Till the electorate understands?
Yes, till the electorate understands. If a general election is
called in three months time, politicians will have to go to the
electorate again. People will ask, 'We voted for you only three
months back. Why do you come back?' Then, the parties will have
to explain that they did not vote for a majority to a single party,
and then nobody could form a government.
Soon after the election, when we had a hung Parliament, you
spoke about a national government as an alternative. Why is it
that no politician is interested in this?
Because everybody wants to be prime minister when we can
have only one prime Minister. I think the only solution for the
present crisis is a national government. You cannot say that one
party is untouchable. What has happened today is that some people
say the BJP is untouchable while to some others the Left Front
is untouchable. The result is we break into groups.
On the other
hand, the crisis is such that it calls for a great deal of abnegation
on the part of politicians. They should sink all their differences
and come together. It can be done in one way. Informally, the Speaker
can call the members of Parliament and ask them to elect a leader
by a single transferable vote, or ask them to vote for whomsoever
they want to.
And if nobody gets 51 per cent of the votes, we
can have a run-off between the first two top candidates so that
one of them will be chosen. He may become the prime minister and
he can approach the President with an offer to form a government.
How will he pick up the ministers?
I will come to that. Like the Public Accounts Committee or
the Estimates Committee which are elected on proportional representation,
the Council of Ministers can be elected in the same manner. That
is, in proportion to the strength of the party in the House. If
this is done, the prime minister will have the authority to allot
the portfolios. Nobody can dictate to him.
Decisions in the council
of ministers will be taken by a majority of the ministers. If they try this experiment
for a year or two, and
when the situation becomes normal or when people think it
is time to seek a mandate from the people, they can agree among
themselves and ask for the dissolution of the House.
Can we afford to have elections at such short intervals?
Elections are the only way of educating the electorate
But elections are a very costly affair and we are a poor country.
Democracy is costly.
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