Nowadays I have started reading the Indian Express news website for India related current affairs news and I am delighted with the improvements they have made. Improvements are in terms of the content and the presentation. Going a long way back, it was my dad's favourite newspaper and he used to be really on top of it. It was the main newspaper which was against the ruling Congress and had the guns to put them on the spot repeatedly. It was highlighted during Ram Jethmalani's Bofors tirade against the then PM Rajiv Gandhi. After those highs, the newspaper lost its way and the quality came down. Also, the Times Of India marketed so well that IE lost a lot of ground, especially in Bangalore. It is very heartening to see the progress they have made now and the quality of writing of the various columnists is excellent. IE is now striking a balance between good quality grounded journalism and sensationalism.
Going thro' the website a couple of days back, I was reading the interview of Shekar Gupta with the Chief Election Comissioner (CEC) N Gopalaswami in the walk-the-talk and I came across a couple of landmark initiatives that the CEC is proposing. The CEC has become one of the most efficient and disciplined organisations in India and the way they are conducting free and fair elections all across the country is a tribute to them. T.N. Seshan started it all and they have not looked back since. This interview was in the background of the UP elections which was conducted over 7 stages.
Going thro' the website a couple of days back, I was reading the interview of Shekar Gupta with the Chief Election Comissioner (CEC) N Gopalaswami in the walk-the-talk and I came across a couple of landmark initiatives that the CEC is proposing. The CEC has become one of the most efficient and disciplined organisations in India and the way they are conducting free and fair elections all across the country is a tribute to them. T.N. Seshan started it all and they have not looked back since. This interview was in the background of the UP elections which was conducted over 7 stages.
One of the suggestions of the CEC was to eliminate any candidates having any kind of criminal record from contesting the election. Currently, about 15% of the candidates contesting have a criminal record which is quite sad. The second suggestion that he gave was very interesting in that instead of having just one round and the guy with the most votes win, there should be a second round between the top two candidates in the first round (similar to elections in France that happened recently). The reason for that is multifold.
1. Less than 50% of the eligible voters are casting their vote and the winner gets even less than 30% votes of the total electorate and he is representing all those people. This totally does not make sense.
2. This will change the fabric of the election where two candidates have to appeal to a wider range of people in order to get votes. Caste and religious politics will automatically reduce. For example, currently the scenario is that in a constituency if people from a particular community are about 40% strength, then a candidate from that community will more or less win most of the times.
Indian politics is slowly changing for the good and hope it picks up momentum and most importantly the people should rise to the ocassion and demand changes.
