The Indian electoral rolls are once again in the news. The government wants to prepare a single roll for national, state and local elections to municipalities and panchayats. Currently, many states have separate rolls. One is maintained by the Central Election Commission (CEC) and used for the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections; the other is maintained by the respective State Election Commissions (SECs) and used for local elections. The issue has been discussed for a few decades; some Commissions have recommended it; a few states have already done it.

In principle, this is a good idea. The problem lies in the details. Electoral rolls of either type are not fully correct. There are errors of commission, when names that should not be there are included; there are errors of omission, where names are missing. It is impossible to estimate this, but pilot field surveys show that in urban areas these errors could be quite large. Both the CEC and SECs are constantly working on removing these errors and some progress has been made.

The recent pandemic has thrown up yet another variable to contend with, the millions of migrants. Where do they vote? Typically, elections are held in the summer when schools are closed. This is also the peak time for seasonal migration, for lack of agricultural work at this time of year. There are a large number of students who study in other cities and towns. There is also a sizeable white-collar urban migrant population, who go to other places for jobs. There has been some discussion of remote voting for all these groups. The administrative arrangements need to be worked out. However, voter ID fraud cannot be ignored, but it is beyond the issue of single electoral rolls.

The stated purpose of this exercise is to hold simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local elections. There is some election or the other almost every year in some part of the country, including by-elections, when seats fall vacant on the death of a representative or when s/he defects. Many states do not hold local elections at all for many years. Also, what do we do if a government falls? Several practical, legal and constitutional issues have to be sorted out.

Ignoring all this, the issue of single electoral rolls can still be considered. Most voters are not concerned about it as long as their name is included. Whether they actually vote on the day is another matter. There are two issues that are linked to this. One is the use of technology, especially the biometric ID Aadhaar, or something similar. The other is the CAA and NRC issue. Will people with voter IDs and names on electoral rolls be left out of the NRC register? Or vice versa? Will this end up in courts with aggrieved persons and groups asking for justice? Privacy and data security are also important. The information sits on the cloud and can potentially be hacked. Could an enemy country or some group with vested interests use this to their advantage? We already hear reports of this in other countries.

We also need to ask a simple question. The country is still facing massive health and economic upheavals due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Earlier, we had groups of people protesting for or against the CAA and NRC. In this situation, even if we decide that single voter rolls are worth it, we need to think whether this is the right time. Ironing out all the problems, some of which have been outlined earlier, will take time, money and effort. Implementation glitches may lead to legal challenges or public protests. At a national level, some legal or even constitutional changes may be necessary to persuade states to mandatorily follow a common electoral roll. Simultaneous elections will require political management. Is this the most pressing issue of the day? Aren’t resources of time, money and the government bureaucracy better utilised trying to shepherd the nation out of the biggest crisis we face today?

The article was originally published in India Today.

First we need to understand why this is happening. The answer is simple: the primary goal of political parties is to capture power, and they use all the means at their disposal to obtain power. Power brings money, privileges, and control of the treasury. The total budgeted expenditure of the Central government for 2019-20 is ₹27.86 lakh crore. So, the stakes are high.

Political parties in power are supposed to deliver good governance and serve the public, but
usually power becomes an end in itself. The fact that more and more freebies are being
provided nowadays clearly shows that public funds are being used by those in power to lure
voters, and are not necessarily being used for public service.

Let us look at a few important ways in which the power game is played out in India. In Delhi, hate speeches delivered by a few members of a political party did not help that party come to power. But that is not the issue — in another State, in another election, this tactic may work.

There are two factors that strengthen the growing deterioration in the quality of campaigns. One is the rapidly increasing criminalisation of politics. In 2019, the Lok Sabha had 43% MPs with a criminal record, up from about 23% in 2004. Political parties that give tickets to such candidates are directly responsible for this. The other factor is the widespread use of social media to spread fake news during an election campaign. Most of what is online consists of abuse of rivals and vilification of Opposition parties.
Money also fuels much of what we see today. It was money that was responsible for the defections in Karnataka in 2019, and in Madhya Pradesh recently. The practice of whisking away MLAs to distant resorts to prevent them from being lured away by the Opposition is unique to India. Who is elected or which party wins does not seem to matter any longer. In this game, those with money and the ability to engineer defections can always come to power.

Two factors contribute to this open use of money to topple governments. One is the total lack of transparency in the funding of political parties. Electoral bonds have made it even more difficult to trace the source of funds of political parties. The second is that political parties in power have complete hold over law and order. A corporate scamster is arrested when the money trail is discovered, but no effort is taken to trace the money trail during massive defections.
Good governance needs democracy. But today, hardly any political party in India is internally democratic. They are fully controlled by a small ruling clique. Finances are raised and used in a completely opaque way. The situation is ripe for a small group of enterprising persons to raise funds and capture power and then exercise it without accountability. The use of muscle and money power makes re-elections possible. Parties that try to win power based on a track record of good governance show mixed results.

Consequences

So, we have the root cause of the problem: the goal of political power without adequate transparency and accountability. Before we come to the remedies, we need to understand the consequences of the system we have today. All governments, whether Central or State, are in financial difficulty. More than 25% of the Central Budget is spent on paying interest on money borrowed by the government. Then there is deficit financing. The Central government has made efforts to bring it down, but has not been able to meet its targets. India’s fiscal deficit is among the highest in the developing world, with the IMF estimating it to be 7.5% of the GDP in 2019. State government finances are worse: a substantial amount is spent on salaries and pensions. Then we have the huge problem in the financial sector with banks, non-banking financial companies and ILFS going almost into liquidation. That means that a lot of the public’s money is either gone or is under great risk. Is there a link between the use of election funds and non-performing assets in banks? Other manifestations of these problems are an increasing number of government scams; corruption; growing fear and insecurity; average or poor governance, including public services provided by the government; and rising unemployment. How can we really expect good services for the taxes we pay if 43% of MPs have criminal cases against them?

The way forward

India needs a system that throws up parties and politicians whose primary goal is public service, not power. Mahatma Gandhi suggested a way: “Democracy is an impossible thing until power is shared by all… Even … a labourer, who makes it possible for you to earn your living, will have his share in self-government.”
That goal of having enlightened politicians who feel answerable to the people is perhaps distant. For now, we need democratic, accountable and transparent political parties. We need to check the use of muscle and money power. Politicians in the ruling party are rarely, if ever, arrested, and old cases against them are even withdrawn. Sometimes no action is taken against those making hate speeches. Only rival politicians are targeted. This shows that the police follows the orders of their political masters. Therefore, police reforms are required. As a quick fix for misuse of money power and engineered defections, a forensic audit by an independent agency should be mandatory when MLAs defect to other parties. As the famous Watergate dictum goes, we need to “follow the money”. That alone can restore public confidence in democracy.
Above all, we need political party reforms that make parties transparent, accountable and democratic. But we are in a logjam: those who can reform the system do not want to. Voters are no doubt getting educated rapidly, but they are not in a position to bring about inner change in the electoral and political system merely through voting. Some kind of citizen action to raise awareness may be required. Otherwise things will have to get worse before they get better.

The article was originally published on The Hindu.

Extensive reach and greater impact of social media have been considered the primary reason for its popularity among the candidates and political parties for political campaigning. Another important factor is the monetary aspect of social media campaigning. Campaigning through Social media is relatively economical with respect to other conventional methods such as rallies, processions, usage of print and electronic media etc. According to the survey conducted by the Centre for Media Studies, even though social media was extensively used by political parties for campaigning during the Lok Sabha 2019 elections, yet digital ads amounted to less than 1% of their expenditure.

It is noteworthy that this is limited to the expenditure incurred through the official accounts for the campaigning. However, political parties and candidates are campaigning more than what could be tracked and accounted. This kind of political campaigning is executed through ‘viral-posts’ campaigning. In such cases, these posts/tweets are shared by party followers, social media influencers and pages which are not directly related to the party or the candidates. Thus, it becomes difficult to track these activities under election expenditure incurred by political parties and candidates on social media. Campaigning of this nature works to the benefit of the parties and candidates who cannot account for such indirect publicity under their election campaign expenditure. Further, such content is also seen as more influential for the voters than digital ads.

Addressing this additional mode of campaigning through social media, the Election Commission of India issued a guideline to be taken to monitor activities and expenditure incurred by political parties and candidates on social media campaigning. Such measures include:

• Application of model code of conduct to social media campaigning
• Inclusion of online campaigning expenditure in election expenditure statements of political parties and candidates.
• One Social media expert to be a part of district and state level of Media Certification and Monitoring Committees

Keeping in mind the current scenario, it is crucial to contemplate the changing nature of campaigning and election expenditure through social media and to which extent social media will affect the overall cost of election campaigning.