In the article," Six remedies to fix Indian politicians" Kannan Kasturi (Times of India, Nov.22,2009) has proposed some remedies to make our politicians accountable to the citizens of the country. The six remedies are : power to recall; the negatve vote; prosecution of public servants without prior sanction of the governments; stopping spending money exceeding the limit set by the Election Commission, punishment for supplying false information by the candidates and transparency in funding the political parties; information on government departments on its website; and legislators to be more accountable to the people rather than to the political parties.
Internal democracy in all the parties to be supervised by the Election Commission, funds of parties to be audited by Auditor General of India and published in newspapers, putting all decisions and expenditure on social and economic development on the website of the government, corruption charges on politicians and bureaucrats to be inquired into and to proceed against them if there is a prima facie case within a short period would largely ensure better governance and accountability.
The politicians would not initiate such measures and the Election Commission and the Supreme Court can only suggest. Who is going to bell the cat ? The buck stops at the door of the citizens. It is high time that all men of good will join together and agitate through public meetings, distribution of leaflets, seminars and signature campaign to reform our public life and make it accountable to the people. After 62 years of independence, at least 25 percent of the people are below the poverty line, half the country is without electricity and water and more than 60 percent of the people depend on agriculture which contributes only about 20 percent of the GDP. Farmers commit suicide and adivasis are starving. Almost 50 percent of the people in Mumbai live in slums. This is all due to the greed of the politicians and the lack of vigilance by the citizens.
November 23,2009.
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