Democracy is a concept, a political philosophy, an ideal practiced by the resorting to governance by representatives of the people elected directly or indirectly. But electing representatives to govern is neither a ‘fundamental right’ nor a ‘common right’, but a special right created by the statutes, or a ‘political right’ or ‘privilege’ and not a ‘natural’, ‘absolute’ or ‘vested right’. ‘Concepts familiar to common law and equity must remain stranger to election law unless statutorily recognised’. Right to remove an elected representative, too, must stem out of the statute as in the absence of a constitutional restriction it is within the power of a legislature to enact a law for the recall of the officers. It’s existence or validity can be decided on the provision of the Representation of People’s Act and not as a matter of policy. Recently BMW( Behan Maya Wati) has withdrawn her support to UPA coalition, which is another glaring example of blackmailing by the coalition supporters. Does this means that you are supporting any coalition for your own profits and not for the countrymen.
For democracy to survive, rule of law must prevail, and it is necessary that the best available men should be chosen as people’s representatives for proper governance of the country. This can be best achieved through men of high moral and ethical values who win the elections on a positive vote obtained on their own merit and not by the negative vote of process of elimination based on comparative demerits of the candidates. It is also necessary that the impact of money power which has eliminated from electoral contest many men of undoubted ability and credibility for want of requisite financial support should be able to reenter the field to make the people’s choice meaningful. This can be achieved only if elections are contested on positive vote and the comparison is between the merits and abilities of the contestants without the influence of power and pelf and not between their comparative demerits and the support of money power. Apart from the other adverse consequences, the growing influence of money power has also the effect of promoting criminalisation of politics.
(Election Law – Gulshan Tanwar, Singhal Law Publications, Delhi)
