Times of India: New Delhi: Friday, October 25, 2013.
While admiring people’s movements to ‘Reclaim the
streets’ or ‘Occupy Wall Street’ in protest against glaring inequities in
private interest-driven consumer economies, we have often been oblivious to the
slow but steady “occupation of our democracy” by political parties. This is
evident from the gradual reduction in the number of citizens who get elected on
their own steam without a ticket from a political party.
Yet, when political parties portray themselves as
private and voluntary associations entitled to the veil of secrecy in order to
avoid the gaze of the very people they claim to represent, their intentions as
well as their commitment to democracy must be questioned. But for the pressure
mounted by civil society and the media, they would have already amended the RTI
Act to prevent people from holding them accountable between elections.
Yes, political parties are not agencies of the
State but there is no denying they are the instrumentality for exercising the
sovereign power to make laws, authorise the collection of taxes and chart the
collective destiny of the people. In Kuldip Nayar vs Union of India, the
Supreme Court recognised this crucial link between political parties and our
democracy when it declared that the multiparty system is an inherent part of
the basic structure of our Constitution.
A plain reading of the Tenth Schedule inserted in
our Constitution to ensure the dominance of political parties over the words
and actions of the people who represent us in Parliament makes it abundantly
clear that they are bodies constituted under the fundamental law of the land. A
political party is not worth its name and will have no symbol with which to
identify unless recognised under the Representation of the People Act. These
are the reasons why political parties should be directly accountable to the
people and not because of the pittance they receive in the form of free air
time to advertise their promises before elections or the public land they use
to run their offices or the tax exemptions they claim.
Above and beyond the contributions they collect
from the public, political parties have a lot to account for both inside and
outside Parliament simply because they claim to be working for the public
interest. When the people we elect stall reformatory legislation such as the
Lokpal Bill or the Women’s Reservation Bill, should not the secretive party
whips be subject to public scrutiny? Rather than quietly swallow the
humiliation of having to read on the voting machine names of candidates accused
of murder, rape, fraud or corruption, should we not have the right to ask
political parties why we are called upon to choose from amongst them? Pressing
the button ‘none of the above’ (NOTA) is just a tame acceptance of this
effrontery.
By claiming that their rivals would acquire
foreknowledge of their political strategies through RTI, political parties
bring themselves down to the level of private interest groups, like companies
that compete with each other to sell soaps or fairness creams. Keeping them
under the RTI Act is the first step towards preventing the corporatisation of
our democracy. It is time We The People reoccupied our democracy.
Venkatesh Nayak works with
the Commonwealth Human Rights
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