Indian economy
is the best economy …… those of us who see Tamil cinema
regularly know this dialogue too well…. ‘India is the
biggest democracy and Indian elections are the biggest exercise’
………….the 16th Lok Sabha elections will
commence on April 7 and end on May 12 –
the largest election of the globe is to be conducted in 9 phases. 850 million are the eligible number of
persons who can cast their votes, in which 100 million new voters have been
added since the last elections in 2009. Out of total voters, 47.6% are females
and 52.4% are male.
Something
which has negligibly changed over a period of time is the number of women in
the political sphere of India. After so much of talk and fight, the Women
reservation bill is yet to be passed.
Among the glamour quotient is Gul Panag who once competed the Miss
Universe contesting on AAP ticket from Chandigarh. Divya Spandana, known by her stage name
Ramya, from Mandya constituency and Nagma from Meerut ~ and there is Smriti
Irani, the woman who played the quintessential daughter-in-law for Ekta
Kapoor's Balaji telefilms challenging Rahul Gandhi at Amethi.
The JD(S) received a major
setback on Saturday when its candidate from Uttara Kannada Lok Sabha constituency,
Shivanand Naik, withdrew his nomination after claiming he did not have the
finances to fight the elections. JD(S) now does not have candidates in two
constituencies — Koppal and Uttara Kannada. The party has also not fielded a
candidate for Dakshina Kannada and has extended its support to the Social
Democratic Party of India (SDPI) candidate.
Article 84
(b) of Constitution of India provides that the minimum age for becoming a
candidate for Lok Sabha election shall be 25 years ~ and there are not many
regulations which sometimes make elections a mockery ….
One such is the attempt of
Dr K Padmarajan who has been tilting the windmills ever since 1988. The 55-year-old homoeopath-turned-businessman
is celebrating the silver jubilee year of his unusual hobby of filing
nominations. He has filed nomination papers against prime ministers, Central
ministers, chief ministers, and even contested the presidential polls.Dr.
Padmarajan, who has a successful tyre retreading business at Raman Nagar at
Mettur in Salem district of Tamil Nadu, no longer practises homoeopathy. He has filed nomination in Presidential
Elections, Rajya Sabha elections and now against Na Mo at Varanasi. He has lost more than 12 lakhs; sometimes
rejected on technical grounds – but getting a place in Limca books and the
publicity that it gets, makes him going.
He considers his 157 electoral battles across the country over the last
25 years, forfeiting his deposit in each of them, as a celebration of Indian
democracy.
As per Section 34 1 (a) of
R. P. Act, 1951, every candidate is required to make a security deposit of Rs.
25,000/- (Rupees Twenty five Thousand Only) for Lok Sabha elections. The same
section 34 of R. P. Act, 1951 provides that a candidate belonging to Scheduled
Caste and Scheduled Tribe is required to make a security deposit of Rs. 12,500
(Rupees Twelve Thousand five hundred Only). A defeated candidate who fails to
secure more than one sixth of the valid votes polled in the constituency will
lose his security deposit.
Then there are
some who just for the sake of publicity try out some calling it ‘novel’ –
paying the deposit with coins, making the EC officials lose time in counting is
one such childish attempt.
Then there is the no. of candidates… and the name of candidates…. As written
earlier, EVMs can cater to a maximum of 64 candidates. There are reports that
Congress heavyweight Ajit Jogi, might be planning a comedy of errors to romp
home in Mahasamund Lok Sabha constituency. To unseat sitting BJP MP Chandulal
Sahu, at least 10 independent candidates with sobriquet of ‘Sahu’ have filed
their nomination from the seat. At least six among 38 contestants in fray have
identical names of the BJP nominee and four others had similar sounding names.
One can recall that in
1996 in Nalgonda Parliamentary constituency total of 480 candidates filed their
nominations - only four candidates were from recognized parties; rest were all
independents. Most of these independents were contesting as part of an
agitation demanding implementation of Srisailam Left Bank Canal project and
drinking water supply scheme for fluoride affected villages in Nalgonda
district. In 1999, Nalgonda again created a record when 444 persons were
debarred from contesting the Lok Sabha elections for their failure to submit
details of election expenditure incurred by them during earlier elections. Of
the 444 persons debarred, 436 had contested Lok Sabha elections in 1996.
Remember that such a thing happened in Tamil Nadu too once….
Then there
is one party which prides its anarchist measures. In Dec 2013, many
were happy when AAP won 28 seats in Delhi assembly elections – but all
expectations ran dry as they formed Govt with the very support of Congress whom
they had vehemently opposed….then after 49 days of chaos and mayhem, it ended
on its own but allegations were made that the Opposition brought them down so
as to gain sympathy. In between the Law
Minister made a stir in the night against African ladies and now comes the news
that National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Delhi Police to
take action against former Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti for his midnight
raid in Khirki Extension. Meantime, Arvind Kejriwal continues to call everyone
corrupt, likes to make slanderous charges against rival politicians, is always
eager for a streetfight, a mild provocation away from another dharna and
believes in unorthodox tools like spycams, stings and public singing.
Another anarchism was AAP
rewarding those who had supported them and refused to pay their power bills
during AAP's agitation; the Cabinet then
decided to give the agitators a 50 per
cent relief on their pending bills and also waived the penalty ! ~ so those who
paid their bills properly were made fools.
Now at Chandigarh he asked the
people to "loot" rotikapda (food and clothes) from BJP and Congress
candidates. According to Daily Mail - "There is no harm in looting the
looters. Accept if they (rivals) offer food and clothes during the poll but
refuse to accept liquor," said Kejriwal, who was addressing the people of
Dhanas, a slum area in Chandigarh.
Kejriwal appealed the
people to vote for AAP's Chandigarh candidate Gul Panag and said she wants to
serve the city and is contesting against corruption. Besides Dhanas, Kejriwal
addressed gatherings at Hallomajra, Ramdarbar and Deep Complex. His cavalcade
comprised over 100 vehicles and a large number of AAP supporters.
Well, Indian
economy is the best economy and Indian democracy is the biggest democracy.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
Photos courtesy :
dinamalar.com
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