‘Citizenship responsibility will lead to democracy in country’

There is no internal democracy in any political group in the country – Jhokar

Indore(Team Newsbuddy): Former director of IIM Ahmedabad Jagdeep Jhokar has said that when the citizens of our country realize the responsibility of being citizens, then democracy will come in reality in our country. The political parties that exist at present are actually political groups and there is no internal democracy in any of these parties.

He was addressing the 64th summer lecture series of Abhyas Mandal here today in the Jaal Auditorium. The topic of his address was – Democracy and Elections in India. He is working on democracy and elections through the Association of Democratic Reforms. He said that when we had filed a petition in the Delhi High Court and requested that the people of the country should know what is the criminal record of the person contesting the election? On this petition, the court issued a direction and also asked to provide information about the financial background of the candidate contesting the election. There was no consensus between the Election Commission and the Government of India in following this directive. At that time we saw that all the political parties had united to stop the implementation of the court’s decision.

He asked the audience present at the venue that who elects the government in the country? The answer came that we, the citizens of the country, elect it. Then it was asked that what do we do when we go to the polling booth on the day of voting? The answer came that we vote. On this a question was asked that can we vote for anyone? The answer came that no, we can vote for any of the candidates. Then the question was raised that who decides who the candidate is, the answer came that the political parties decide. Then a question was asked that can the candidate elected by us by giving our votes express his opinion or vote on any proposal in the Parliament or Assembly as per his wish? The answer came that no. He will have to vote as per the whip of his party.

Putting forward all these facts, Jhokar said that this is why it is said that our country’s democracy is hollow. Our country is not a democratic country in reality. We are under the illusion that our country is a democratic country.

He said that democracy cannot come to our country until the citizens of our country do not realize their responsibility as citizens. There is no political group known as a political party that has internal democracy.

He said that elections in our country are conducted through EVMs, this machine is a balloting unit with control unit, VVPAT and symbol loading unit attached to it. How well this machine works can be gauged from the fact that there is a difference in the number of votes cast and the number of winning votes counted. On the day of voting, it is told that 61% voting has taken place and after 11 days it is known that 66% voting has taken place. There is a mess in the election process at every level. If we think that political parties will fix this mess then we are wrong.
Presiding over this program, Vice Chancellor of Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya Prof. Rakesh Singhai said that if there is anything democratic in the current election system in our country, it is NOTA. There is no point in voting for it. Democracy was brought in Nepal by removing monarchy and now the citizens of the same country are saying that they want monarchy back. There are only two parties in America. There are many parties in our country.

In the beginning, the guests were welcomed by Netaji Mohite, Dr. Jitendra Jakhetia, Yash Jaiswal, retired ADG Anil Kumar, Dilip Waghela and Mayank Sharma. Souvenirs were given to the guests by Nisha Dubey and Dilip Dev. The program was conducted by Grishma Trivedi. In the end, Ashok Kothari expressed his gratitude. Dr. Vishakha Kutumbhale, Jeevan Sahu, Anil Bhoje, PC Sharma were present.