Should there be certain “selection criteria” for MPs?
As I read about Sanjay Dutt’s rousing welcome in Lucknow, I was remined of a brief email exchange with Dnyanesh from some days back. Dnyanesh asked me my thoughts on what should be the selection criteria for candidates contesting elections for Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies. I shared some ideas with him (below) but I don’t think these are either complete or the best.
I would like everyone’s inputs and suggestions on this…
My initial thoughts are:
Candidates must be able to satisfy the following criteria at the very least:
- Financially solvent
- Above 21 years of age
- Indian citizen
- Literate
Other proposed criteria (“nice to have”):
- Educated to at least higher secondary level
- If ever convicted for either a civil or criminal offense, at least two years have passed since their conviction and/or sentence being served
- Able to demonstrate professional competence or expertise in at least one area of public policy or management – either in the for-profit sector or NGO or government
- Fully conversant in English and at least one other official language of India
- Able to declare their assets and sources of income
- Able to declare their sources of funding (for the election campaign)
What do you think?
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Great thoughts there, Shantanu. Lets apply your standards to Mr. Dutt.
* Financially solvent -Check
–Dutt is bankrolled by the mafia and Amar Singh
* Above 21 years of age -Check
–At least on the passport, not sure mentally after his years of substance abuse.
* Indian citizen- Check
–At least one sure check, but is Nargis from India? Thought she was from Pakistan.
* Literate – Check?
–Gandhigiri sounds good in a movie, but not real life.
To participate in an MLA election, the person must be a graduate at least and in an MP election, the person must be a post graduate at least.
Government must sponsor each candidate and collect refunds + interest from those who lose. This will filter out candidates who are not definitely sure of winning and participate just for the heck of it.
If the above are implemented, I guess we can wipe out political corruption to a large extent.
@ Dirt-Digger: Thanks for kicking off the discussion…Sanjay Dutt will probably clear the “must” list but may not pass on the “nice to have” criteria…for that matter, a vast number of our parliamentarians will fail on those criteria…which is why I raised the question…Is there a better/ more realistic list?
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@ Ram: Degrees are useful but do not necessarily reflect knowledge (or wisdom!) – as I am sure you will agree.
Re. government sponsorship, I guess what you are thinking of is state funding for elections?
Oh Please!! We really need to exclude those who have been convicted of criminal charges. Thankfully, if that is done, maybe we can be rid of all these Laloo’s etc. forever.
We also need to have laws which prevent more than one member of a family holding a party post or having place in the government at a time.
When it is an unimportant task, call in the experts. But when it is something really significant, call in the commoners. That is what democracy is all about.
Remember, India is the only country in the world that had universal adult franchise from day one. So any act of exclusion is one step back for us. Applying criteria is a very dangerous demand, which arises from the minds of the educated. The basic reason for Jinnah’s dislike for the Congress was not religion (he was no Muslim), it was his discomfort at being with the great unwashed public.
I have seen poor illiterate women from SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association) conducting their activities with much more wisdom and dignity than us educated people. Any politician, if he is worth his salt needs to have been convicted of criminal and civil crimes. Otherwise, he is either a Government stooge or a rising son, none of whom augur well for us. A politician’s main duty is to press for change – this is destined to conflict with the aims of the Government. Our first Parliament was full of criminals and jailbirds, remember?
Why not let the people decide? After all, Indira Gandhi was thrown out in 1977 not by the educated elite but the great unwashed. If we can guarantee free and fair elections where people can cast their vote without fear, we do not need to fear that the wrong candidate can come in. And even if one such does come in, he only reflects the age.
Talk about corruption and wrong-doing. You think the politicians are responsible for everything? The whole bloody nation is corrupt and ninety five percent of the honest minority never had a choice. We had these young IAS/IPS officers writing poems about a corrupt Chief Minister. We had a young IAS officer on the cover page of Time, who later got caught stealing from the destitute. Not to say ill of the departed, but Goswami was a very good example. Brilliant management graduates carting around suitcases filled with cash and taking a cut from it. In Gujarat, we calculated that an honest IAS officer could be worth at least ten crores by the time he retired without stepping out of the bounds of what we called “acceptable levels of dishonesty”.
Oh, I do go on and on. Nargis’s mother was an Indian Muslim, and her father was a Hindu from Rawalpindi. She started acting in 1935, so we can safely call her Indian. Oh, and Sunil Dutt was ten times the man his son will ever be. Remember his padayatra through Punjab in those days? I remember that the daughter went along.
@Jayadevan
Very true what you said above “Criteria arises form the mind of the educated”
Regarding Amar Singh and Sanjay Dutt only I can say is “Mera Bharat Mahan” -Free and fair election is very far than it appears. Mindset of people has not been changed yet.
Jai Hind!
In my opinion the only entry criteria should be –
A person with a proven track record of leading a positive change in the society.
What about defining an exit criteria for them?
And junta should set the KRA’s for him/her to be achieved at the end of every year (not after 5 years)…A bad score first year should be a warning message…next year showing the way out..
Thanks,
Harapriya, Jayadevan, Indian and PS: Thanks…More on this soon.
Hi, I dont actually agree to all your statement, please allow me to explain.
“1. Educated to at least higher secondary level”
I dont agree here. We are still not a developed country in economic terms and many of us are illiterate, but should that stop a smart, good , man/woman from fighting against the problems in their constituency, for the betterment of his future generation, just because he did not complete his higher secondary exams?
“2. If ever convicted for either a civil or criminal offense, at least two years have passed since their conviction and/or sentence being served”
Oh yes I Agree completly on this
“3. Able to demonstrate professional competence or expertise in at least one area of public policy or management – either in the for-profit sector or NGO or government”
What professional competence are we talking about here?? We are not looking for a CEO to run a company.
“4. Fully conversant in English and at least one other official language of India”
English? Really? Try telling that to the German, French , chinese, japanese and many other great leader of the world.
5. Able to declare their assets and sources of income
Agree
6. Able to declare their sources of funding (for the election campaign)
Agree
Thanks
I too agree with borneveryday on #4
Because in India many zealot parents go for vernacular medium of studies for their children. They learn English but very difficult to get that level of expertise over language.
What about refrences form the community about his or her moral or social standing in society? I dont know it is possible but just a thought.
In many countries one like N. america, volunteering in the society is essential part of their academic or political career. From school students start finding volunteering oppertunity to excel in every field. In that way they build strong foundation for serving the country.
Actually, it is time that we Indians stopped blaming a vague community called “politicians” for our problems. Every Indian citizen has an obligation to participate in politics.
The form of participation is via newspapers, blogs, television advertizing, and making telephone calls. In today’s internetworked world, nobody has any excuse. Everyone should make one’s voice felt in all the issues that concern oneself.
What we should be asking every Indian is how much of their personal income they have set aside for this participation in politics : is it at least 5% of their total annual income ?
When politics become strong, crooks will automatically be eliminated. This will not happen via a top-down selection criteria. More information on strong politics is here in my blog. Your comments are welcome there.
Pl. read this remark in the context of “Other Proposed Criteria (nice to have)” in the list above>
Sh Narayana Murthy, Infosys Founder:
Not getting rigid or going against speaking or learning English but keeping in mind Indians linguistic culture.
This is what came into my mind “let majoriy of the villagers who cant speak english get recruited as soldiers, do all sacrifices and lay down their life for motherland”. Because they dont know english so only option to serve the country is to become a soldier. Also regional politics and parties will gain strength.
I am just thinking, In past how many successful businessmen were MBA graduate? Wheren’t they successful?
Agree with Mr. Murthy on points relating to education.
Whatever Mr. Murthy has achieved is undoubtedly outstanding. But if he thinks that English is the only savior for the nation has no base.
Why not to develop something indigenous using local culture and language to offer employment?
Why we always want to look west for business?
Don’t we have that potential to be self relient?
Can we stop following such people who instead of promoting self-reliance always try to look out for support from outsiders?
I’m not anti-english or anti-west, but it just that we should not forget whatever we had (except some dark side, casteism).
Like Sanjay Dutt. He atleast tried to be a leader what about the rest of Indian who just scould the politician for their misdoing.
Time hs come to take stand on some polity and go strike to pursue it.
Let me give an example:
Everyone of us is aware of the fact that no terrorist cought has been punished in last 10 years. We all talk about this in friends, over dinner, chai, college kattas, but no one has taken it to roads by protesting it in open.
I propose to go hunger strike until such people are punished.
Who is with me?
Believe me everyone has that leader in oneself.
Jai Hind! Jai Maharashtra!