Behavior of Congress and BJP – in the Lok Sabha Elections - where are we going as a nation ?

India’s first election was held in 1952, followed by 18 Lok Sabha ?elections till 2024. The no of political parties have increased over time with different ideologies.

Congress ruled the country as is evident from the following chart

§? Jawaharlal Nehru?15 August 1947 to 27 May 1964 (16 years, 286 days)

§? Gulzarilal Nanda?27 May 1964 to 9 June 1964 (13 days)

§? Lal Bahadur Shastri?9 June 1964 to 11 January 1966 (1 year, 216 days)

§? Gulzarilal Nanda?11 January 1966 to 24 January 1966 (13 days)

§? Indira Gandhi?24 January 1966 to 24 March 1977 (11 years, 59 days)

§? Indira Gandhi?14 January 1980 to 31 October 1984 (4 years, 291 days)

§? Rajiv Gandhi?31 October 1984 to 2 December 1989 (5 years, 32 days)

§? Chandra Shekhar?<alliance with INC> 10 November 1990 to 21 June 1991 (223 days)

§? P. V. Narasimha Rao?21 June 1991 to 16 May 1996 (4 years, 330 days)

§? Manmohan Singh?22 May 2004 to 26 May 2014 (10 years, 4 days)

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As we can see from the above data , Congress has ruled the country for about 54 years after independence

In the mid 1990s , the coalition form of governments came into being and once again one party? dominance by BJP came into from 2014 onwards The following chart shows the? no of seats won by

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In the initial years after independence, the leaders were from the freedom movement and hence the focus was on developing the nation , impart education, improve health, give good infrastructure, focus on foreign relations etc

But as the years rolled by, new breed of political parties and politicians came into being and the entire political parties enrolled ?criminals, who ?were inducted by the leaders of political parties

No of criminals in both parties in Lok Sabha in 2024

As many as 250(46%) of the 542 MPs have criminal cases against them at the time of filing the nominations (Source – Association of Democratic Reforms , India )

Another development which has a deep impact on the democratic process is the prevalence of money power in elections – Political parties openly started giving money to garner votes with other incentives like liquor, freebies etc at the time of elections

Money, freebies, ?drugs etc confiscated in the elections in 2024 (Source – ECI )- Rs 8890 Crs

1.?????? Cash????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 849

2.?????? Liquor???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 814

3.?????? Drugs??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 3958

4.?????? Precious metal??????????????????????????????????????????? 1260

5.?????? Freebies??????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????2006

• Earlier the voting was done manually which had huge booth capturing, bogus voting etc, which was eradicated to a large extent after the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) came into force,
• EVMs were first used in 70-Parur Assembly Constituency of Kerala in the year 1982.
• Parliament passed a constitutional amendment allowing the use of EVMs.
• The machines were first used in general elections of Lok Sabha in 2004?

Another major development was the political parties were in the iron grip of political families in each state? even though they won the elections in a democratic manner through the voting process

In the elections 2024, we witnessed very bad language and very objectionable use of language by both the main parties which lowered the dignity of the election process itself as it took the voters ?low level of campaigning both by the ruling BJP as well as the principal opposition parties INC

We give below some of the utterances during the electioneering – This indicated that the tone of the quality of campaigning has gone to deep rut which is evident in the language used by both parties

Both the Major Political Parties - INC and BJP made a lot of comments which is not expected in a civil society .Now let me narrate some of them on both sides BJP - Mangal Sutra will be snatched away - Congress wanted to distribute wealth to?"infiltrators" and to "those who have many children" - meaning muslims - we will win 400 seats - meaning we can change the constitution ?INC - EVM will be rigged - Home Minister Office ?rang Poll officers to rig the elections - Constitution will be changed once BJP gets 400 seats as they have claimed - Exit polls are managed by ruling party and are all rigged - Reservation will be removed if BJP gets 400 seats - Stock market is rigged prior to and after results as is evident in wide fluctuations in the sensex Now with the results out

Will the PM and Rahul give explanation to the nation why they said what they said - too much ask from political class

Another disturbing? aspect which is seen in the recent past elections is the Maligning of the Election Commission without any evidence and approaching the Supreme Court with frivolous petitions which were luckily dismissed by the Supreme Court ?and there are enough NGOs who are pliable and are leading advocates of the Supreme Court just when the elections were announced or where in progress but these attempts failed miserably as they could not authenticate with proof and evidence in the Supreme Court – Justice prevailed in the end

Most gratifying aspect in this drama is the Election Commission stood its ground and fought in the Supreme court and won in the end – Unfortunately ECI is a unsung hero and they did their job with aplomb and won the hearts and minds of the Indian people – We are lucky we had a impartial election commission for the past so many decades

In the election we also came across allegations by INC on BJP that the HM had called the Polling Officers to? manage the election process without any evidence whatsoever

For the first time, we also witnessed the INC Maligning the entire Press as godhi media which means they were subservient to the ruling dispensation – INC also boycotted about 14 TV media personalities which does not augur well for a political party which is 150 years old to turn on the press without any basis whatsoever

There were times, when the ruling party and opposition party members were fighting against each toher in the elections but certain rules of engagement was in place and no below the belt comments whre made but in the recent past , the scenario is as if the two are rivals and they attack each other in the most? rude language which is not good? for a thriving democracy in the long run

Despite the passage of the bill to improve the representation of women in legislatures and the debate over this issue, women’s representation in the 18th?Lok Sabha has actually fallen, as revealed by the data. Out of the total 543 Members of Parliament (MPs) elected to the 18th Lok Sabha, women constituted only 74, which is 13.6% of the total. This is down from 78, or 14.4%, elected in the 2019 elections,

Cross over by politicians from one party to other just months before the elections

Another disease that has been the bane of the political system is cross over of politicians from one party to the other just before the elections – this is continuing in spite of the Anti Defection law in place which needs a complete overhaul for saving democracy from a long term perspective but will it happen is a billion dollor question as it is the legislators who frame laws and hence they may not bite the bullet since they are the ones who will be affected by the change in the law

Coalition parties working against each other

Another aspect which was a new development is the same party (AAP) fought along with INC in? Delhi with a seat sharing formula but in Punjab AAP and INC fought against each other – This defeats the fundamental basis of seat adjustment

Use of Agencies by INC and BJP statistics

One of the tools that is available with the ruling dispensation is the agencies like CBI, ED, to foist cases against the political opponents which has been done by Congress and BJP when ever they were in power but they continue to blame with each other

Wealth of MPs selected

Out of the 543 winning candidates analysed in 2024 LS elections , 504 (93%) are crorepatis. Out of 539 MPs analysed during Lok Sabha 2019 elections, 475 (88%) MPs were crorepatis. Out of the 542 MPs analysed during Lok Sabha 2014 elections, 443 (82%) MPs were crorepatis, and out of 543 MPs analysed during the Lok Sabha 2009 elections, 315 (58%) MPs were crorepatis," read the ADR report.

TDP's Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani is the richest newly elected MP ( Rs 5705 Crores), followed by , BJP's Konda Vishweshwar Reddy (Rs 4568 Crores) and in third position is BJP's Naveen Jindal with ??1,241 crore total assets. Of course all these candidates are Business men for decades

Need for enhancing limit for election spending

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has prescribed the expenditure limit as ?95 lakh for each Lok Sabha candidate and ?40 lakh for each Assembly candidate – This needs a substantial revision so that the use of black money is curtailed in a proper manner

Electoral bonds? - link with Award of contracts link

With the Supreme Court ruling in the Electoral Bond case, SBI has published through the Election Commission of India the donors , amount and the party to whom it is given

One question which has been validly raised is – is there any give and take with these donors who are all business men? - whether any favors in the form of orders were given by Govt of India has been raised and this needs a serious probe by a Independent agency and the findings published so that truth comes out and the future nature of electoral bonds which the supreme court has mandated can factor in the new law

Way forward and suggestions to Election Commission of India , Government Of India? and Political Parties

-????????? Form a task force of all major political parties, with nominees from reputed NGOs , Election Commission, Youngsters who are less than 30 years of age with more women than men

-????????? Publish advertisement in all leading newspapers to assure the Indian Public that Electonic Voting Machines are? Reliable and cannot be tampered under any conditions and enough checks and balances are there in the system – This advertisement to be given by the Leading political parties at their cost

-????????? With the above the EVM “charcha” will be buried for eternity

-????????? Publish also the expenditure on elections and he no of people involved in the election process for a Lok Sabha elections

-????????? Publish the check and balances and also state at every stage the Agent of the political parties sign off the process with ensures 100 Percent transparency

-????????? Holding? Elections in the? Month of May and June needs to be shifted so that the electorate especially in North India come out and vote – Consensus needs to be achieved for the longer impact on the democracy process? - If required the Examination schedule needs to be brought forward and necessary changes made in the academic calendar

-????????? Enhance the expenditure limit by at least ten times from the present so that? spending by others on the candidate is eliminated

-????????? The menace of giving money to voters is prevalent in Tamil Nadu in a big way and now it is copied to other states like Andhra Pradesh in this election – Law needs to brought to give extraordinary punishment to the giver and taker of this fast money from the political parties – This is a big menace if not curtailed now will take the shape a BIG MONSTER in the years to come - ?this can destroy the democratic fabric of the nation

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