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Sunday, 31 October 2010

Qualifications for prospective candidate contesting Election



(Revised on 31 October 2011)
Literacy of people in Bharat is unsatisfactory. Therefore, it is not possible to lay down high educational qualification. Possibly education standard could be say 9th standard pass from a recognised secondary school. Loyalty of a candidate must be given highest consideration. This means any candidate who jumps from party to party or from independent to a party or party to independent should get negative consideration. Based on this criterion a voter who is either a member of some political party or no political party continuously for at least six years continuously on the date of filing nomination papers for election only should be considered as qualified. However, this criterion should be applicable where loyalty is changed on and after the rule comes in to effect. This provision is very important to avoid floor crossing and horse trading. The candidate must undergo a medical examination and board of doctors should declare him fit. A person with sound health only should be allowed to contest elections. This should be listed as negative qualifications to debar a candidate seeking election. Other than this the existing provision should be adequate and may not need any modification. However, the same should be reviewed.
It is a common experience that people are attracted towards politics and they join without any experience. It is generally believed that young men and women should join politics and shoulder the responsibility of governing India. This is the only profession where no qualification or experience is required. It appears the only qualification needed is ability to spend money for getting elected by any means or through any method. In my opinion there is need to change this. Experience is must for knowing aspirations of people and the way is 'social work' Therefore, there should be a rigid rule for experience of 'social work for a definite period. 5 years of experience for election to local bodies and 15 years of experience for 'Lok Sabha', 'Vidhan Sabha' and respective house of elders should be reasonable. Entry to politics must be through social work.
There is a rule for contesting election that the candidate should not have more than 2 children. There are cases where some politicians have given away there children to keep the number within 2. There are cases where politicians had more than 2 children when this rule was framed and implemented. There should have been a provision for time since from this should be applicable. There should be revision to fix time after which number of children would be counted. A specific date should be fixed after which third (or child which makes total number of children more than number existing before the rule was framed is born) makes the candidate unsuitable for contesting any election any where in India.
It is every voter's experience that while choosing candidate, political parties mostly apply a single criterion "Ability to get elected" This shows that political parties have no standing in the citizens. They explore ability of a candidate to get elected. If this is the case why there should be political parties? Every candidate may contest election as and independent candidate. When a voter sees list of candidates contesting elections he/she sees that none of the candidates fulfils his/her aspirations. It becomes difficult for the voter to find a candidate to vote for. Therefore there, should be a provision to reject all candidates, if voter finds none suitable and doesn't wish to vote for any one. Hence, there should be provision in the candidates' list to vote for none. This means the election commission should add a candidate named "None from below" and should find the top position in the list.
Application form for filing nomination as well as form for bio-data must be well designed to bring out all the information necessary and not giving a chance to any one to hide information. The government should prepare a draft for this and publish in media to get suggestions from public. Based on the feedback received these forms should be finalised.

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