Constitutional Changes to our Democracy!!
After reading daily on our pathetic states of affairs, administration, security, general management of our goverment (local, state and central) a unique thought struck me which I want to share strongly with one and all. We all know that to change our current state of affairs and our lives in general we will need to bring about a revolution, a great big revolution like Mahatma Gandhi had got say some 60-70 odd years back. Its high time we too bring about a revolution to change and I strongly feel that rather than being in the system and trying to change it, we will need to do this outside the system hence below are my suggestions on the same:
1) Our current system of electing an MLA or MP is that the election contesting political parties select candidates, Publishes them, the general public votes and the one securing the highest votes is elected and then he functions, plays his role and passes / changes various regulations, gets ammendments, passes bills, makes laws etc etc. I am suggesting a small change in this and maybe a change in our constitution too. Lets follow this same process but lets keep an audit committe in place. But who will be this audit committe? It will be US the people (Aam Aadmi - in Hindi). Lets elect an MLA / MP in the same fashion but let his functioning change. Like we have voting systems via SMS / online / telephones or even via the print. Lets follow the same voting system for every bill, act, ammendments which an MLA / MP proposes in the legislative assembly / parliament (both the houses as and where applicable) and then let the majority win. For eg, lets say an MLA proposes to build a new highway in some locality. Let this proposal first be approved by the general public (who act as an audit committe) for the politicians / beurocrats. If the public votes in majority in favour of the highway being built let this proposal go to the parliament / legislative assembly and then let the current process follow and if it gets the votes from MPs / MLAs (Wherever applicable) let the highway be built. Same process should be followed for every proposed change / development at the panchayat / state / centre level.
2) If we implement this somehow, there will be total transparency. As public, we will act as auditors for the acts of the local as well as central government and the opposition. Once this transperancy is in place the government will have no issues in pulishing their P&L & Balance Sheets in the public media. Like they publish and declare the budget am sure they can even publish & declare their Income & Expenditure Statements and we as the public auditors can certify the same!
3) Lets harness the power of technology & IT. All local and central goverments are going in for e-governance projects. All the states can be linked to a common e-governance Application at the central level and real time MIS can be made visible to the public both online and in the print media.
4) All the above stuff looks rosy but am sure this is very much possible with a little change in our constitution. I want to make this possible, let me know how to go about. As public are you with me on these thoughts or you propose some further changes? Please give your valuable feedback comments!!
Cheers!
Akshay.
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Check Akshay Shah's MIT India TR35 2011 award coverage on Rediff Business : http://bit.ly/g3pCS0, Hindustan Times : http://bit.ly/fN5f8j, Technology Review : http://bit.ly/hwsLFD, Deccan Chronicle : http://bit.ly/gRZT65 Economic Times : http://bit.ly/fsIHFd, DNA : http://bit.ly/gSsvLN
