My prize winning essay ' Role of Civil Society in Parliamentary Democracy'. The essay received second prize in annual essay competition conducted by Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), New Delhi in the year 2012.
Here is the complete text of the essay (Copyright protected):
Here is the complete text of the essay (Copyright protected):
Civil
Society and Parliamentary Democracy in India
-Hena
Naqvi-
‘The establishment of democracy in this vast land of
bewildering variety is the greatest achievement of India since independence.’
- K.R.Narayan,
former President of India.
|
Introduction: “WE, THE
PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN,
SOCIALIST, SECULAR, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens....”.
These lines of the preamble of the Indian constitution declare that India is a sovereign,
socialist, secular and democratic republic. The term ‘PEOPLE OF INDIA’ suggests the Indian citizens
whom we collectively call the ‘civil society’. “ The implication of this
terminology[1] is
that it declares the people of India to be the sovereign authority”....[2].
“The term democratic implies that the
governments are elected and accountable for their deeds to the people of India[3].
The preamble of our constitution thus, clearly shows civil society’s
significance in the governance of the nation.
As per the Indian constitution, people elect their representatives to send
them to the parliament at the union level as MPs while at state level people’s
representatives reach the state assembly as MLAs[4].
The political party or the alliance having
the majority in the House (parliament or
the state assembly as the case may be) form the government for five years while
the one with lesser number of elected representatives form the opposition. The
opposition is there as a restraining force to control the government. Thus, the
government and opposition both are people’s faces. Elected gram panchayats are
basic or grassroots level unit of democracy.
This is in a nutshell about parliamentary
democracy as the participatory
governance in our country.
The civil society and the
state from a layperson’s perspective:
There
are two important stakeholders of a country- the civil society and the state.
State is sum total of the legislative, the executive and the judiciary. Civil
society is a collection of citizens. This is important to
understand that we have formed civil society as a result of the gradual process
of the evolution of human civilisation. During this process of civilisation,
we the human beings converted into ‘social
animals’ (as termed by Aristotle). Discipline or rules and regulations form one of the most important characteristics of the
civil society. Persons or groups who violate these rules and regulations are
ousted by the civil society and labelled as ‘anti-social. From time to time,
the civil society reforms and remoulds
its rules and regulations in order to move with the time.
Being social animals, the civil society further organises itself into
several groups or bodies that are known as civil society organisations or CSOs.
In the contemporary times, we have several types of CSOs in our society. These
can be- a social or cultural club, a
grassroots level women’s organisation, a voluntary organisation also called
non-government organisation, an educational institution, a media house or a
business group. In simple words, any group of citizens formed and governed
through constitutional and peaceful means
and to meet a common goal may be called a civil society organisation. Coming
together or organisation enhances the strength of the members who get a
collective identity and their voices are better heard through the medium of
their organisation.
Relationship between civil
society and the state:
If we talk about the relationship
between the civil society and the state, we find that both have a symbiotic
relationship- state exists for and because the
civil society while civil society survives because of the state.
Having
established the correlation between the civil society and the parliamentary
democracy, there is a need to analyse this relationship in view to reaching out
the better roles of the civil society in parliamentary democracy. Following
famous lines by Rudyard Kipling can help us in this regard:
“I KEEP six honest serving-men (They taught me all I
knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and
Where and Who…..?”.
So, Kipling provides us with six question-words :
What, why, where, who, when
and how? This is
popularly known as 5Ws+H.
The contextual
relevance of 5Ws+H:
- What is the present role of civil society in
parliamentary democracy? What role can it play to strengthen parliamentary
democracy? What (activities or tasks) will be required in this regard?
- Why is civil society so much important in
parliamentary democracy (the need of civil society in parliamentary
democracy)?
- Who can help towards accomplishing the tasks or
activities for strengthening parliamentary democracy
- Where can those activities be accomplished?
- By when (the timeframe) can the planned tasks or
activities be accomplished?
- How will the planned activities/tasks be
accomplished (the strategy)?
The answer of why (or the
need) of engagement of civil society in the parliamentary democracy lies in the
very preamble of our constitution. As we know, the preamble of the Indian
constitution begins with ‘We the people’ which clearly shows the importance of
the citizens or the civil society in the governance of the country. People or
the civil society, thus form the life-blood of Indian parliamentary democracy.
Without people’s participation, there will be no people’s representatives, government
and no opposition in the parliament.
That is why; Abraham Lincoln termed democracy as ‘government of the
people, by the people, for the people.’
An
understanding of ‘what’ will lead to
several other question-words because all
these question-words are inextricably linked to each other.
Present role of the civil society in the parliamentary democracy is
mainly confined to use of right to vote and that too has been reducing with the
pace of time. Despite massive awareness
building efforts of the government and the Election Commission to motivate
people to use the right to vote, the Lok Sabha and assembly elections have been
witnessing dissatisfactory voting percentage. Following table provides a
picture of the voting percentage in
three consecutive Lok Sabha elections of our countr:.
Year
|
National Average
|
Maximum
|
Minimum
|
2009
|
58.19%
|
90.32%
(Tamluk, WB)
|
25.56%
(Srinagar,
J &K)
|
2004
|
58.07%
|
91.77% (Nagaland)
|
35.20%
(J
& K)
|
1999
|
59.99%
|
81.17%
(Sikkim)
|
32.34%
(J&K)
|
(Source: http://eci.gov.in)
The highest national average of voting percentage in these elections is
just 59.99%
in the year 1999.We can see
a slight decrease in the national average of voting percentage in the year 2004
as against the year 1999. There is a slight improvement in the voting
percentage in the year 2009 as against the year 2004 but this improvement is
too minimal. For a huge country like India
the voting percentage of less than 70% cannot be said to be
satisfactory.
Not having even 60% voting percentage
is a jolt to popular democracy. For
non-voters, casting vote appears to be a tedious job or wastage of time. An attitudinal change is required in order to
turn the passive individuals into active and responsible citizens. Any citizen,
who demands fundamental rights, should also fulfil his/her fundamental duty as
laid by our constitution[5].
In Fact, fundamental duties were
envisaged as a step towards fulfillment of fundamental rights of the Indian
citizens.The third fundamental duty as laid in the Indian Constitution is- “to uphold and protect the sovereignty
and integrity of India”. The very first step towards protection of the
sovereignty and integrity is an active participation in the election process
which empowers us to send our representatives to the decision-making bodies
like the Indian Parliament or the State Assemblies. If aware and educated
voters do not come forward, perhaps the less-informed or less-aware ones will
go for the election of undeserving or wrong candidates (perhaps lured by
attractive offers in lieu of vote). Election (rather mal-selection) of undeserving
candidates is responsible to the entry
of criminals and tainted representatives in the decision-making mechanism. The
wrong entry leads to wrong decisions and wrong decisions always harm the civil
society in general. This is somewhere a
setback to the solidarity and sovereignty of the nation. Sending deserving
candidates (who can think and act for
the masses) to the decision-making
process will be a step towards protecting the sovereignty and integrity of the
nation.
February 11, 2012, Gorakhpur
district: The day had to have the voting for Uttar Pradesh assembly
election. A wedding procession was to
proceed towards bride’s place. The
bride groom was aware and active enough. He
mobilised all the participants of the procession to cast their votes
before moving on to the wedding venue.
The wedding procession was that time a miniature of a civil society
that used its right to vote in a bulk. That is how; a civil society can
contribute to strengthen the parliamentary democracy at its own level without
extra taking pain.
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That is why; active participation in elections
is the only possible method of securing fair representation. These also form
the greatest forum of mass education. This is a step towards building and
strengthening participatory democracy. Mass
awareness movements at panchayat, block, district, state or national levels can
be very helpful to inform, sensitise and mobilise the voters for using their
right to vote. CSOs like NGOs, Mahila Mandals,
farmers clubs, self help groups, youth clubs etc. can play an important role in
informing, motivating and mobilising voters for voting. UNICEF, Lucknow has adopted a strategy of forming Bulawa Tolis (callers’
groups) consisting of school children to
mobilise focus groups (pregnant women and children in 0-5 years’ years’
age group) for immunisation on Gram
Panchayat level Village Health and Nutrition Days (VHNDS). Why cannot a model
like Bulawa Toli be adopted for mobilising voters as well? The Bulawa Tolis for
mobilising voters can include NGOs, students, housewives etc. who can mobilise voters from the area
that are known for very poor voting rates. Such areas need to be identified as
a part of the strategy to enhance voting percentage. There is a need of
frequent dialogue with the people of such identified pockets. Consistent
dialogue will surely yield result in terms of better voting percentage.
The enhanced voting percentage is just a part
of political participation of citizens in the governance. The political
education begins much before voting and continues even after voting. Here comes
a great role of civil society organisations like NGOs (also known as voluntary
organisations). PGSS, an NGO based at Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh undertook a
campaign for enhancing participation of the women, Dalits and other excluded
communities in the Panchayat election 2010 in its focus villages in Gorakhpur
region. The campaign included meetings of community based organisations (Mahila
Mandals, SHGs and Farmers’ groups) to motivate the focus community (Dalits and
excluded groups) to participate in the election as voters as well as
candidates. There were Panchayat level nomination assistance camps to assist
the candidates to file the nominations in the proper way. There were mock
drills for voters on casting votes in the proper way. Events like cycle rallies,
street plays and puppet shows helped in sensitising and mobilising the voters.
The task did not end with this. There were felicitation ceremonies for the
newly elected representatives that also oriented them on their roles and
responsibilities. As a part of strategy, participation of government officials
was also ensured in the felicitation cum orientation ceremonies that added
credibility to the works of PGSS. This was a micro level initiative but had the
potential of being replicated at macro levels. The political education for
enhanced people’s participation in the governance should include campaigns like
this.
Educational institutions, another important civil society organisation
can also play a significant role by imparting democratic civil education to the
students and by mobilising the collective force of students as volunteers as
well as voters. Media, educationists,
intellectuals, NGOs and several other representative groups of civil society
can contribute towards spreading political awareness and sensitising people for
their mobilisation and participation in the governance.
The irony of civil society’s right to vote is that it is used once in five
year. After the exercise of right of vote, there is hardly any action by the
existing civil society in these five years that can show its stake in the
parliamentary democracy.. Before
election, the voters are candidates’ God. The candidates leave no stone unturned to get voters’ favour. There was a song in the Hindi film Pratighat of 1980s which was like this ‘
hamre balma beimaan hamein patiyane aaye
hain....., patiyane aaye hain vote hathiyane aaye hain (our dishonest
beloved has come to win over us, to take our votes ). The context on the movie
was election canvassing under which the candidates adopt every fair and foul means
to get the votes of the poor people. But
people in the movie drive non-performers and liars away and prefer a truthful
candidate. People should have such courage. Ultimately, the entire system is
for them and representatives form a very minimal part of the system.
In
reality, we are yet to have the courage to drive inefficient leaders away. In fact, we have several cases of elected
representatives who do not even come
back to their constituency after getting elected, let alone development of the
constituency. But we also have examples like
Chhavi Rajawatt, the young sarpanch
of Soda, a gram panchayat 85 km away
from Jaipur, Rajasthan. The first MBA
sarpanch of the country is termed as a ‘change-agent’ because of the changes
brought in her panchyat. Women of her panchayat are now sending their daughters
to schools and want higher education for them[6].
Her development works for Soda panchayat include
a lot-sanitation, safe drinking water and good governance. She is also known
for making her panchayat India’s first IT enabled panchayat. The village portal
provides accesibility to the funds santioned for the village. It also provides
citizen services such as birth and death certificates, besides posting land
records online[7]. Steps like these are certainly needed in the country to
promote good governance and transperency in governance. People’s
representatives like Chhavi are needed in the country to make our democracy a
popular and efficient form of participatory governance.
The civil society should take a decision to
say ‘no’ to those who made false promises (as people do in the movie
‘Pratighat’ mentioned above). The collective decision should be clearly
communicated to the candidates. This should include a dialogue
with them to come back to the constituency after winning the elections for
fulfilling the promises or to be ready for a complete rejection in the next
election for neglecting the constituency. The dialogue should reach the local
authorities like District Magistrate or Commissioner as well. The medium of
conveying the message to the candidates or authorities can be wall writing, submission
of collectively signed memorandum or an interface meeting or a combination of
all. A step ahead, the collective force can also take the commitment from the
candidate in writing that she or he would fulfil the promises of development
works in the constituency. Calling the representative to the constituency in
mid-term (through a collective letter) and conducting a ‘performance audit’ can
be thought of. There can be another
methodology to enhance civil society’s stake in the democracy. In mid-term,
there can be a mid-term assessment of the elected representatives facilitated
by Election Commission. The same methodology of polling ( for knowing
people’s ‘yes’, ‘no’ for the
continuation of their representatives or their removal ) can be done through
electronic voting machines. This can be followed up with the use of ‘right to recall’.
This suggests that representatives obtaining a majority of negative votes will
have to quit and bow down before people’s decision. As we know that a civil society ousts the
persons and groups that do not follow its rules and regulations. The same rule
should be applicable to such representatives
whose corruption is proved or who
fail to live up to the expectations of their voters. If such candidates are not recalled and continue
to be a part of the decision-making process; they continue their corrupt
practices. Continuation of such corrupt practices will certainly create anarchy
in the civil society with masses as the victims. That’s is why, the civil
society or the people should have a power to recall such candidates who either violate the rules and regulations or fail
to live up to the expectations of their voters.
Seats that are vacated through the exercise of right to recall will
require mid-term elections. This is of course an expensive and time taking
process but it will ensure representatives’ accountability to people. It will
also help in enhancing their interaction with the community. Interaction will obviously
lead to action for the development of the area. Use of right to recall will be
thus an effective means to continue people’s stake in the governance during
five years’ tenure of their elected representatives.
Control over foul means of candidates
for getting votes is another area wherein people’s engagement can be
thought of. Village level or Mohalla level vigilance committees or Task Force (consisting of
representatives of different section of the area) can be an effective tool to
keep a watch on such foul practices that range from offering cash, kind or any
other lucrative offers. PGSS, Gorakhpur (mentioned above) formed Gram Panchayat
level vigilance committees during the Panchayat election 2010. The members were
oriented on their roles, responsibilities, monitoring and reporting skills. The committee acted as a watchdog and monitored
such practices. The same was reported to the district administration. The result was wonderful and there were no
foul means adopted in all the gram panchayats where vigilance committees were
formed. Such practices need to be scaled up and replicated in the context of Assembly
or Lok Sabha elections. An engagement of the CSOs can prevent foul practices
and ensure fair elections. Election Commission, Union government, state
governments or district administration can think in this direction to engage
the CSOs meaningfully. The CSOs will
certainly need financial support for this purpose from the respective government
as they receive for participation in social welfare or development schemes. But
a word of caution is required here in view of some recent mass campaigns led by
certain CSOs. These campaigns, despite being based on a fair demand went for
unconstitutional ways for raising their voices. This brought the CSOs and the
government against each other and defeated the very purpose of the campaign. Role of
CSO should be to support the government in reaching out to the people and
disseminating government’s message to the people. They need to understand their role as agents of
change, as government’s partners and not as opponents of the government. CSOs
engaged in the process should be above biases and prejudices. Their ways and means
should be constitutional, peaceful and for the welfare of all. That is
why, the CSOs are required to revisit their roles and responsibilities
in favour of a fair and people-friendly governance system in the country.
Media the ‘fourth pillar of democracy’ is also expected to play a very
balanced and meaningful role. Among its various roles, information
dissemination, education and formation of public opinion are very strategic in
this context.
As the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said
“The government....does not have a magic wand to remove corruption from the
system overnight”. Truly said, the change should be brought about as a result
of consultative and gradual process between government, the people and the CSOs
as people’s representatives. In fact, the
civil society has a more important role than government if it wants good governance in the country.
For doing this, there is a need to adopt good practices and discard the bad
ones. Practices like bribing, breaking the queue or getting a driving licence
through a tout, damaging the public property etc.
have been leading us towards
moral death. These petty practices form the blood and flesh of a giant
devil called corruption. Becoming addicted to such corrupt practices, we do not
mind corruption in the governance and develop a habit of living with it. Who is
the ultimate victim? ‘We, the people’.
In a parliamentary democracy, everyone has a right to voice his or her dissatisfaction
against the system. But the dissatisfaction should be routed through the proper
channel. The government has equipped the people with several legislations so
that they can fight against corruption. The flagship among these is ‘Right to
Information Act (RTI) 2005’. RTI has empowered
the civil society to get information from government/public organisations not only related to individual work but also concerned with the public or the masses in general. Any
common citizen can get the information by simply applying on a plain paper with
a meagre fee of Rs 10. The information system is time bound and there is a penalty
for not giving proper answer or for a delayed answer. This has given birth to
many RTI activists or promoters who are again part of the civil society.
Unfortunately, this power is yet to penetrate to the grassroots level as
majority of the common masses are not aware of the practical aspects of RTI.
There is a need to popularise the simple ways of using RTI. Media, (a type of CSO)
assumes an important role to play to popularise and promote RTI as a tool of
empowerment of the civil society for ensuring its stake in the country’s governance.
The discussion
so far not only brings out what
is the present role and what should be the future role of civil society towards
strengthening parliamentary democracy; it also answers several other
question-words like how, where
and who.
There is still one question-word to be
answered in this context and that is when or the time of taking actions in this
regard. The ‘when’ should not begin
before elections and end up immediately after the election. This can be rather
taken up as a consistently ongoing process to internalise civil society’s
participation at every step of our different systems- educational, economic, political,
social, cultural, psychological, spiritual, etc.
The 5Ws+H in the context
of civil society and parliamentary democracy in India
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Conclusion: What
emerges as the crux of this discussion is that the role of Civil Society in a
Parliamentary Democracy should be to strengthen it through prescribed and
constitutional ways and means. It is not about making people believe that
coming on to the street or raising voices against the government is the only
way to express public view and to stop corruption. People or the civil society needs to rise above
individualism, casteism, regionalism, communalism or any other ‘-ism’ which is fatal for a fair and
people-friendly governance. There is a need to remember only one ‘-ism’ and
that is ‘nationalism’. An active engagement of civil society in parliamentary
democracy is a small step towards nationalism. Each and every citizen needs to understand its
role in turning parliamentary democracy a people-friendly system of governance.
Mahatma Gandhi has aptly remarked ‘...democracy in essence, therefore, mean the
art and science of mobilising the entire physical, economic and spiritual
resources of all the various sections of the people in the service of the
common good of all....’
***
[1]
we the people
[2]
Page 33, Indian Constitution and Administration, NCERT, 2002
[3]
Page 34, Indian Constitution and Administration, NCERT, 2002
[4] Elected gram panchayats are the basic or
grassroots level unit of democracy.
[5]
Part IV A, Article 52 of the Indian Constitution as per 42nd
Amedment Act ,1976 provides for ten fundamental duties of every Indian citizen
[6]
Source:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Jaipur/MBA-sarpanch-bitter-disillusioned/Article1-834138.aspx).
[7] Source:
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-09-02/news/30105909_1_soda-village-ancestral-village-sarpanch
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