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"Will a change of system help? " - L.K. Advani


			"Will a change of system help? "

					-- L.K. Advani, President, BJP

The Hindustan Times, Feb. 5, '95

Every system has its plus and minus points. But the problem this country 
faces today have arisen more because of people who run the system rather 
than the system itself. So very often this debate on the failure of the 
system is used only as an alibi to cover up failures.

Having said this, I do think that as we approach the half century mark 
following Independence we could certainly take stock of the system of 
government that we have accepted and be willing to make radical changes 
either in the entire system itself or in some of the many institutions 
operating within the system.

A few days back my senior colleague, Atal Behari Vajpayee spoke about 
considering the desirability of the presidential system. I recall that in 
my Presidential system to the party's national council at Vijaywada in 
1987, I had made the same plea.

Prima facie it appears that acceptance of the parliamentary system of 
government has made most of the participants susceptible to the lure of 
vote bank politics which not only promotes communalism and casteism and 
accentuates narrow loyalities but also contributes to a large measure of 
instability in the political structure. A presidential system, on the 
other hand, may be somewhat free from this but, as I said, this is a 
matter which deserves consideration in greater depth.

Even apart from a review of the entire political system some thought 
needs to be given to the judicial system, to the educational institutions 
and to the electoral system. In one of our earlier manifestoes our party 
had advocated the sitting up of a commission to have a second look at the 
Constitution prepared in 1950. the completion of five decades on 
Independence may be a proper occasion for this.

Just as we have been talking about the presidential system from our 
party's platforms, a radical reform of the electoral system also has been 
advocated. Today, elections in India are held by means of the majority 
system, popularly known as the first-past-the-post system.  A British 
critic of thsi system once commented Englishmen have a weakness for 
betting, gambling and horse racing. this weakness has found reflection 
even in their electoral system. Elections often become a big gamble. The 
number of seats secured in a legislature often has no relation to the 
share of votes  polled. Apart from this a single member constituency 
places a premium on the caste factor.

If there is a consensus in the country about having a president at the 
Centre and Governors in the States who are directly elected and who have 
a fixed tenure of five years, thought may simultaneously be given to the 
possibility of having all State Legislatures as well as the Parliament 
elected by some form of proportional representation, preferably the list 
system. In this manner, every significant strand of public opinion 
recognised by a party would be provided the opportunity of participating 
in the legislative process and through committees of the legislative a 
role even in governance.

Our plea for a radical overhaul of the electoral system is not 
necessarily related to the acceptance of the presidential form. We have 
been otherwise in favour of radical reform of the electoral system. 
though in that case, at the State level we would favour a mixed system 
such as Germany has where half the members of the legislature are elected 
by the list system whereas the other half are elected by the majority 
system. Besides, the needs of development which are important in the case 
of States can always be better attended to by individual MLAs rather than 
by a party.

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