Citizen's manifesto

Election manifesto? When you hear or read this word, Which things first come to your mind? Loan waiver, Reservation, Subsidy and finally Ram mandir. Rarely any political party talks over the comprehensive political reforms which are the prerequisite for the Social economical reforms.

To understand, Let us go back to the 100 years at the time of the 1910s. The nation was gripped with social evils like illiteracy, Child marriages etc. The Economic conditions were also not good as the British were draining the wealth of ours. Our founding fathers had differences of opinions about the question that - Either Social or economic or the political reforms should be the primacy of us? It's a different debate that to discuss but at the end, Founding fathers get agree over the primacy to the political reforms. They considered the political reforms as the key to open the doors for the Socio-Economic reforms. They procured one of the best-known constitutions of the world. Today our institutions are facing the crisis and so Need to strengthen them. Political parties are seeking views of the citizen to formulate election manifesto, Let understand the various political reforms and make a request to the political parties to give them space in their 2019 loksbha election manifesto.

Parliamentary reforms:-

Financial accountability of the Government: - The time spent on a discussion the Budget has reduced over the years, from an average of 123 hours in the 1950s to 34 hours in the last decade. The Standing Committees examine the budget: this process was bypassed in 2009 as Committees were not formed in time. (PRS) .

• There shall be detail discussion on the each and every Demand of grant and the procedure of the guillotine should be abolished.

Ensure Accountability of the elected Government: - Parliament has to make the government accountable through the debates, questions, various motions etc. But, Agenda of the parliament manly decided by the government as it enjoys a majority in loksbha.

• There shall be 20 days each year where the Agenda of the Loksabha should be decided by the opposition parties.
• There should be Exclusive question hour for the prime minister once in each session.

Money bill: - As per current rules, A bill considered as money bill when Speaker says so. There is no check and balance over the speaker authority. Recently the Government passed the Aadhar bill as a money bill.

• There shall be a committee of the 3 members - Speaker and 2 other members having the highest experience of the Parliamentary proceedings should decide whether the bill is money bill or not with the majority of the vote.

Constitutional amendment: - Unlike the American polity, our states assemblies cannot initiate the constitutional amendment. It is the prerogative of the only parliament.

•   There shall be a mandatory discussion with the states through the Interstate council before the introduction of the

SAY NO to elitism:-

Isn't the irony that in "Republic" day celebration, we found the tag of the "VVIP" and "VIP" in the parade's gallery? We are republic just on paper otherwise the VIP culture is there everywhere. It's the authority and responsibility of ours Elected representative to abolish the VIP culture but the irony is that they themselves have the biggest stake to maintain VIP culture as they themselves are the symbol of the VIP.

Parliamentary Privileges:-  In June 207, the Karnataka Assembly found two journalists, Ravi Belagere and Anil Raju, guilty of publishing defamatory articles about the Speaker and other MLAs.  They have each been sentenced to one year’s imprisonment. MPs/MLAs have enough safeguards to ensure smooth functioning of their role as a legislator. There is no need for any privileges to them. The word "Privilege" itself the antonym of the "Republic".

•  To abolish the parliamentary privileges of the MPs and MLAs and ensure equality of the MPs/MLAs with the citizen in terms of rights.

Sedition: - It's the colonial act under which British incarcerated Gandhiji and Tilak. In Post independent time, It has been widely misused to shun the voice of the opponent. It's High time to abolish it.

• To abolish the IPC 124A of the sedition and ensure that citizen enjoys their freedom of expression without any unnecessary restrictions.

Contempt of court: - Just a few days ago Shillong Times’ editor held guilty of contempt of court by a judge who took offense to story about him. Yes, there is a need for some restrictions on the scrutiny of the Judgment by a citizen but it should be not that much wider that restrict the citizen's freedom of expression.

• To reforms the constitutional provisions of the contempt of court and establish a balance between the Citizen right of freedom of expression and safeguards of the courts.

Electoral reforms and Political parties function reforms:-

Transparency in funding: - Chief Justice change said in the 1960s that - For democracy, he believed, couldn’t function unless the voters had free and complete access to information about the parties for which they were going to vote.  But the advent of the electoral bond ceased the little transparency exists in electoral funding.

• To Abolish the Electoral bonds and Introduce the transparency where Political parties have to disclose the all transaction in case the party receives more than Total 10 crore funding in a year.

Anti Defection law: - Why We chose Parliamentary democracy over presidential democracy? When B.R.Ambedakar rose to give an answer in the constituent assembly, He said that we need more "Accountability" than "Stability" in Democracy. Anti-defection law promoted stability on the cost of accountability. It restricts the rights of the elected representative.

• To reforms the anti-defection law in such a way that allows enough space to an elected representative to express views of the constituency who elected him/her and send to parliament.

Right to Recall:- "There can be no doubt, that if power is granted to a body of men, called Representatives, they like any other men will use their power not for the advantage of the community but for their own advantage if they can.” - James Mill. We are experiencing it.  MP's spend more time and efforts to enrich themselves and their dear one rather than to serve the citizen who elects him/her.

•  To launch the national level debate to introduce the right to recall to fix the accountability of the elected representative.

Reforms in Institutions:-

Election commission:-

• There shall be a panel of the PM, LOP, and CJI to appoint the election commissioner.
• To ensure the impartiality of the election commissioners, They should not be allowed to take any employment under the union or state government after the end of their tenure.
• Like the CAG and Supreme court, the expenditure of the Election commission should be charged on consolidated fund of India and not subjected to parliament vote.

Central information commission:-

• To Elevate the status of the CIC to the constitutional body so the government can not amend its provisions without a 2/3rd majority vote of parliament.
• To Complete the procedure of the appointment of the Information commissioner (IC) well before a month off the retirement of the serving IC.

Central Bureau of investigation:-      Recently nation saw the drama over the CBI.

• To shift the overall superintendence of the CBI to the parliament or the parliamentary committee. There should not be any role of the Government in the working of the CBI.

Intelligence agencies:-  Recently there was political turmoil in Maldives and India remained unaware about it.  Our Intelligence agency cannot provide intelligence over the small neighbor's political event and it is a matter of concern

• Intelligence agencies across the world are subjected to the parliamentary accountability regarding the financial matter, Policy related matter etc.
• To establish a mechanism to ensure the accountability of the intelligence agencies.

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Want to Read About the aforementioned issues in detail? Here are some useful sources. Click on the link. 

• Reforms in Parliamentary proceedings 
• Right to Recall
• Electoral Funding
• Anti Defection law
• Parliamentary Privileges
• CBI reforms 

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Draft appeal to the Political parties based on these issues:-

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Bharatija Janata Party :-

6-A, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi

Email :-CONTACT@AMITSHAH.CO.IN ( as party's website is under mantiance)

Twitter :- @BJP4India

Indian National Congress

24, Akbar Road, New Delhi 110 001, INDIA

Email    :     connect@inc.in

Twitter :- @INCIndia

Communist Party of India (Marxist)

27-29, Bhai Vir Singh Marg, New Delhi 110 001

email: cc@cpim.org

Twitter :- @CPIM_WESTBENGAL ‏

All India Trinamool Congress

30B Harish Chatterjee Street, Kolkata 700 026

Email :- aitmc@aitmc.org

Twitter :- @AITCofficial

DMK - Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

Twitter - https://twitter.com/arivalayam

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/arivalayam/

AIADMK

Twitter - @AIADMKOfficial

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/aiadmkofficial

 Biju Janta Dal

6R/3, Unit-6, Forest Park, Bhubaneswar, PIN-751009, Odisha, India.Email -info@bjdodisha.org.in
Twitter :- @bjd_odisha

Telangana Rashtra Samithi

c/o Telangana Bhavan, Bhavani Nagar, Banjara Hills Hyderabad, Telangana 500034

Email :- contact@trspartyonline.org

Twitter :- @trspartyonline

Janata Dal ( united)

149, MLA Flat, Virchand Patel Path ,Patna-800001

Email :-jdumedia@gmail.com

Twitter :- @NitishKumar ( Party twitter handle is not verified)

National Congress party ( NCP)

10, डॉ बिशांम्भर मार्ग, नवी दिल्ली 110001 , भारत

Email -contact@ncp.org.in

Twitter :- @NCPspeaks