Against the fundamental right of people to stand for election

The Lok Sabha is currently debating the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2008. The Rajya Sabha has already passed this Bill. A substantive provision of this amendment deals with the security deposit for candidates for general category seats to the Lok Sabha. The government has proposed that this security deposit be raised from Rs.10,000 to Rs.25,000. The amendment also proposes to raise the security deposit for candidates in reserved seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from Rs.5,000 to Rs.12,500. In the case of Assembly Elections, the deposit will be raised from Rs.5,000 to Rs.10,000 for a general category seat and from Rs.2,500 to Rs.5,000 for seats reserved for SC/ST’s.

If this is passed by parliament, it will mean that many lakhs of workers and peasants and working men and women will be not be able to contest in an election for the reason that they will not be able to afford the security deposit. The Law Minister Shri Veerappa Moily has justified this amendment with an outrageous argument that this is to cut down on “non-serious” candidates contesting elections!

The message is that working class and mass of peasantry, that is the overwhelming majority of our population are “non-serious”, they should not contest elections, even if they are highly motivated to do so. Elections are only meant for the rich and powerful, and for the parties representing vested interests! This is condemnable and must be contested by every democratically minded Indian.

India is supposed to be a democracy wherein every citizen has the right to elect and be elected, if they are above the stipulated minimum age and mentally sound. This right is already circumscribed in practice with millions of working people in central and state government institutions and organisations denied the right to stand in elections. Many people cannot even think of standing because they are daily wage workers, contract workers or home makers on whom the family entirely depends. Many cannot stand because their employers do not like their employees to participate.

Over the years, the Representation of Peoples Act has been systematically amended to make it more difficult for independent candidates, candidates belonging to the working class and peasantry and tribal population, as well as candidates of small parties and organizations to fight on a level playing field in the elections against the power of the established political parties, which have privileges such as recognizable symbols, free radio and TV time, etc. Despite this, all over the country, people and their organizations have been participating in elections, to highlight the concerns of the poor and marginalized. More often than not, they lose; but losing does not reflect non-seriousness. On the contrary, the fact that they participate despite the dice being loaded heavily against them reflects their high motivation and drive to make an impact on Indian politics.

To participate in politics, including through putting up candidates is a right. This right is being attacked among other things also by increasing the security deposit, and by declaring those who struggle for the rights of the people as “non serious”!

MEL condemns this anti-people move and calls on all democratically minded MPs sitting in the Lok Sabha to oppose this amendment and for all democratically minded people, parties, and organizations of workers, peasants, women, youth and other sections of the people to oppose it tooth and nail.