1. MANTHAN TOPIC : FAIRNESS AT PLAY
REFORMING ELECTIONS
ELECTORAL REFORMS TO REDUCE THE
EFFECT OF MONEY AND MUSCLE POWER IN
POLITICS
TEAM MEMBERS : ADARSH SRIVASTAVA, ANIL KUMAR, KUMAR SHIVAM,
KUMAR SAURABH, SAURABH CHOUDHARY [BE- 3RD YEAR]
BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, MESRA, PATNA CAMPUS

2. ELECTIONS ARE LOSING CREDIBILITY DUE TO ABUSE
OF MONEY AND POWER, RESULTING IN LAW
BREAKERS BECOMING LAW MAKERS.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
2004 2009
162 MPs elected in 2009 have
criminal cases against them;
26% increase from 2004.
MAJOR CHALLENGES : -
A: INCREASING CRIMINALISATION OF POLITICS
•In 2009, 15% of all candidates contesting the general
elections had criminal charges pending against them.
•There have been several instances of persons
charged with serious and heinous crimes like rape,
murder etc. contesting elections, pending their trial
and even getting elected in a large number of cases.
B:INFLUENCE OF MONEY AFFECTING THE RESULTS
•33% of candidates who declared assets more than
INR 5 crore, won in 2009
•Source of 85% of donations to political parties are
unavailable.
•Data also suggests that higher the assets the more
are the chances of winning of a candidate
Since electoral reforms require parliamentary
approval, corrupt politicians have a strong
incentive to prevent it

3. A REVIEW OF THE ELECTION LAWS AND PROCEDURE IN LIGHT OF RECENT
DEVELOPMENTS AND COMPLEXITIES IS NECESSARY
SUGGESTED
REFORMS
ADVANTAGES
IMPLEMENTATION
•SEPARATE COURTS FOR SPEED TRAILS INVOLVING
POLITICIANS.
•E-DEMOCRACY
•NEGATIVE OR NEUTRAL VOTING
•PROHIBITING SURROGATE ADVERTISEMENTS
•AUDIT OF ACCOUNTS OF POLICAL PARTIES BY ELECTION
COMMISSION
•PROTECTION OF MEMBERS OF ELECTION COMMISSIONS
•REDUCTION OF INFLUENCE OF MONEY AND MUSCLE
POWER IN POLITICS

4. E-DEMOCRACY : USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION
TECHNOLOGY WITHIN POLITICAL PROCESSES
IMPLIMENTATION(EXAMPLES) IMPACT/ADVANTAGES
•E-polls :
E-democracy is the democracy
in its ideal form, i.e. direct
democracy
•Social networking :
It aims in combining the open
communication of social
networking with the
structured communication of
experts or policy makers
•Civic engagement :
1. Political knowledge
2. Political trust
3. Political participation
•People learn about public affairs
•Public orientation of support for political system
•Conventional activities designed to influence
government and decision making process
•Internet can be used as low cost campaign
tool
•It can be used to invite politicians,
executives, academicians and business
people to get involved into high level policy
debate
•It can be used as a tool for public
opinion polls (जनमत सं ह) using
AADHAR CARD which is not feasible
today due to large population

5. E-Democracy, today faces many conceptual risks and
implementation challenges
CONCEPTUAL RISKS
•Majority of population is computer
related
•Access to internet is severely limited
•Risk of identity theft, information
overload
IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES
•Totally new infrastructure required for
E-poll
•Government should not violate peoples’
privacy for political games
ADVANTAGES
•Direct democracy becomes feasible
•Influence of money and muscle power will
decrease drastically, e.g. no booth
capturing or damage to the voters
•Youth gets actively involved intuitively
•People can fearlessly state and share their
thoughts, opinion about political parties
and leaders
•Amendments regarding representatives
could be passed by public opinion as
criminals as they themselves are having
strong hold on the parliament

6. SEPARATE COURTS FOR REPRESENTATIVES SO THAT THEY
DON’T GET ADVANTAGE FROM PENDING TRIALS
SC RULINGS GOVT. STAND IMPACT OF HAVING
SEPERATE COURTS
1. Charge sheeted MPs and
MLAs on conviction for
offences will be
immediately disqualified
for holding membership
of the house.
2. Those behind bars will be
prohibited from
contesting an election.
1. Cases originating from
political vendetta could
result into
disqualification of a
legitimate candidate
1. No delay In the judgment
so that tainted politicians
wont have a chance due
to pendency of cases
2. This will hold noble
intentions of both
supreme court and
government while
convicting criminal
politicians

7. ELECTION COMMISION SHOULD MONITOR ACCOUNTS OF CANDIDATES
AND THEIR SUPPORTERS TO PROHIBIT SURROGATE ADVERTISEMENTS
SUGGESTIONS IMPACTS
•Supportors or friends expenses
should be added in the election
spending
•Anonymous donations should be
prohibited by providing PAN card
details of the donors
•Donations from govt. firms and
foreign entities should be
prohobited
•Banks should monitor cash
withdrawals at the time of
elections
•The official limits will become
binding to the candidates.
•Illegal funding or black money
could be tracked
•Tax payers money will not get
wasted for political parties

8. THERE SHOULD BE A PROVISION ENABLING A VOTER TO REJECT
ALL THE CANDIDATES IF HE DOESN’T FIND THEM SUITABLE
SUGGESTIONS IMPACT
•Law should be amended to provide
negative voting
•There will be a way for voters to express
their dislike for the candidate
•This will encourage those voters who do
not wish to support compromised
candidates so that same leaders will not
come to power again and againCHALLENGES
This amendment may not result into the
expected outcome
Voters may not be enough enlightened
about each candidate to disapprove one

9. REFERENCES
1. Proposed electoral reforms by ECI
2. Wikipedia
3. World data bank
4. Deccan herald
5. Indian express
6. Live mint
7. Zee news