1. Manthan Topic: Fairness at Play: Introducing
electoral reforms to reduce the influence of
money and muscle power in politics
Team Details:
Team name: CHAOS
Team Coordinator: Joy Raval
Other Members:
Vedant Sumaria
Sourabh Subramaniam
Debashish Chakraverty
Vaidish Sumaria
2. Criminals entering the political system
Wi sto Chur hill o e said when ever we leave India, it would be ruled by goons a d looki g at the prese t s e ario, the state e t is
not entirely wrong even after 67 years of Independence
A sitti g ‘apist MP ould e er pass ri i al la a e d e t . A ri i al is o the ro g side of the la a d he e a ot e expected
to make positive contributions to the legislative or administrative process.
It brings a sense of futility among the administration particularly the police administration and demoralizes them
Presence of tainted candidates in the law making institutions creates embarrassment for the country as well as the people
Rise of a criminal to high levels of powers has an adverse effect on the society. The immunity and success of these people lures more
and more youngsters to follow in their footsteps. This brings in degeneration of moral values in the society.
Dynastic Politics
There is no question that our country needs young blood and radical thinking at all levels of governance.
We require people who are qualified, who will make technology work for our benefit, and who will have enough pride in their ability
as well as faith in their decision-making to not grant contracts or frame policies for personal gain.
But look at any list of first-time aspirants, and what stares back at us is how a majority of the candidates are sons and daughters of
seasoned politicians. In many cases, more than ability or credentials, their name is their only political brand.
Corruption
Bofors s a dal, Fodder s a , la d s a , Ha ala s a ,
Coalgate, 2g spe tru s a …….. A d the list o ti ues
Political corruption is the use of power by government
officials for illegitimate private gain.
According to a recent survey conducted by the Transparency
International, 86% of the Indians believe that all political
parties are corrupted and it is not mere a belief .
This corruption has taken the inflation rate to a whole new
level and its high time we bring it down.
Lack of transparency in the voting by EVMs
Contrary to claims by Indian election authorities, the paperless
electronic voting systems suffer from significant vulnerabilities.
Even brief access to the machines could allow dishonest election
insiders or other criminals to alter election results.
Just a pocket-sized device could be used to change the votes stored in
the EVM between the election and the public counting session.
3. • Our main plan is to conduct a
yearly based examination. The
candidates that clear the
examination will be awarded a
degree which will enable them to
contest for the elections
henceforth.
• It will be a computer based online
examination.
• Funding will be provided by the
election commission.
• EVMs do not provide the
transparency required in a
democracy.
• Indian election authorities have
repeatedly claimed that the voting
machines are tamper-proof, but the
Indian EVMs are susceptible to easy
hacking.
• The solutio is Voter- Verifiable
Paper Audit trial or Pre i t-Count
Opti al “ a Voti g syste . It ill
involve a paper vote record along
with a digital recording system.
• In addition to the above
solutions, we have proposed
some changes in the existing
system which is the root
cause of criminalization,
corruption and dynastic
politics.
4. OutlineQualification
• Max. age limit would be 70
years and the candidate must
not be convicted of a crime.
• Passed in the Higher
Secondary examination
conducted by CBSE/ State
board or its equivalent.
• Have some prior political
background (as intern in any
political party or part of local
bodies like Panchayat and
Municipal Cooperation.
PaperPattern
• Socio-economic conditions of the region.
• Geographical conditions and biodiversity of
region as well as disaster management
techniques
• Major problems faced by the people in past.
• Heritage and History.
• SRT ( Situation Reaction Test) which is
successfully used in defense services for
psychological tests).
• Law, Economics, management, governance ,
constitution, social justice and International
Relation.
• General problems and overall condition of
the state/ nation as whole.
Execution
• The exam will be conducted
in both English and Hindi
Languages.
• Conducting an exam for 543
separate constituencies is not
feasible.
• Certain no. of constituencies
will be clubbed to make a
region and there would be
one Centre per region.
• In each Centre there would
be 3 shifts having invigilators,
technical persons and staff.
• Examination would be
conducted online using
servers taken on lease.
• For maintaining the
transparency in the
evaluation process the OMR
cum answer scripts of the
candidates would be up for
public display (online).
• Exam will be conducted every
year.
• The candidates that clear the
examination will be awarded a
degree which will henceforth
enable them to contest the
elections
• Maximum no. of attempts would
be 3.
Pass
Criteria
• Min. 60% marks should be
secured in each section.
• 60% weightage would be
given to the exam and 40%
to the past political
experience.
Why?
Why do we need to have an examination? The answer is that the
education of a person has to be relevant to the job he does. A
government official may have a degree in engineering or
management, but what he/she really needs primarily is
knowledge of the laws of the land and the constitution, and
knowledge of economics so that he can review budget proposals
and gauge the fiscal impact of the bills he/she has to vote upon.
A government official should also have basic knowledge about all
fields of human endeavour, because Parliament, State Assemblies
and Local Bodies legislate on a wide variety of issues that may
require knowledge about various fields.
5. CENTRE CONSTITUENCIES COVERED
SURAT Surat, Valsad, Navsari,
Dangs, Bharuch, Narmada.
AHMEDABAD Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar,
Kheda, Vadodara, Dahod,
Anand, Panchamhals.
MEHSANA Mehsana, Banaskantha,
Patan, Sabarkantha.
KACHCHH Kachchh
RAJKOT Rajkot, Jamnagar, Surendranagar.
JUNAGADH Junagadh, Porbandar,
Amreli, Bhavnagar.
•Let us consider the case of Gujarat. There
are 25 constituencies in Gujarat and there
would be roughly around 2500 candidates
(here we have presumed that on an average
there would be 100 candidates per
constituency).
•Thus, the entire state would be divided into
6 regions and the exam would be conducted
at 6 Centre, the papers being different for
each region. There would be around 420
candidates at each Centre.
•Taking similar assumptions for the other
states and union territories There would be
approximately 55000 candidates in total
and 126 Centres would be required to
conduct the exam. No. of students
appearing for the examination in a day will
be around 9000. Thus, approximately 6 days
would be required.
Online examination conducted annually
by a separate body under the Election
Commission.
6. TotalFundingRequired
(Annually)
Organization
Cost
Technology
Cost
Miscellaneous
Cost
Invigilation
Tech support at
centers
Staff
(Election
Commission +
Experts)
Per session needs 2 invigilators
at INR 500 each.
Per session 1 required at INR
1000 .
Chairman and Supervisors
(election commission)
Experts at central and local level
to finalize and evaluate the
paper (around 400 required).
Hardware &
Software
Technical Support
6 Servers needed(on lease).
Each server lets 500 computer s
run at a time so 3000 students
at once. Software would be
developed for the examination
Software designers and
hardware experts needed for
setups in all centers
Postal &
Advertisement cost
Stationery, papers
and other things
needed.
Examination Hall tickets, other
details about the exam and
promotion.
Rough Papers, OMR sheets, and
other things required.
INR 25 Lacs
INR 25 Lacs
INR 40 Lacs
INR 25 Lacs
INR 40 Lacs
INR 15 Lacs
Centres would be Government Colleges, thus no cost of Centres.
Registration forms would cost INR 50.
Total Funding of 1 cr and 70 lacs would be required (from Govt. bodies annually).
7. • The processor in the
EVM is designed so
that the election
software is hard to read
out. Election officials
claim this is a security
feature, but it makes it
difficult for even the
authorities to verify
that the correct
software is in the EVMs
• An application that
runs on an Android
mobile phone and
wirelessly tells the
dishonest display
which candidate
should receive the
stolen.
• Criminals could replace
the display in the EVM
with a dishonest look-
alike, shown here. Added
parts (small chip can be
hid that changes the
results and a Bluetooth
radio can be fitted so as
to wirelessly signal so as
to decide who should
win), hidden under the
LEDs, that substitute
bogus vote totals when
showing election results.
votes
Indian election authorities have repeatedly claimed that the voting machines are tamper-proof. Security
researchers have already come up with ways in which criminals can tamper with the machines to steal votes
and change the outcome of the election.
• An attack device that
clips on to the
memory chips inside
the EVM and steals
votes. The clip-on
attack device is small
enough to fit in a shirt
pocket. A rotary
switch allows the
attacker to select
which candidate to
favor.
8. Idea1.
One option that can be used is
Voter- Verifiable Paper Audit
trial , hi h o i es a ele tro i
record stored with a paper vote
record that can be audited by
hand. To update an existing EVM
and have it attached to a printer is
estimated to cost anything
between Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 10,000.
And if all the EVMs are to be
updated, the total cost would work
out to nearly Rs. 1,000 Crore.
However, of the 11 lakh existing
EVMs, only 4 lakh are compatible
with printers. The remaining
cannot even be updated. This
paper trail can be seen by the voter
soon after he casts his vote, after
which it will automatically sever
from the printing roll and drop into
a box.
Idea2.
Other option is using
Precinct-Count Optical Scan
Voting system, the voter will
fill out paper ballot scanned
by a voting machines at the
polling station before being
placed in the ballot box. The
paper will be an OMR sheet
and the voting machine, a
OMR sheet scanner. The
ballot will store the paper
vote record and the scanner
will save the digital record.
10.25 lakh Machines will be
used costing Rs. 615 Crore
(including installation and
software cost).
Idea3.
Third opinion is to
return to simple paper
ballot. Despite of all
their known
weaknesses, simple
paper ballot provides
the highest degree of
transparency.
EXECUTION
9. Parties accumulate huge money in the form
of anonymous donations and use for the
funding of all types of malpractices during
election.
As per sources:
Congress has around 1200 Crore anonymous
donations
BJP has around 800 Crore of anonymous
donation
SOLUTION
• 98% of the donations to parties are
anonymous. So the rule that donations less
than Rs.20,000 can be anonymous must be
changed and every donation must be
acknowledged. Also the sources of
donations must be verified i.e. the
accounts of the donators must be properly
checked
• Political parties should come under RTI
• Their accounts must be strictly audited by
the Public Accounts Committee (PAC)
which currently audits the expenditure of
the Government of India.
• The CBI should be made a separate body
like the Supreme Court of India, with no
interference from the central government.
Misuse of power and position by ministers to
accumulate huge sums of money and use it
for funding elections is very rampant. And
the use of Hawala system for money
laundering is a major cause. Highly
complicated nexus between Hawala brokers,
builders and politicians is used to convert
the black money of politicians into white
money so that it can be easily used
SOLUTION
• This nexus can be broken if foreign nations
are persuaded to share information .
• A special vigilant cell of Income tax
department to be made which exclusively
traces Hawala money.
• Information given by candidates in their
affidavits will cease to have any useful
effect if its correctness and accuracy are
not ensured. It is therefore recommended
that the information given in the affidavits
of the candidates on criminal charges,
assets etc. should be verified by an
independent central authority in a time
bound manner.
• The details of the assets declared by the
candidate should be audited by the Public
Accounts Committee or a special
committee formed under it.
PARTYLEVEL
INDIVIDUALLEVEL
10. Judicial reforms
Political and electoral reforms can only be
initiated through Judicial reforms
Indian Judicial system is very slow
Until convicted of his crime the criminal
candidate become immune and free to
stand for elections
Dynastic Politics
Usually members of a high profile political
party stand foe elections from a particular
constituency. That constituency becomes
GA‘H of that fa ily.
Example Raebareli Gandhi family, Mainpuri
Yadav family
SOLUTION
• Fast Track Courts(FTC) were created, after
recommendation by the Eleventh Finance
Commission, for disposal of long pending
sessions and other cases. The funds for
the same was provided by the Ministry of
Fi a e. “i ilar FTC s should e reated
under the existing FTC for the high profile
cases of politicians and administrators.
And these FTCs should have a minimum
number of cases that must be solved
within a month
• Example:- limit for a rape trial under IPC
376 can be 150 days. Currently normal
time taken for the same is about 12 to 10
years. Thus time reduced by around 14
times.
SOLUTION
Immediate family members of the sitting MP
or MLA should be debarred from the next
elections of the same constituency.
