Bill No. 179 of 2022: A great opportunity to 'truly democratize' Indian polity and political parties

Internal elections to all party posts, ECI monitored internal elections, code for internal elections – progressive steps indeed.

Mr. Manish Tewari, an INC MP representing Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha constituency in the 17th Lok Sabha, got the opportunity to table a crucial private member bill in the ongoing winter session of our parliament. Normally, private member bills and their ordeal hardly grab any headlines in Indian media and popular discourse and this bill is no exception either, and, we as a democratic polity should work towards improving it. Let’s begin this exercise with a noble and benevolent idea that is the need of the hour for the face of Indian politics. Here’s the official link for the bill text: AS Bill EV Bill No. 179 Manish Tewari Constt324.indd 

The bill (officially Bill No. 179 of 2022) seeks to amend the Indian Constitution suggesting two crucial changes aimed at – 1) Strengthening the institutional edifice of Election Commission of India by ensuring that the appointments to the position of Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners is rule-driven and more transparent. It also seeks to provide safety of a fixed term and tenure to all such election commissioners and prohibits their appointment to other constitutional or governmental positions post their retirement from ECI.

Shri Manish Tewari in Lok Sabha (Representative Image)

This provision plugs in all the concerns that the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has been voicing out over the past few weeks in the tussle between the Union Govt. and the Judiciary. 2) Working towards truly democratizing the internal functioning of all Indian political parties through monitoring and regulation of their corresponding value systems and protocols while also ensuring the prevalence of inner-party democracy through periodic and fair in-party elections to all executive and political positions and offices of the corresponding political party. This process is entrusted to ECI, albeit temporarily, until ECI evolves a “Model Election Code (MEC)” which all the registered political parties should incorporate into their respective political party constitutions, yes, even political parties have their own constitution. What’s more? Any Registered Political Party which fails to abide by these proposed amendments shall be penalized by the ECI. A bold idea indeed and, rightly so!

A treat that is hard to beat!

Usually, politics, as a profession, across the world, is confined only to elite group, meaning some prominent people who belong to rich or well-off communities or professions. Individuals and leaders belonging to lower-and-middle-income families seldom get an opportunity to get party tickets despite their noble ideals, leadership characteristics and conviction towards public service. Constitutional democracies are meant to provide a level-playing field to ensure that such leaders with necessary ideological clarity, leadership skills and public service capabilities despite belonging to humble socio-economic family backgrounds get an opportunity to – grow with-in the political party they are affiliated with; put-forth their agenda and vision among people (constituents) and win electoral contests.

Hitherto, India never had such an ecosystem in place. An average young person in India has naturally developed a greater degree of aversion towards politics as a profession than any of his/her counterparts have ever had across similarly placed democratic party systems in different countries.

Good for political parties too

Political parties understand that the current game of polity which is, generally speaking, wholly based on money and muscle-power is not sustainable at all. Add to this are the perils of in-party factionalism that are making the lives of political leadership deeply miserable across the party lines. National parties always witnessed a threat of collapse of their own party structures in a given state or region due to the enormous weight of multiple conflicting and contradicting factions under their wings. This could be significantly minimized when we let the party karyakartas decide whom they want to choose as their leaders and representatives with-in their vicinity. This ensures cohesion and trust among conflicting groups and provides an adequate motivation for the skilled leaders to grow with-in the party and on the electoral landscape improving their own image and presence and that of their corresponding party too. It brings a greater degree of harmony and contributes to social and democratic maturity of Indian polity and society as a whole.

This opportunity is indeed a rare one. Political parties and vested interests may not take this bill seriously. Hence, we need to act, and act quickly! I request voters to go through the bill text (hardly about 2 pages) and express their support to the bill by sending an email to their respective MPs in both houses of Parliament.

Email IDs and other Contact information of ALL incumbent Members of Parliament (MPs) can be found here:

Members : Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha