campaign for electoral reforms in india

8/6/2019 Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India

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Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India (CERI)

Coordinators Meeting 05-06 July 2011

Booshakthi Kendra, Tumkur, Karnataka Almost all the State Coordinators of CERI met at the BooshakthiKendra, the Dalit Ashram on 05 and 06 July to take stock of situations in the State and to plan for the future campaign.

The following Coordinators and Special Invitees were present:

1. V B Rawat - Uttarakhand2. Ms. Jyothiraj - Karnataka3. Nara Singh – Manipur and North East

4. Manas Jena - Orissa5. Ms. Bibian - Tamilnadu6. Ms. Durga Jha - Charrishgarh7. Ahmmad Bai – West Bengal8. Vishwabandhu - Jharkhand9. Vivek - Coordinator10. Kalidos - Pondicherry11. IB Singh - Meghalaya12. Antony Debbarma - Tripura13. Anil Gaikwad - Maharashtra

14. Sebastian Vanaithan - Tamilnadu15. Korivi Vinakumar – Andhra Pradesh16. Shaji Krishnan - Kerala17. V K Joby – REDS Finance Manager18. Ms. Sushma Andhare - Maharashtra19. Ms. Archana Casmir – Booshakthi Kendra20. M C Raj

Moderators: V K Rawat and Sebastian

Jyothi welcomed and M C Raj gave the keynote.

Keynote Address

Friends, Brothers and Sisters

We look back at the Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India with asense of achievement and fulfillment. As the one who initiated thisCampaign in India I must confess that I did not anticipate this muchmoving forward. When we started off with our internationalconference in Dhaka in October 2008, none of us perhaps ever

imagined that we would come this long together in such a concertedmanner. In such a short period the Campaign and the issue of

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Proportionate Electoral System in India has gained a nationalvisibility much beyond our expectation. This visibility is a strongindication of a deeply embedded but also deeply buried aspirationof the people of India for an electoral alternative. It is evident thatthey have been groping in the dark this long as they did not even

know the existence of another electoral system. The British legacyseems to have blunted the political sensitivity of Indian public. Weare happy now about the fact that people all over the country havestarted waking up to the reality of Proportionate electoral system asa firm need for the future of the Indian people.

We are happy that we have been able to make alliances with manyMovements, minority groups, eminent NGOs and political parties.With a lot of other outfits we have registered their support for thecampaign. We are happy that the Campaign has found a mention inthe official website of the National Law Ministry of India apart fromthe National Media picking up the Campaign as a possiblealternative to the country in the context of the call by recentstruggles for electoral reforms by others.

This was also a period of camaraderie among us. Except a very fewwho started off with us the rest of us have remained steadfast in thecampaign through thick and thin. This bodes well for the future of the Campaign. That we have stuck together in spite of having ourown work in respective fields of activities and without muchfinancial returns either for us individually or for our organization is a

clear indication of our commitment to this country. I am proud of you and happy about all of you.

Even as we approach an era of new political thrust in our country wesee India plunging into a new type of crisis. The RSS, BJP and otherdisruptive forces have targeted on governance in the countrythrough backdoor entry. They hoist civil society actors to intrudeinto the mechanisms of governance in the country in order toachieve their hidden agenda. I am of the strong view that it is onlythe Parliament of India that has the right and duty to make laws inthe country and civil society cannot form parallel centers of

governance. India has a tradition of unconstitutional castegovernance for many centuries despite having one of the mostbeautiful constitutions in the world. I believe, it is the mission of CERI, to focus her energy on safeguarding constitutional governancein India. It is in this context that Proportionate Representationbecomes imperative at this point in history. Even the courts have noright to make laws in a democracy. Civil society has a role to play inensuring proper implementation of the Constitution and to exertpressure on the governments to bring about appropriate changes inthe Constitution according to changing needs of time. I believe that

in as much as governance is in crisis in this country civil society isalso leading itself into crisis after crisis through its callous

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proportional representation. This is also an area where yourpersonal challenge will come. As State Coordinators you arenot going to command much respect if you do not establishyourselves as opinion leaders. This is a campaign that needsstrong and in-depth opinion leaders and knowledge leaders.

Please take this as your immediate challenge and become thebest knowledge leader in your respective state onproportionate electoral system. This will be our sure path tosucceed in the Campaign faster than we anticipate. We shallalso leave no stone unturned in building many others asopinion leaders in your states.

• With such rock foundation, it will be of paramount importancefor the Campaign to move into the corridors of the Parliamentof India and State Assemblies asking elected members tobring about relevant Bills in the Parliament and StateAssemblies for proportionate electoral system in India. This isthe core mission of the next phase of our Campaign. In orderto facilitate this process CERI together with the Coordinator of the German Dalit Solidarity Platform has organized aWorkshop of electoral system experts in the world. Armedwith a policy document on proportionate electoral system,tailor-made for India, we shall be in a much stronger positionto prod and influence the elected members in India to take upthe issue of proportional representation.

Brothers and Sisters

Let us keep aside for the time being grassroots action on PR system.It will come. I request you to rise above grassroots without losingour roots among the people and become actors in appropriateimplementation of the Instruments and Mechanisms of governance.I want to bring to your attention that we can move mountains if webelieve in ourselves. We can do this. I believe I can do this. I firmlybelieve you can do it. I believe we can definitely do it together. Doyou believe you can do this? That is a crucial question that you areleft with.

I wish you all a lot of strength and courage for the coming years tocarry forward this very important mission in restoring egalitariangovernance and to ensure irreconcilable space for Dalits, Adivasis, Tribals, Indigenous Peoples, Most Backward Castes, minorities of allhue and cry and women of all shades.

Thank you

The States

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North East

There is a need for working harder to bring PR faster than weplanned. Sikking and Assam will have their State Conference beforethe end of September.

Tamilnadu

Happy to inform about the stand of the Dalit Panthers Party of Indiain Tamilnadu. Thol. Thiruma has given a public call for ProportionateElectoral System in India. One Southern Districts Convention tookplace. There was also a meeting of selected intellectuals for two fulldays at Booshakthi Kendra.

Maharashtra

Mr. Ramdas Athawale is organizing a conference for members of Parliament in Delhi on August 09. Anil and Vivek are working withhim to make this a success. Now Sushma Andhare has also joinedthe team.

Karnataka

Mainly signature campaign has taken place 213,000 and 216000 forland. Kannada Manifesto has been brought out.

Jyothi shared two reflections. We are looking at the present electoralsystem in the country. I like to bring a list of identified intellectuals.Bring them together for three days. Different questions that comeup should be addressed.

Orissa

Manas has identified about six MPs to be invited for the August 09Conference. There was a strong suggestion that the Manifesto beupdated with also the type of questions that have come up till now.Resource debate and governance need to be linked to the

campaign.

Andhra Pradesh

Vinay will call together senior people in Andhra for a discussion.

Chattishgarh is planning for a regional workshop in August.

Uttarakhand

UP and Uttarakhand – Every activity has a part for CERI. Planning toorganize a Chinthan Shibir. Pushing political outfit to take up

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leadership. Collected 15 to 20 thousand signatures. Meeting on 24 July in Gazipur.

Signature CampaignMaharashtra has already 15,000

Delhi has about 15,000Give hard copy to Dr. Nara and Mr. I B SinghKarnataka has collected 213000 Tamilnadu has 10,000Rajasthan has 10,000Andhra has 17,000

Jyothi suggested a recognition of all those who have worked for PRsystem in India.Rawat - Can we have a simultaneous skype conference in India withthe core group and the Berlin Workshop.

The Future

Even as the Group set out to plan for the future Raj read out thefollowing from his write up that he made after the Core Groupmeeting in Delhi a few months earlier.

1. CERI will organize a Workshop of Experts in Electoral Systemsfrom across the globe. This is aimed at working out an

electoral policy document that will be tailor-made for India. Allcountries have their specificity and problematic ingovernance. However, in order to render democracymeaningful it is of paramount importance that electoralsystems in democracies are made congruent to the professionof democratise principles in governance and the aspirations of the citizens of the country. This Workshop will take place inthe month of October 2011 in Berlin. M C Raj of CERI andWalter Hahn of German Dalit Solidarity Platform will jointlycoordinate this programme to its logical end.

2. In this second phase CERI plans to take the State Conferencesto Conferences for elected members of the Parliament at thenational level and elected members of State Assemblies. Bothtypes of Conferences will be organized by State Coordinators.It is possible that two or three State Coordinators will combinetogether to organize elected members conferences in two orthree states together. These conferences will be only for onefull day. There will be a total of 9 conferences for electedmembers of Parliament during the proposed project periodand six conferences for elected members in each state. The

number of elected members at state levels is taken onaverage as some states have less elected members and some

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have more.

3. CERI plans to organize a national consultation during thisphase on parliamentary procedures for key people who areinvolved in the Campaign. This is necessitated by the fact that

CERI does not want to be beating round the bush in terms of urging the Parliament of India to take up the issue of electoralreforms for discussion in the Parliament. There are technicalprocedures to do this. There are many ways and all avenuesneed to be explored scientifically and systematically so thatCERI does not waste its energy and imagination.

4. This need for building a team of experts in electoral systemshas been a felt need in almost all the states as in the nextphase CERI wants to move away from rhetoric to substantialintelligent talks. Potential intellectuals from different walks of life will be identified and learning events will be organized forthem mostly in Booshakthi Kendra but occasionally also atother places to educate them in different types of electoralsystems in the world so that in the likelihood of the Indianparliament taking up discussions, others outside of parliamentare enabled to talk with substance not only on PR system butalso on other electoral systems. Thus they will be able to buildtheir argumentation for PR systems with a substance that willbe much above the level of rhetoric.

5. The next phase of CERI is actually a drive towards taking upthe issue of proportionate electoral system to the corridors of the Parliament of India. Therefore, CERI will make concertedefforts to knock at the doors of Parliamentarians andLegislators and not only convince them but also pressurisethem to rake up this issue in the Parliament. In order to dothis, States will organize formal seminars and conferences forthem. It may not be possible to bring all of them together andit may not be a good thing to do that either. Therefore, theState Committees will carefully lobby with Parliamentariansand Legislators who will support the issue of proportionate

electoral system when it ultimately comes up for discussion inthe Parliament of India and also simultaneously take up thesame issue in State Assemblies.

6. It is planned that during this phase the Manifesto of CERI willbe published in as many languages as possible so that themessage spreads far and wide in India and also inneighbouring countries. M C Raj is also working on anotherresearched book on electoral systems and such a book will bepublished during the Campaign period. CERI also plans to fill

the country with pamphlets. This is aimed at educating themasses on the need for electoral reforms so that this second

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phase will naturally lead to the next phase where people willcome to the centre stage of the Campaign.

7. CERI Core Group will continue to meet regularly as it has donein the past. It has been strongly proposed to expand the Core

Group in order to have equal number of women. Each Statewill have one man and one-woman member in the CoreGroup. Since the number has been expanded the frequency of meetings has been reduced to two in a year.

8. State Coordination is a support that is provided to StateCoordinators from the Core Group and CERI Management forcommunications, stationary, support to one office staff andthe like. The 15 States that started the Campaign earlier aregiven this support a little more than the seven states thathave started the Campaign only towards the end of the firstphase. Thus proportionality is maintained within the group of State Coordinators.

9. The State Coordinators will have the freedom to move aboutin their respective states, according to what they plan in CoreGroup Meetings and motivate different levels of people towork voluntarily for the Campaign. A small support isenvisaged to the State Coordinators for their travels withinStates.

10. Management and Administration has been recastbecause of the changed situation in REDS. One seniormanagement staff of REDS has to be supported by CERI as heis working full time for CERI both at the national and at theinternational levels. His salary was maintained by REDS in thefirst phase of the Campaign with support from the DalitPanchayat Movement. This is no more possible in the secondphase as one of the major Donors from the Netherlands hasopted to withdraw from India. With this change we hope thatthe Campaign will not be affected in any way because of changes within REDS.

After long deliberations the group of CERI Coordinators made thefollowing decisions.

Decision 1

It was decided to declare 10 February to be declared Democracy Day in Indiaand signatures to be submitted to President and PM of India.

Decision 2

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It was decided to set up a Student Wing of CERI. The following persons havetaken responsibility for the task.

JyothirajSebastian

Bibian - Coordinator Nara SinghSangalp

Decision 3

It was decided to have a series of national conferences for elected Membersof Parliament in different regions of India during the next three years.

Coordinator for this Programme is Korivi Vinay Kumar

Other Members in this Committee are:

Nara SinghV B RawatManas Jena

Decision 4

It was decided to have a series of zonal conferences for elected members of Legislative Assemblies.

Zonal Coordinators

North East – Nara SinghNorth – V B RawatWest – Sushma AndhareEast – Manas JenaSouth – Sebastian

Decision 5

It was decided to have a national conference on Parliamentary Procedures for selected candidates from all over the country.

Coordination of this programme will be done by Manas Jena

Decision 6

It was decided to organize a national conference of women leaders who willtake up leadership positions in respective states for CERI. This will take placein September 2011.

Coordinators: Jyothiraj and Bibian

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Decision 7

It was decided to organize a series of in-depth learning on PR system for select intellectuals from each state. The trainings will generally take place inBooshakthi Kendra.

Coordinator – Jyothiraj

Decision 8

It was decided to set up an Executive Core Group from among theCoordinators to meet more often and take immediate administrative decisions.The Executive Core Group will consist of the following persons.

01. Mr. Korivi Vinay Kumar 02. Dr. Nara Singh

03. Ms. Sushma Andhare04. Mr. Vidya Bushan Rawat05. Fr. Sebastian Vanaithan06. Mr. Manas Jena07. Mrs. Jyothiraj08. Mr. Vivek Sakpal09. Mrs. Durga Jha10. Mr. M C Raj - Coordinator

Decision 9

It was decided to organize the following programmes in the next threemonths.

01. State Conference of Assam02. State Conference of Sikkim03. State Conference of Goa04. National Conference in Gurgaon by iCONGO05. National Conference of Members of Parliament06. Two Conferences in Andhra in August and September 07. One regional conference in Chattishgarh

08. One regional Conference in Maharashtra09. One in Southern Districts conference in Tamilnadu in July10. One regional conference in August in Erode11. One regional conference for Northern Tamilnadu in early October 12. One Day State level conference in Tamilnadu13. One Training for youth at district level in Tamilnadu,14. One Training for University Professors in Tamilnadu15. One documentary film and awareness songs in Tamil16. One alternative writers forum-a workshop17. One Students programme in Pondicherry18. One Writers programme in Pondicherry

19. Another State Conference in west Bengal

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Decision 10

It was decided to give a national call to Students to join the campaign andwork for Proportionate Electoral System in India. There will be a nationalconference of student leaders in January 2012.

Bibian will be in charge.

The Budget

Raj also laid before the group of coordinators the available budget that CERIhas managed to mobilize till now towards the future. The group decided tomake use of the available budget of INR 16 million judiciously in the nextthree years while trying to mobilize as much local resources as possible.

Special Discussion

The group made a special request to Raj to explain the 16 issues hehad identified for working on a tailor-made proportionate electoralsystem for India. These issues will be discussed in the Workshop of Electoral Systems Experts in Berlin in the month of October. Thegroup took more than half a day to go through slowly on theseissues and give their feedback too. The issues are the following:

1. What type of Proportionate Representation will be suitable for India?

2. Counting systems3. Surplus votes4. District magnitude5. Threshold6. Dalit/Adivasi/Tribal/Minority/women/MBC representation7. Gerrymandering8. Magnitude of the Parliament of India9. Bicameral system?10. Financing of elections and candidates11. Party List - open or closed?12. Voting Age in India

13. Ensuring Inner party democracy in candidate selection14. Ensuring that only candidates with more than 50% of votes are declaredwinners in direct election15. Scope for Independent Candidates16. Negative votes/Right to recall etc.

In a departure from general tradition all the participants stayed put till the endon the second day and left the venue with a sense of satisfaction for havinglearned so much and with a renewed determination to do more than what theydid till now to bring proportionate electoral system in India.

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