Rattled government bows to Anna Hazare on MP recall

Anna Hazare's August gathering at Ramlila Maidan seems to have rattled the UPA government. Just a day after chief election commissioner (CEC) S. Y. Quraishi raised objections to Team Anna's proposal that calls for the "right to recall" a lawmaker, a jittery Centre, in an effort to placate Anna, said it is ready to reconsider his suggestion.

Law minister Salman Khurshid on Monday said Team Anna's proposal was being looked into by the government. The move seems to be an effort to take the thunder away from Anna's next course of action, which the Gandhian has already said would be to press for electoral reforms.

Khurshid said the proposal could be placed for consultation at an all-party forum on electoral reforms. The minister, however, admitted the right to recall was a difficult provision but said the government was working on that, indicating it has not been put in cold storage because of opposition.

"We have a strong lobby that is questioning us on the need to introduce the right to reject," Khurshid said at the Asian forum for global governance.

The statement comes as a surprise since Quraishi had been categorical that the right to recall could lead to logistical complications because of the enormity of the Indian electorate. "It is not possible at all in India, which is a large country. It is there in smaller countries like Switzerland. It can be there in a panchayat election, but not in bigger elections," Quraishi said on Sunday.

Khurshid agreed that the task would be very difficult. In a constituency of more than a million voters, he said it would be difficult to get signatures from 100,000 or 50,000 voters and then get them authenticated.
Yet, it seems the Anna factor is playing at the back of the government's mind as the law ministry has already prepared a note on the issue and even shared it with the election commissioner.

The note will also be placed before an all-party meeting which is likely to be convened later this month or in November.

Apart from the right to recall, a number of other proposals of electoral reforms were also up for discussion. Among it is a suggestion to introduce a provision wherein voters can reject a candidate and decide not to cast a vote.

But Quraishi said it would lead to frequent elections. " Our main fear is that if we start rejecting all candidates, we will have another election.

"The CEC said efforts should be taken so that tainted candidates do not take part in elections. But the proposal was met with stiff resistance from political parties on the grounds that false cases are often framed against politicians.

"We are only saying that at least those candidates be barred, who have serious charges like rape, kidnapping, murder and dacoity against them which would lead to imprisonment of more than five years and cases against whom are pending for more than six months prior to elections and against whom charges have already been framed by the court," Quraishi said.