New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS) The urgent need of the country is freedom from self-serving leaders who run politics as commercial shops, prominent Right To Information (RTI) activist Subash Chandra Aggarwal wrote in an article on the eve of the Independence Day.
‘Freedom from self-serving politicians will automatically provide freedom from many such evils like corruption and crime,’ Aggarwal wrote.
‘We want freedom from a system which keeps away talented and public-spirited personalities like Aruna Roy and Arvind Kejriwal from even dreaming to enter it for public good,’ the article said.
‘Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is taken as an icon of honesty, could not win an election to the Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament). It is because the present system is tailored for tycoons who have corrupt money to spend on freebies in the elections,’ Aggarwal wrote.
The RTI activist suggested that the prime minister and chief ministers be elected by ‘secret and compulsory vote of members of parliament and state assemblies through electronic voting machines on nominations signed by at least one-third of the members’.
‘Such an elected leader could be removed by same process but with the condition of naming alternate leader in the same motion. Even speakers and deputy speakers should be elected simultaneously with chief ministers in the same manner,’ he suggested.
On the Women’s Reservation Bill, he wrote: ‘Till the Women’s Reservation Bill becomes a law, political parties should give at least one-third of the party tickets to women as per the ice-breaking formula from Election Commission.’
