February 9: At a time when the electorate across the country bewails the lack of quality candidates in the forthcoming Parliamentary elections, an organisation has sent a letter to the President of India and the Election Commission, asking for the right to `veto'.The Majithia Foundation Trust has called for a separate column in the ballot paper along with the names of the candidates, wherein voters can impress the seal should they find none of the candidates worthy of their vote. If the veto votes garner the majority in a constituency, the election should stand cancelled and another election should be conducted at the expense of the political parties. According to the Trust, the vetoed candidates should then be banned from contesting any election in that constituency for the next five years.Navinchandra Majithia, the brain behind the scheme, claims that this could be one of the ways of "weeding out evil elements in politics". "What is happening now is not an election but a selection, from badcandidates or parties," he claimed. This method of voting will also prevent political parties from fielding unpopular candidates. "It will be an effective method of using your constitutional right and duty to vote to cleanse the political system," he added.But negative voting does not seem to be in the priority list of either the government or the Election Commission right now. A top official at the Commission, under the condition of anonymity, empathised with the idea but did not feel it was fit to be considered. "In India, people are more concerned with roti, kapda aur makan. For them political considerations come only afterwards," he said. He advocated educating the voters before indulging in constitutional amendments. "Such ideas can be implemented only when people are free from hunger," he observed. He also felt that the country could not afford an-election-a-day. Politicians, on their part, abhor the very idea of being banned from their constituencies because the voters do not want themthere."The ballot paper is a sacred document containing the candidates names, it is no place for such nonsense," thundered Murli Deora, the Congress candidate in South Mumbai. He ridiculed the idea saying that he had never heard of a more absurd one before in his life. Mohan Rawle, an "authentic candidate" of the Shiv Sena from Mumbai South Central, refused to comment on the issue saying that his words would be taken as party policy.Pramod Mahajan, the BJP candidate from Mumbai North East, supported the demand for negative voting "though on a personal level". "But when the choice is from bad and worse, there is little that the voter can do," he added. But he felt that the scheme's success would depend on a sustained campaign by an individual or an organisation throughout the constituency, something which is not feasible.What should a voter do if he is unable to find an eligible candidate? "Try going home," is the sane advice of Deora.
