Responses and recommendations on how India should react are coming from all directions and people from all strata of the society. I am totally amazed by the public reaction be it my driver, our building’s lift operator, to our milkman, everyone is disgusted with the politicians of India. Be it of any party and any relegion, they just hate them and DON’T Blame Pakistan or any outside power for these attacks. For many years, India and its people were aware of all the issues...the problem was it was not FIXED...by these corrupt, uneducated and hopeless politicians.

Here is a very intersting perspective from a friend Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Member of Parliament (independent) and President FICCI which is a leading trade association in India.

Presenting you his thoughts with his permission:

Introduce Recall Provision in Constitution to make Elected representatives more accountable

The attack on Mumbai is over. Many hundreds of innocents have died and many hundreds injured and many thousands traumatized. The terrorists are dead, Hotels are boarded up, NSG and the Army are back to the barracks after a job well done and people are back on the streets.

“A lack of political leadership is to blame,” The WSJ wrote. “Yesterday Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised that ‘every perpetrator would pay the price’. Yet his Congress Party has done little more than bicker with its coalition allies over the past five years on how best to fight terrorism,” WSJ continued.

And so the fear and anger remains. The anger is at our Government for being ineffective and inept, at our Political class for being insensitive and callous and at our bureaucracy for being slow to respond.

Its hard not to sympathize with and support this anger, but its vital to make sure this anger is well directed and has the desired effect on the government and ruling class. The effect of change! Change in the way we as a nation take on this war of terror. Change in the way the Police and law enforcement agencies are managed and politicized, Change in the way Central and State intelligence agencies communicate, Change in the way the central agencies themselves communicate, Change in the way terrorists or terror supporters are hunted and prosecuted! But most importantly, is the change we seek from our leaderships, in the critical department of accountability in general and in particular for security and safety for all Indians.

This last change can be achieved by amending the constitution to include the power to Recall. This is a powerful tool that shatters the comfort zone of the Indian Ruling class that once elected, there’s no way to hold them accountable for performance till the next election, and that too only if they re-contest. This gives them a free ride till the next election for the term of legislature. To quote a leading foreign Journal “the ruling party may pay a price for its incompetence at the national polls next year”. This time mercifully there is a referendum on the government a few months away, but the normal five years is seemingly too long a window for mal-performance to go unpunished.

Thus for some serious areas of mal-governance, malfeasance, citizens could recall the individual they have elected to the legislature. That seems to me, the only sustainable solution to the problem of legislative and Government performance.

Recall elections was one of the major reforms in the United states during early 20th century. Recall elections are currently prohibited in the federal system but a number of states in the US allow recall elections in local jurisdictions. In 2003, Governor Gray Davis of California was recalled over mismanagement of the state budget.

Some of the recalls in the US in recent times are:

• 1994 recall of officials in River Vale, New Jersey
• 1995 recall of Paul Horcher, California State Assemblyman
• 1995 recall of Doris Allen, Speaker of California State Assembly
• 2002 recall of Mayor Woodrow Stanley, Flint, Michigan
• 2003 recall of Governor Gray Davis of California
• 2005 recall of Mayor James E West of Spokane Washington

Canada and Venezuela also have provisions in their constitutions for recall representatives on specific grounds. Article 72 of the Constitution of Venezuela enables the recall of any elected representative, including the President. This provision was used in the 2004 referendum, which attempted to remove President Chavez.

Article 72: All [...] offices filled by popular vote are subject to revocation.

Once one-half of the term of office to which an official has been elected has elapsed, a number of voters representing at least 20% of the registered voters in the affected constituency may petition for the calling of a referendum to revoke that official’s mandate.
When a number of voters equal to or greater than the number of those who elected the official vote in favor of the recall, provided that a number of voters equal to or greater than 25% of the total number of registered voters vote in the recall referendum, the official’s mandate shall be deemed revoked and immediate action shall be taken to fill the permanent vacancy as provided for by this Constitution and by law.

The argument against Recall Elections is that it’s cumbersome and can create further confusion in our already noisy parliamentary democracy that’s always in the midst of some election or the other. But the recall provision along with amendment that allow State elections and Central elections only simultaneously, will be the key reforms required – that will encourage and incentivize a culture of governance and accountability in our democracy and that’s what the people of India want.

“Wednesday’s attacks should arouse Indians to better confront the terror threat, while reminding all democracies how dangerous that threat still is,” was what an International Journal said in its editorial. One of the lasting changes we can make in this moment of anger and in this current national mood of defiance and change, is to get more accountability and responsiveness in our Government’s present and future. The power to recall puts the power back in the hands of the people who elect these governments.370968