Justice Jasti Chelameswar, former Supreme Court judge, has said that the manner in which people are exercising their right to vote and their apathy to it in the context of the growing abuse of money power in elections are a matter of serious concern.
“While the Election Commission of India (ECI) strives to conduct free and fair elections, the electorate should contribute to that goal by thwarting the attempts to vitiate the democratic process,” Justice Chelameswar said while delivering the keynote address at a roundtable on ‘Democracy - The significance of Right to Vote’ organised by the Citizens for Democracy (CfD) here on March 27 (Wednesday).
“Vote is a weapon in their hands, but it has to be used without fail and in the desired way to ensure that democracy thrives,” he exhorted.
Justice Chelameswar said Indian democracy had come a long way from the days when the Right to Vote was held by the apex court as a mere statutory right, to gaining wider acceptance as having the constitutional sanctity decades later.
An authoritarian government could go to the extent of repealing the Representation of the People Act and do other things that alter the basic structure of the Constitution to dangerous effects if one were to assume that there was nothing beyond legislation, he observed.
The issues at stake now were spending of huge sums by the candidates contesting the elections (an MP candidate spending up to ₹50 crore, which was the case a decade ago) and recovering it post-victory to be in the race again five years later, and the indifference to the need to stem the rot by properly exercising the right to vote, he said.
Political rhetoric would always be there, but it was up to the people to send the deserving candidates to the Parliament and Legislative Assemblies so that democracy and its institutions could be protected and the future generations live in dignity.
“Democracy should be safeguarded through eternal vigilance, and only those who can take both bouquets and brickbats in their stride have the right to talk about democracy,” Justice Chelameswar added.
CfD president and former High Court judge G. Bhavani Prasad, secretary and former State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar, joint secretary V. Lakshmana Reddy, former Vijayawada Mayor Jandhyala Sankar, noted physician G. Samaram and Siddhartha Law College principal Ch. Divakar Babu were present.
