Political Leadership in India

One of the biggest problems of Indian Democracy is that our top Political leaders are not elected Democratically. A lot has been said & written about India being the largest Democracy in the world. In spite of this our Government is very in-effective & incapable of bringing about changes that require urgent attention.

While Members of Parliament (MP) & Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA) are elected by the people through a Democratic process we have seen that very often Chief Ministers are not elected by elected MLA’s but nominated by the Political Party & then endorsed by the elected MLA’s. Political Parties feel that it is better to show consensus in electing their CM’s. I have a different view on this. This process leads to Loyalists & CM’s being more focused in aligning themselves with the so called Party High Command than taking the tough decisions necessary for the development of the State. Also the CM is convinced that as long as he / she are aligned with Party leadership there is no threat from within. We have seen this happen in past & also in recent appointment of Ashok Chavan as the CM of Maharashtra. I am sure that Ashok Chavan does not have the mandate of the people to become the CM. There were other opponents such as Narayan Rane in the race. I am not in favour or against any of the candidates, but why can we not have a process in which the elected MLA’s can choose their CM. A CM elected out of this process would be answerable to the elected MLA’s than the Party High Command. Political Parties fear that this would lead to open dissent. We have seen this system in many modern Democracies such as USA & UK at the highest as well. In India we have seen many in-effective PM’s & CM’s elected because of this process. The leader has lesser clout & power & subsequently becomes a rubber stamp in the hands of the Political Parties.

We have seen this happen in the Congress & some Regional Parties. Tomorrow if Ashok Chavan is in-effective, Congress will replace him with another Candidate. Where does all this lead for the people of Maharashtra. Who is answerable to the voters? Key decisions are not taking because information is tossed back & forth between Center & State.

There is a need to increase Competitiveness for the Leaders to make them more accountable to the people which will lead to better Governance & speedier Development of the Nation. The Congress party seems to be repeating the mistake of having elected the 1st Prime Minister through an undemocratic process. Great Leaders have taken tough decisions to set the right precedent for future Generations. George Washington refused to stand for the 3rd term in USA citing that it would set a wrong example for future leaders.

When will our leaders set a right precedent for the benefit of the nation?