From time immemorial various cultures and religions have goaded people to be benevolent in the service of people, particularly the disadvantaged. They have been promised heaven in return for their service. However, we all know how successful such preachings have been in motivating bulk of the people towards service to the society. Today, if those in a position of power in India do not take bribes for doing what is expected of them, they are fools and are belittled. Worth of people is measured in terms of how much money he or she rakes up, not what they have done for the society.
If all positions of power in society were made to depend upon helpfulness towards society, we will find an abundance of kindness and compassion in society as opposed to the current gout of I oathsomeness and arrogance. Such a change of heart will be a true revolution indeed. Apparently, to measure one’s helpfulness towards society we will have to ask society itself regarding the goodwill of a person interested in getting positions of power, i.e. take society’s vote.
Whole state as one consituency: However, under our current electoral mode, known as plurality system or first-past-the-post (FPTP), people elect a single person as a winner of the election, with the rest declared losers. Under our current system of election with single seat constituencies, relatively small parties even with the support of as many as 10-15% voters may end up winning very few seats of power. It does not have to be that way. This unfair situation can be changed via what we call “Towards Total Democracy” (TTD).
It is an extended and modified form of open-party-list- Proportional-Representation (opl-PR) system of election. It should be noted that at present nearly half of the democratic countries in the world, including all of Europe, with exception of England and France, use one or the other form of PR or semi-PR.
Whole states will be considered to constitute single constituencies. Each of the voters will be asked to cast votes in favor of, say, a total of ten individual candidates from one or more parties. Candidates’ votes would be added to the candidates’ respective party-votes. The voters can vote by collecting fliers of the candidates they like best, carrying their top ten choices to the polling booth and stuffing the fliers of their ten favorites (or any other paper identifying the names voter’s favorite candidates) into an envelope supplied to them at the booth and casting the same into a ballot-box. ‘Seats of various level legislative bodies like Parliament, its Assembly, Zila Parishad, Block Council and Panchayat, may all be filled in a single electoral process, as described below. Not only that, even various bureaucratic, police and judicial positions can be filled from the same vote, as described underneath.
After voting, each of the parties may be allocated a party-quota of seats in proportion to the votes obtained by them. Parties would be supposed to fill their party- quotas of seats for Lok Sabha with their top vote-getting candidates. All such party-quotas (of various parties) may be put together in a master-list and serialized in descending order of votes obtained by various candidates. The rest of the candidates may also be serialized in descending order of votes. We will call such a list an auxiliary-list.
Master list: Off the top of the master-list each of the candidates will be declared eligible to a seat in Lok Sabha. However, they would be given the option of taking charge of one of bureaucratic or police or judial positions that may have fallen vacant, provided the candidate has appropriate qualifications and experience. If someone does choose to become a bureaucrat or a judge, all of those below him/her in the master-list will be pushed up a notch. At the bottom of the master-list a candidate close to the top of the auxiliary-list will be pushed up into the bottom of the master-list. This candidate from the auxiliary-list will be of the same party as the one who chose to become something other than an MP, subject to the constraints of various segmental quotas for women, SC/ST/OBCs, etc.
After all the Lok Sabha seats are filled, from the remaining candidates a new master-list can be created for filling the Assembly seats. Again, the leftover candidates may be serialized in a new auxiliary-list. Filling Assembly seats will be done just the way the state’s share of Parliament seats was filled. Many of the bureaucratic, police and judicial positions too will be filled off the same master-list. The process may be continued to fill the seats in: Zila Parishad, Block Council and Panchayat.
It would not be difficult to satisfy various min-quotas for various segments of society. Suppose we need to fill 50 of the seats by women. Suppose in the master- list for Lok Sabha, there happen to be only 30 women. We would have to pull in 20 female candidates having largest number of votes in the auxiliary list (close to the top of the auxiliary-list but below the master-list) into the master-list at the expense of 20 male candidates close to the bottom of the master-list.
Those who had the misfortune of being forced to make room for women should have consolation that they would be able to win seats in the Assembly. Likewise, those who would just have missed an Assembly seat may rest assured of seats in the next level below the Assembly (i.e., in the Zila Parishad).
Thus, all of those in legislative or non-legislative positions will owe their positions, fully or partially, to the public’s votes for them. This will make all of them obedient to the public sentiment and prevent them from stepping over public’s toes, as opposed to current practice of arrogant and conceited government servants.
Even in the private sector, the employers may be strongly encouraged to take popularity of their employees in the public’s eyes by taking into account votes obtained by them. This may be done by giving a suitable tax break for the high popularity of their employees. The government can even encourage diversity by ensuring an appropriate mix of various segments of the population among its employees by giving tax- breaks for diversity as well. In this fashion, for getting any position of power, helpfulness to the public will be helpful. it will promote benevolence, compassion and good behavior towards all. Helpfulness may also be promoted in schools and colleges by making a course in “practical social work” compulsary at all levels of education, inculcating a habit of social work and benevolence among them from Ealy childhood.
Such a new system will cause a change in our culture from one of corruption, conceit and arrogance to one of politeness and goodwill towards all. This will be the true revolution. The new system will have many other benefits.
