New Delhi, February 11 (IANS). Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha advocated ‘Right to Recall’ in the Upper House of Parliament, i.e. the right to remove elected representatives before the completion of their term.
He said that there is no concrete accountability system for the work of MPs and MLAs in the country, which needs to be changed.
Speaking during Zero Hour, Chadha said there was a major flaw in the current system. Before elections the leader is behind the people and after the elections the people are behind the leader. His argument was that in today’s fast-paced world, a tenure of five years is too long. If the wrong leader is chosen then the future of millions of people and the entire region can go into darkness and backwardness.
Raghav Chadha said that voters should get the right to correct their mistakes. He described ‘Right to Recall’ as not a weapon against leaders but as ‘insurance for democracy’.
Giving examples of the Constitution and laws, he said that there are systems in the country like impeachment of the President, removal of the Vice President and judges and no-confidence motion against the government, then why should the public not have the right to remove non-performing MPs and MLAs?
Raghav Chadha said that this system exists in more than 24 democratic countries of the world, which include Canada and Switzerland.
He cited the example of US California Governor Gray Davis in 2003, who was removed from office with the consent of 55 percent of voters in a special election after 1.3 million people signed signatures on issues such as the energy crisis and budget mismanagement.
Referring to such a system at the local level in India too, Chadha said that in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, Gram Panchayat representatives can be removed through the Gram Sabha.
To prevent misuse, he suggested that the recall process should be started only after completion of at least 18 months of tenure, there should be clear grounds for removal and the consent of at least 50 percent voters is necessary. He believes that with this, parties will field better candidates, non-performing leaders will be removed and democracy will be strengthened.
–IANS
VKU/ABM