Friday, April 08, 2011

Cash for votes in Tamilnadu

Distribution of cash to voters to purchase their votes is rampant in Tamilnadu. More than Rs.50 crore has already been seized by the Election Commission. Unfortunately the matter stops there. No further step is taken against the violators of democratic norms. Unintercepted cash may run into thousands of crore rupees.
To start with, some penalties must be imposed on distributors of cash. For example, for every Rs.1 crore seized, the guilty political party should be made to lose one seat among the victors from that party. The loss must be in that constituency where that party has won by the narrowest margin. The person who has gathered the next maximum number of votes should be deemed elected in that constituency.
If deterrent steps are not taken, corruption to make up for cash distributed will snowball from election to election.

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