E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

150 Contextualising Gandhian ThoughtNow, when one makes a critical appraisal of thefunctions that this Voters' Organizations is willing to undertake,one sees that they are the very functions that political partiesundertake today. It can thus be seen that, whatever the name bywhich the organisation is known, representative democracyneeds an organisation that performs the functions that havebeen identified by the Voters' Organisation or Parties, Theorganisation may be called a 'Voters Union' or a party. No oneshould resent a spade being called an agricultural implementwith a sharp edged broad metallic blade and a wooden handle.It will, it has to, perform the same functions.A Voters' organisation does not represent all votersmerely because of the name that it uses, or because its doors areopen to all. Other voters who have different opinions andinterests may form similar unions and use similar names. Avoters' Organisation will itself have to tolerate and respectdissent. Nor does a candidate become a "peoples' candidate"because such an organisation sets him up. He may have beenchosen more democratically, but he will still remain thecandidate of a section of the voters.It can well be said that today political parties (1) do nothave internal democracy (there are no regular or free electionsor adequate and free debate on policies and programmes); (2)impose arbitrarily selected candidates on the electorate; (3) donot promote the accountability of the candidate to theelectorate. There are many other grave defects in the politicalparties that we have in our country; including the casualattitude to their manifestos, their populism, their links withantisocial forces etc. It is not possible to go into all of them inthis paper. Nor is it possible to outline the corrective devicesthat have been tried in other countries, or the additionalmeasures that can be tried in our country.