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 Elections essential
There was one particularly disturbing statement made by the chairman of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) Dinshaw Mehta at the Anjuman meet held on November 12, 2011 at Rustom Baug: “No intermediate elections will be held till the code of conduct (CC) is ready.” This was subject to a minimum of five of the permitted seven trustees serving at any time.
The Jam-e-Jamshed Weekly of November 13, 2011 however carried an interview with Mehta taken prior to the meet in which he states, “amongst ourselves we have decided that henceforth we are not going to have an interim election (should the need arise) until 2015. So the urgency for adopting a Code of Conduct is not there; although it is very much on the agenda and we will be taking it up… After the last election things were very bad for a few months. But slowly we are back to working as a team again.”
The election may have split the trustees but that is an occupational hazard of politics. The community did not spend years lobbying for adult franchise to have elections conducted on the whims and fancies of the trustees. In too many anjumans and punchayets across India, elections are delayed, deferred or stalled indefinitely on some technicality or the other; the end result is that the people holding office continue to do so beyond their prescribed constitutional term.
Assume for a moment the trustees had decided to enforce their ban after the 2008 elections. Trustee Rustom Tirandaz died within a few months of holding office. Trustee Noshir Dadrawala was hounded out by his five co-trustees. This would have left five trustees of whom two, Khojeste Mistree and Yazdi Desai belong to the World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ). Had BPP trustee Jimmy Mistry supported them, as he did in the mid-2011 elections, Mehta and BPP trustee Arnavaz Mistry would have been sidelined. For all practical purposes WAPIZ would have controlled the BPP. [The same thing almost happened in 2007-2008 when under the archaic Anjuman Committee (AC) indirect system of electing trustees, WAPIZ packed their candidates on the AC.]
If the trustees were sincere about a CC they would have prepared one soon after taking office. Even now, formulating norms would not take more than one or two meetings. A draft could be publicized on their website, published in The BPP Review and feedback invited. They could also adopt the Representation of the People Act rules.
In the Parsi Times weekly of November 19, BPP trustee Muncherji Cama noted: “As promised at my very first meeting, I raised the issue of the Code of Conduct. Certain trustees wanted the Code of Conduct as outlined by the Election Commission and, as requested, by the next meeting I had circulated the Code of Conduct of the Election Commission of India.”
Cama expressed his thoughts on the CC “at my third meeting on July 19. Thereafter, at the meeting most trustees, whilst being receptive to my suggestions, wanted more time to think things over and also to study the Election Commission’s rules and guidelines. Thereafter the Code of Conduct appeared on the agenda more than once, but could not be taken up for discussion. It has now been postponed to a later date.”
But for the CC to be meaningful, monitoring and enforcement of the norms are essential. The Government of India and the Election Commission with all their machinery and statutory rights are unable to make candidates adhere to their allotted spending. A candidate for Parliament can legally spend up to Rs 25,00,000 (US$ 50,000) for an election. According to reports in the news media and elsewhere the main contenders spend over Rs 5,00,00,000 (US$ 1,000,000). Video clips show candidates handing 100 and 500 rupee bills to prospective voters. In some states, voters are promised and even given color television sets and laptops.
The phenomenon of “paid news” whereby candidates pay for flattering editorial coverage for themselves and adverse articles on their opponents in the news media is prevalent.
The BPP administration is fully stretched during the elections. To expect them to go around monitoring compliance with a CC is out of the question. Who then will watch over the contestants and their supporters? Political appointees will note the transgression of their opponents but remain silent on their own candidates’ lapses.
And pray what do we want in a CC? No free meals? No mudslinging? No posters? No loudspeakers? No door-to-door canvassing? No advertising? Surely these are all part and parcel of the electioneering process, matters on which the candidates can decide for themselves. Arnavaz Mistry did not distribute dinner boxes at her campaign meets before the October 2008 elections but still garnered the largest number of votes. Ours is a literate and intelligent community that knows how their candidates should conduct themselves. And if it does not, then what is needed is a voter education drive, more than an unenforceable CC.
The main requirement of any CC is to restrict the elected office bearers from meddling in the electoral preparations and polling. The management of the elections should be left to the non-partisan, presiding officers who are nominated by mutual consent.
The pressing need however is for a streamlined, modern day method to register voters. The BPP registration system is so archaic that it is an embarrassment. Even municipal elections have more up-to-date systems. The sole purpose of the present system appears to be to deter voters from registering. In 1980 the newly formed Committee for Electoral Rights had to struggle to obtain registration forms and faced hurdles in enrolling Parsis residing in the BPP colonies. Women married to non-Parsis had to move the Bombay High Court to exercise their right to vote. They faced the ignominy of having to submit an affidavit stating they had married under the Special Marriage Act, 1954 and continued to profess the Zoroastrian religion. Men who married non-Parsis were not required to submit any such docu- ment.
The BPP trustees’ duties are to facilitate elections, not bar or manipulate them. If a CC is required, it is as much to monitor the trustees’ role as the candidates’.
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