The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Democracy can’t be perfect: Krishnamurthy

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Monday, Sep 01, 2008
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Democracy can’t be perfect: Krishnamurthy

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: “Democracy is like a marriage. It cannot be perfect,” T.S. Krishnamurthy, former Chief Election Commissioner, said on Sunday.

He was speaking at the launch of his first book, ‘The Miracle of Democracy,’ organised by the Rajaji Centre for Public Affairs here.

Dealing with the state of democracy today, Mr. Krishnamurthy said political parties were the weakest link in the chain. The Venkatachalaiah Committee had made 22 recommendations for regulating the conduct of political parties, but none was implemented.

“A vicious cycle”

It is a vicious cycle in which the financial clout is used to win election, which is used to further increase the financial clout, said G.V. Ramakrishnan, a retired civil servant, who released the book. There was a difference between the electoral process and the electoral law, and more needed to be done to strengthen the electoral law.

If someone does not want to vote for any party, he or she should be able to mark ‘None of the above’ in the polling booth, Era Sezhian, former Member of Parliament, said. This voting is followed in countries such as Finland and Norway. It would send the parties a strong signal about how many people preferred to vote for them.

Speaking about the book, Mr. Krishnamurthy, who was the Chief Election Commissioner during the 2004 elections, said he had deliberately made an attempt not to make the book autobiographical. Instead, he chose to base it on the experiences he had with politicians and civil servants on whom, he said, the foundation of democracy rests.

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