If proxy voting is meant to make it easier for NRIs to exercise their franchise and save up on travel costs, then why shouldn’t the same facility be extended to a migrant worker within India? This and many other questions were raised at a meeting of the Parliamentary panel on External Affairs headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday.
The committee was briefed on “Voting Rights to NRIs” by MEA Secretary (Economic Relations) Vijay Keshav Gokhale and Secretary, Legislative Department, G. Narayana Raju.
The Cabinet in August last year had cleared an amendment to the Representation of the People Act, which allows NRIs to vote by proxy, a facility only available till now to armed personnel and certain offices notified by the Election Commission.
“What is the justification to allow proxy voting for NRIs? The government claims it is too expensive for them to come and vote in India. Going by this very logic what about migrant workers? Where do they find time and money to come back home to vote,” one of the MPs who attended the meeting said. According to him, the government did not have a clear reply. “They simply evaded the question by saying that it does not cost the same to travel within India compared to flying in from abroad. The explanation is not very convincing. Everyone should get an equal opportunity,” the MP added.
Fears of misuse
According to sources, except for one BJP MP all others on the panel were unanimous in their opinion that proxy voting can be easily misused.
“Proxy voting is open to manipulation. The government should have explored a technically sounder way to get NRIs to vote. If money can be transferred online then why not votes. They need to find a more robust mechanism,” an opposition MP said.
The panel members also asked how to have secret ballot in proxy voting. “When the government is promoting e-banking then why not have e-voting. If e-banking is safe then e-voting too should be,” another MP said.
Data shows that only 10,000 to 12,000 NRIs have voted because they do not want to spend foreign currency to come to India for this purpose.
Incidentally, the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill 2017 was not referred to any standing committee.
It was introduced in the Lok Sabha in the recently concluded winter session and has not yet been debated on.
