India needs drastic political reform

This refers to the editorial 'Total revamp of poll process need of the hour' (THI, April 18). Save Democracy from corruption in any form is the slogan of 21 Opposition parties which are up in arms against the current government.

Positively, they have a legitimate reason to be livid with the present indulgence and remind the nation the kind of zero intolerance which was witnessed during Emergency.

Even if routine administration is carried out, the Opposition would rush to the EC and demand that they be restrained from doing so and under the present circumstances, particularly in Andhra Pradesh, one would not be surprised if they say that no work should be done.

Despite the EVMs and VVPATs not functioning properly and polling got unduly delayed and went on till 4 am in certain places, the EC patted its own back saying they did a good job and that was supported by the main Opposition.

Had the EC made to fail? The people are now being in awe. No Institution can make voters suffer on the grounds of technical glitches. It is a known fact that money distribution in the run up to elections is fairly frequent in India, where voters are bribed with cash and liquor to vote for a particular party.

The EC always claims that it has seized huge amount of cash, gold and liquor. But there is no proper punishment and the expenditure of the candidates continues to rise.

The voters say that the politicians amass lot of money in the form of commissions and other means and hence there is nothing off beam in accepting a few thousand rupees before the polls.

The leaders say voters are not willing to go to polling booth if they aren't given money. This chain needs to be broken. This should be the basic political reform that is urgently needed for the country.

Raju Kolluru, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh