Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP, Raghav Chadha, on Wednesday, proposed to have a right to recall, which he believes all voters should be given the right to recall elected representatives who are not performing their duties as expected.
Debating the issue under Zero Hour in the upper house, Chadha said that, like citizens have constitutional right to elect their representatives, they should have right to de-elect them too in case they do not perform their duties. According to him, right to recall is a tool that allows voters to oust an elected official before his or her term expires provided that he or she fails in his or her responsibilities, because an act like this would enhance democratic accountability.
According to him, the proposal is neither a weapon against politicians, but rather a guarantee of democracy. Comparing it with other provisions that are already in place in the constitution, Chadha added that India permits impeachment of both the President and Vice President as well as the judges and a no-confidence motion against governments is permitted. Having this kind of checks at the top levels, why then, he posed, should the people be forced to put up with a bad performing MP or MLA during a five year term?
As Chadha indicated, there exists more than 24 democracies that give recall powers to voters such as the United States, Canada and Switzerland among others. He gave an example of recall of California Governor Gray Davis in the year 2003. He also observed that the same provisions are found on gram panchayat level in other states like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
He suggested measures against abuse such as minimum 18 months performance period, requirements on grounds of recall and high standard of approval- at least 50 percent of the votes in a recall vote.
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