Cong MP for special Parliament session to discuss ‘right to reject’ issue in polls
12 Oct 2013 1:19 AM GMT
Rejecting the ‘right to reject’ concept, a Congress MP on Friday made a strong plea for a special session of Parliament to discuss the Supreme Court order on the issue, which he claimed would weaken ‘representative democracy’.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Bhalchandra Mungekar said such a session was needed as ‘giving fundamental right to voters to reject all candidates will further erode the very foundation of representative parliamentary democracy and also create operational chaos’.
Criticising the Supreme Court order, the former vice-chancellor of Mumbai University said, ‘Apex court’s view of right to vote is ‘statutory’ and right to reject is ‘fundamental’ amounts to argue that right to reject is more sacrosanct than the right to vote.
‘This view is flawed because right to vote is the heart of representative parliamentary democracy.’
Claiming that the apex court contradicts its own order, he said the court order says the negative votes will be recorded on the EVMs, but won’t be counted and if more than 50 per cent voters reject all candidates and demand re-election, then re-election has to be ordered.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Bhalchandra Mungekar said such a session was needed as ‘giving fundamental right to voters to reject all candidates will further erode the very foundation of representative parliamentary democracy and also create operational chaos’.
Criticising the Supreme Court order, the former vice-chancellor of Mumbai University said, ‘Apex court’s view of right to vote is ‘statutory’ and right to reject is ‘fundamental’ amounts to argue that right to reject is more sacrosanct than the right to vote.
‘This view is flawed because right to vote is the heart of representative parliamentary democracy.’
Claiming that the apex court contradicts its own order, he said the court order says the negative votes will be recorded on the EVMs, but won’t be counted and if more than 50 per cent voters reject all candidates and demand re-election, then re-election has to be ordered.
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