The government seems to have put its ambitious plan for electoral reforms on the backburner.
The Centre's recalcitrance seems to coincide with the mounting heat from the civil society on the lack of consensus over the drafting of the Lokpal bill, and all-round criticism over police action to break Baba Ramdev's fast over bringing back black money home.
Regional consultations for electoral reforms, including state funding of polls and negative or neutral voting options have been going on for a while. But the national-level consultation, which was slated to be presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 2-3, has been "postponed". Law ministry officials say no fresh date has been decided. The last regional consultation was held in Guwahati on June 12, where law minister Veerappa Moily, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, minister for the department of north-eastern region B K Handique and chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi were also present.
The ministry had constituted a panel on electoral reforms to give recommendations to the government. "The national consultation has been put off for the time being. The matter of electoral reforms and the recommendations of the committee need to be looked at very carefully. It will happen at a later date," said an official.
Sources say, at present poll reforms is not one of the priorities for the ministry.
The law ministry had set an August deadline for the final recommendations on poll reforms. The timetable was set to crack down on money power in elections and to prevent criminalization of politics apart from making the poll process more attuned to aspirations of the GenNext by introducing the option of neutral voting. The use of electronic surveillance equipment, prohibition of government advertisements of achievements of the government for six months prior to the expiry of the term of the House and restriction on contesting elections from more than one constituency are some of the other recommendations made by previous panels.
Poll reforms also figure on social activist Anna Hazare and yoga guru Baba Ramdev's agenda.
