INDIA ON THE EVE OF ELECTIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200100005-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 18, 1999
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: February 1, 1967
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

Approved For Releas 20 Q/04/14 : ~ A- 75-00 498000200100
~na~ia on tie a o,~' Elections
S..A. D NGE
CPYRGHT Chairman, Comrnrt is~ Party of India
I historical basis. Then there are 9 territorial areas under the Union
Nf~IA'S ruling class politicians are very fond of telling the world Government.
~~ that India is the largest democracy in the world. They will not ' The 17 State Assemblies also are elected on the same day by the
~"Lagrcc to qualify it and say that it is the largest bourgeois same voter in the same booth but with a separate ballot box. Tho
democracy. following table shows the number of voters, scats and booths in
And due to realism or perhaps scorn
they will also not call it the coming elections.
,
socialist democracy, despite the fact that for the last fifteen years
they have been claiming to build "socialism" in India!
No, it is just democracy-and the largest one. They advertise
this particularly when in America.
India touched the figure of 500 million population last year.
'
'
1967
1961
Registered voters (million)
240
216
Parliament-scats
521
497
State Assemblies-scats
3,563
3,405
Palling Stations-number
270,000
250,000
T
hus, it is the second largest population in the world, China's Each booth serves 1,000 voters and it-would require at least five
hcing the first. cadres for a party to man one booth. Thus if a party were to contest
Thc. ,r,ost outstanding fact that makes it a democracy is that all the seats, it would have to put into the field on the polling day at
India is governed by a Parliament, which is elected every five years least one million organisers, which is beyond the capacity of any
on the basis of adult franchise. Since independence came in 1947 democratic opposition party in the present conditions.
and the Constitution of the Republic of the Indian Union was In the existing Parliament (as of January 20, 1965) there arc 504
adoptr_d or, Jan,r~rv 26, 1950, we have had three general elections- members. The ruling Congress Party holds 365 seats and all the
first, in 1952, n?c c~nd in 1957 and third in 1962. And the fourth is opposition parties and individuals make up the rest- -133 (in which
carving in 1'cbruary 1967. three were vacant). The ruling party has an overwhelming majority
We arc a democracy in this sense. Moreover, the Constitution over all the opposition parties together.
guarantees to every citizen not only to vote and elect a Parliament In this 'opposition total, the Communist Party of India (before
and Clovcrnmcnt. It also guarantees certain fundamental demo- the split) held 30 seats out of 133. Even then we were given the first
critic rc?ighls and lays down directive principles to guide State policy. role in the opposition as no other single party by itself had as many
T'hc rights anc! principles by themselves are no doubt good, if seats as ours.
properly in,h{rn,cnted. For example, it was because these rights After the split in the Party, we retained 18 members of Parliament,
came to be est;,hlished in 1950 that the Communist Party, trade and they numbered 12. The three other parties of importance are
union and other organisations which had been declared illegal and the Samgukta Socialist Party with 16 Members of Parliament,
suppressed in 1948 were legalised and thousands of our people Jan Singh with 13 members and Swatantra Party with 16.
were released from prison. There are 13 other parties with about 30 MPs but since they did
13ut within the framework of this very Constitution and the not get 5 per cent of the votes cast, they are not acknowledged as all-
T-undamental Rights, a new law called the Preventive Detention Act India parties for the purposes of listing in the Parliament. Such
was passed in 1952 under which once again many political workers parties worth noting are, for example, the Republican Party, the
cantinucct to be imprisoned. Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Moslem League, the Hindu
And since 19~i2 and the India-China conflict, the co>_mtry has Mahasabha. Some parties like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
been under a state of emergency, by which, though the Parliament (DMK) are limited to certain states and areas only, though they have
sits and deliberates as before, all the Fundamental Rights, which a sizeable following. The next election battles are going to be fought
were claimed to be the basic ingredients of this largest democracy, round the platforms of these parties and their fronts or combinations,
have been suspended, without any remedy before the Supreme , on an all-India and local scales.
Court of the land. ,,? The Congress Party remains the most formidable force in power.
In view of this state of emergency and the Defence of India It is being opposed mainly by two forces-one representing the
Rules, tl~e necessity for which vanished long ago, thousands have progressive democratic masses of the toiling people drawn from the
hccn sent to jail for the mere expression of political opinions or for working class, the peasantry, the middle classes, as also sections of
conducting strikes or other struggles for defence of people's rights the national bourgeoisie opposed to monopoly capital; and the other
and living. representing Right reaction. There are intermediary groups who
In slnor?t, we have a Parliament and we have elections to the hover between the two on the basis of group interests and not
Parliament despitethcstateofemergency.Youmaysaythatelcctions purely on programmes and policies.
arc fret, as far as they can be in a bourgeois democracy, where the The elections this time will show some new features and new
potivcr of the purse, the press and the policy is in the hands of the combinations and upsets in almost all parties, including the ruling
ruling bourgeoisie and its landlord allies. You may form any Congress Party and the opposition parties of the democratic Left
political party and nominate candidates. And i(,.your candidate and the reactionary Right.
gets the highest vote as against his other rivals, he is declared elected.
The vote is cast by the name of each candidate and his symbol which II
is given to I~im for identification by illiterate voters. Tfie vote is not The Indian electoral system is based on the majority vote and
for tl,e Party as is tlic case in some countries. Nor is there propor- not on proportional representation. The majority-vote system has
tional rc;prescntation in the voting system. had~the peculiar result that the Congress Party in India has been in
Out of a population of 500 million people, 240 million are power without ever getting the majority of the votes of the total poll
registered voters in this year. In the 1962 elections they numbered in all the three elections. Of the total votes cast in the three elections,
216 million. Thus one can sec that the number of registered voters the Congress Party got
in India is 50 million more than the total population of America, 45.02 per cent votes in 1951-52
and 10 ;million more than the population of the USSR. The vastness 47.78 per cent votes in 1957
of this number itself would show how difficult it is for, a party not 45.06 per cent votes in 1962.
in power and without the vast resources of tha bourgeoisie to And yet with such a minority of the popular vote, the Congress
mobilise the people for the vote. Party secured the overwhelming majority of the seats, both in the
We have direct elections to the Parliame,.~ of the whole country. Parliament and in the States, Only once in Kerala, the Congress
But tine country is divided in o 7 S to roc h tic pan K,
Approved ~or ~el~eas~ ~~'~'~'~~'~ : ~~-R'5~'-`'8b~~~~~19'~OD~J~ Y hick got three morn