Democracy at Crossroads: Need for Electoral Reforms -Dr SY Quraishi - Pt 1

Moneylife Foundation and V Citizens Action Network jointly hosted, to a packed auditorium, an absorbing session by Dr SY Quraishi, on March 27, 2012. Topics ranging from Democracy, elections, corruption, media coverage to criminals standing for elections, were touched upon during the event.

Shahabuddin Yaqoob Quraishi, born on 11 July 1947, is the current chief election commissioner (CEC) of India. He was appointed as the CEC as the successor to Navin Chawla on July 30, 2010. Apart from being a no-nonsense bureaucrat, Dr Quraishi has also served as a secretary to the Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry.
He is an IAS officer of the 1971 batch from Haryana cadre. He has a Ph.D. in Communications and Social marketing.
Dr Quraishi has done a lot to ensure that elections are free and fair and asserted the independence of the CEC. He is known for his special contributions to social sector reforms covering health, education, population, drug abuse, and civil society action, and has worked extensively in the fields of gender, women & child development.
While responding to Karan Thapar on the Devil's Advocate programme on the television channel CNN-IBN, he opposed the ideas of Right to Recall and Right to Reject advocated by Anna Hazare as not possible in India.

[emailtoashwani]

Two major reforms which India need is Right to Reject and Right to Recall . Also majority of people should vote because candidates cannot bribe whole voters.

[chaitanyabha]

Mr .Quraishi did nothing when he was CEC, now talking all these things is not going to serve any purpose .It is the need of the hour to have some drastic electorate reforms, like not allowing any candidate to contest who has some criminal/corruption record .Right to reject the candidate should be given to public along with right to recall .

[positive]

Bhai sahib yeh programma America me ho raha hoga, sabhi English me view express kar rahe he, hindi kaha he, deshbhakto