Electoral Malpractices in India

Electoral Malpractices

• Elections are a core democratic process for selecting representatives and holding governments accountable.
• Elections are fundamental for democratic societies, enabling citizen participation and succession in government.
• Elections are essential for determining how a country is governed and ensures legitimacy to government.
• Elections foster citizen involvement and participation in public affairs.
• India's electoral system is a constitutional democracy with a commitment to free, fair, and regular elections.
• However, malpractices like discrepancies between votes and seats won, personality cult in parties, caste and communal exploitation, money power, misuse of machinery, booth-capturing, voter intimidation, and impersonation represent significant issues within the system.
• These issues are major forms of political corruption stemming from low levels of political and administrative morality.
• A transparent electoral system is essential for democratic practice in both developed and developing nations.
• The lecture suggests that communal hate speech is a specific example of electoral malpractice.
• Other forms of corruption like embezzlement and nepotism, while issues, are not considered electoral malpractices in the specific context of election processes.