THE PROCESS OF FORMATION OF THE REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL.
There should not be any political parties.
Instead the concept of governing council (Sabha) directly elected by at least 65% of the people should be introduced.
What do I mean by Sabha?
There is a famous Sanskrit saying:
न सा सभा यत्र न सन्ति वृद्धाःवृद्धा न ते ये न वदन्ति धर्मम् ।नासौ धर्मो यत्र न सत्यमस्तिन तत्सत्यं यच्छलेनानुविद्धम् ||
The assembly where we don’t find elders and experienced persons cannot be qualified as a Sabhā.
Elders cannot be labelled as elders if they don’t adhere to and pronounce Dharma.
That is not Dharma which deviates from Truth.
That is not Truth which is shrouded in deceit.
I got the above wonderful insight from an Uncle Katha story from the Mahabharat.
There are two governing councils (Sabhas) appointed and managed by Informed Participatory Liquid Democracy and powered by Edemocracy:
The council of Arya Peers (Arya Sabha)
The council directly elected by the people as given below (Lok Sabha)
There should be city councils for any town with a population of more than 10000.
There should be panchayats for all villages and towns below a population of 10000.
All the city councils or zilla panchayats and above should have as far as possible at least 6 full time including 2 pro bono workers (3 of each gender) at a True Temple, and equal numbers of the each gender of the following* members as part of the Liquid democracy:
6 teachers (2 from primary, 2 from intermediate and 2 from high school or college), 4 experts with a background in agriculture (Cooperative agricultural marketing, storage, natural farming and traditional agriculture) for rural areas (not needed for city councils), 4 soldiers including 2 retired soldiers (army and paramilitary), 4 police including 2 retired police, 4 militia including 2 retired member of the militia, 10 environmental activists including 2 for water conservation and management and 2 for animal welfare, 6 social activists, 6 farmers including 4 small farmers with land holding less than 10 acres (not needed for city areas), 8 business persons with audited networth(not revenues or turnover) (of 2 < Rs 1 crore, 2 < Rs 10 crore, 2 < Rs 100 crores, 2 > Rs 100 crore and above(if available in the area), 2 daily wage labourers, 6 poor or middle class single parents including two single parents out of wedlock, 2 sanitation workers, 2 busy workers, 4 physically handicapped, 4 mentally ill or mentally handicapped, 4 crafts persons (weaver, sculptor, artist, cooperative craftsmen marketing etc), 4 sports persons, 4 tradesman (plumber, electrician, carpenter, painter, mechanic etc), 4 nurses, 4 doctors, 4 artists (painting, singing, dancing, acting, writing, other arts), 4 students from school, 4 students from college, 4 lawyers, 2 judges, 2 bankers, and 20 engineers/planners/scientists/sociologists/psychologists etc and technical experts from varied disciplines.
Usually single parents out of wedlock and busy workers are female.
So the only exception to equal gender representation, is that there can be two busy women, and two female out of wedlock single parents if no male out of wedlock parent can be found.
Out of wedlock single parents cannot also be busy workers.
Busy workers who are also out of wedlock single parents can only be appointed to the busy workers category.
Unless they swear to get out of their busy profession, they should not be appointed to the out of wedlock single parents category.
These people should not have not been convicted of any serious crimes like corruption, serious criminal offences and repeated tax dodging.
The candidates for the governing council should be selected must people of some level of accomplishment and a sense and reputation for Dharma.
Sometimes people are forced into circumstances beyond their control and they violate some principles of Dharma.
Even if the governing council have been directly nominated by the people, they should also be approved by the veto approval by a jury of council of Arya peers and also the Tathagata especially at the highest levels.
However the vote of the council of Arya peers and the Tathagata can be overruled by an overall majority of 80% of votes cast by the Elected Representatives, and supported by a vote of at least 75% of not just the locals with voter id card, but all the general residents of the area who have lived there for at least 5 years (including legally admitted foreigners).
Any resident of the area who can provide proof of residence for 5 years should be allowed to vote for the candidate in that area.
The same conditions above applies in case of dismissal and termination especially at higher levels and the Tathagata should only be involved at the highest levels of State or Nation.
However the Tathagata can also be involved at lower levels if there is a demand from at least 40% of the local Elected Representatives and supported by at least 30% of the general residents (not just citizens) of the area.
The elected governing council should be paid well for each session they attend, and at senior levels of zilla(district) and above, they should do full time service in their assigned role and recuse themselves from all other personal financial and business interests.
The elected governing council should be persons of unimpeachable integrity.
It is not just the integrity of the elected governing council that is important, but also their personal qualities which can only be obtained by True Education and practicing the things that I have figured out.
They should be brought under the law for Conflicts of Interest.
The above people will form a general council and then based on their specialty of expertise they will head the relevant committees for the below disciplines*.
Committees* right up to village panchayat and city ward council level should be formed for:
Protection of nature and environmental protection
Water resources and management
Law, Order and Justice and management of the Defenders of the State
Human rights, social, women, child and Brahma Dana welfare
Revenue, Finance and Taxation
Agricultural cooperative production and cooperative marketing (for rural areas only)
Natural Resources Management (mining, logging, extraction etc)
Business and Industry with a special focus on small and medium business
Infrastructure and Development
Public Health and Sanitation – (Water, Sewerage, Storm and Garbage)
Town Planning and Zoning
Land and real estate regulation
In addition to the above, specialists in their fields should also be invited to be part of the committees.
A council member can be part of upto a maximum of 4 committees if they have relevant experience in that field.
Except for students, the above is not based on their educational qualifications, but on their actual real world work experience for at least 10 years.
Even if people do not have the required educational qualifications, but have the relevant real world work experience for at least 10 years, they should also be considered.
The city ward councils and zilla panchayats and above should have a composition of at least 85% of the above.
The rest 15% can be given to the regular population.
In any case, there should be proportional representation based voting.
Only if equally qualified candidates are not found for that group, then other groups can propose their candidate.
Groups are not classified by race, religion, caste, gender or ethnicity.
Groups can only be classified by common interests, or professions or certain disadvantaged sections of society like farmers, landless labourers, weavers, artisans, oppressed and victimised women, widows, single parents, busy women, and including but not limited to the groups mentioned in the composition of governing council of the elected representatives.
At least 35% quotas should exist in committees for women and there should be an 10% subquota among this 35% quota (3.5% of total strength) who are underprivileged and oppressed/victimized women, disabled and other such persons.
This will not be generically group based, but on an individual case by case basis.
Also these people should not just be selected by their falling into these groups, but they should also have a minimum competence or show an ability to attain that competence if properly trained.
Five of these zilla panchayat/city council members is elected as the council leaders.
These five council leaders will represent the city council/Zilla Panchayat at higher levels like state and nation.
At no time should a block (village block or city ward block) of a zilla panchayat or a city ward council represent more than 10000 local area residents.
All blocks that comprise zilla panchayat and city ward councils should be broken up into blocks that represent 10000 local area residents.
Two members from each committee are elected to represent the relevant committee at higher levels.
The term of the council leaders and the committee members are fixed for 5 years.
But they can be removed at anytime if the 51% of the council members that voted for them, demand their removal from council leadership and committee membership.
Any member of the governing council can be removed if more than 25% of the local residents in the area demand their removal.
The person who is elected must not have more than 25% opposing them at every level they rise.
Their votes can be overruled at any time by the persons who elected them who then can cast their own vote on that issue.
This is not the first past the post system.
This system is the exhaustive ballot runoff till only one is left with at least 65% of the vote.
With the advent of modern technology and the introduction of edemocracy/mdemocracy its is very easy to hold regular elections.
All election funding must be regulated by the state and all direct private funding of parties must be abolished.
The winner of the election should make a guarantee of 20% of their life’s savings as a security deposit.
The premium on the security deposit can be paid by the state.
If the winners do not have enough assets to mortgage, they can pledge that they will contribute a portion of their salary each month to the state as a sort of monthly installment.
If they do a good job in office their assets will be returned and if they are corrupt they will be dismissed and forfeit their assets.
Those who are physically and mentally ill and disabled can also run.
There is no such thing as permanent mental illness.
After taluk, elections must be from the taluk to the zilla/district level.
After zilla/districts the elections must be from the district to the state level.
So the chief five council ministers cannot be directly elected chief five council ministers.
They should first stand for election in the gram panchayat or city ward.
They have to work themselves up by first getting elected from the gram panchayat/City Ward Council level.
Large cities will be city states.
But they will be made up of wards consisting not more than 10000 people in each city ward.
Every village must also be divided into blocks of maximum 4000 people.
The most important thing to remember is that the state must be completely decentralized.
Everything else must be run by the local governments.
This local government could be at grama, hobli, taluk, district, city or state or nation or Bharat depending on the area of influence.
There will be no concept of groups or parties that consist of individual representatives.
There will only be individuals elected according to this Law for Elected Representatives, and these individuals will represent the area that they live in.
An individual may be living some part of the year in one area and another part of the year in another area.
It is reasonable to represent both areas and vote in both areas, if one is familiar with the issues concerning both the areas.
The higher one goes in the governing council, the more time that person must have spent in governance and relevant technical expertise if they are made ministers.
NUMBER OF MEMBERS
Maximum of 11 for gram panchayat governing council of Elected Representatives.
Maximum of 21 for hobli panchyat governing council of Elected Representatives.
Maximum of 31 for taluk panchyat governing council of Elected Representatives.
Maximum of 41 for district zilla panchayat governing council of Elected Representatives.
According to my list of nominees there are 140 council members at the Zilla/City council level. However these members can be delegated to committees and one member from each gender for each group can be nominated to the Zilla Governing Council to make decisions based on the recommendations of all 140 committee members.
Maximum of 141 for governing council of Elected Representatives for state panchayat governing council of Arya peers.
Maximum of 251 for for national panchayat governing council of Elected Representatives.
THE PROCESS OF VOTING
Edemocracy is a far more powerful method than EVMs or paper ballots since many elections can be held for any sort of issue.
It also eliminates the need for a person to be physically present to vote.
If you ask any technically qualified hacker, even a second year student still in college, EVMS are much simpler to hack than voting through Edemocracy.
If a person can wire transfer more than Rs 1,00,00,000 or even 1000 times that amount without going to the bank, or can buy a product of Rs 1,00,000 online without going to the store to pay that amount, then there is no reason a simple process like voting should require a physical presence.
It is not only the local elected representatives who should be allowed to raise issues, through the power of Edemocracy, any local person in the area can raise issues.
Any local person in the area can start a petition of issues concerning that local area or even a state or national issue.
And if they get at least 10% or 200 of the residents in the area (which ever is less) to support the petition, the petition should be put up for decision by all the residents in the area who must vote compulsorily.
Before the local residents vote, they must be asked to fill up a multiple choice checklist of the main issues and points of discussion they are voting for so that we know they are making an informed decision.
For all the processes mentioned above, if we have voting by Edemocracy, all the local residents from children above 10 years of age, must vote and there has to be at least a 70% approval for every major and serious decision.
Only convicted criminals for serious crimes like corruption, repeated tax dodging, serious theft, serious violent and sexual offences should not be allowed to vote.
A person is eligible to stand for election only if they get 10% or 200 residents of the area(whichever is lesser) to support their candidacy.
The people who supported this candidate’s eligibility by written proof, must provide a personal liability guaranty of Rs 100,000 each which will be encashed by the State in case the candidate they support is found guilty of any malpractice, corruption or serious criminal offence.
The premium for this personal liability guarantee must be subsidised by 90% by the state and taken from the State election fund.
The people who voted for this candidate must provide a personal liability guaranty of Rs 50,000 each which will be encashed by the State in case the candidate they support is found guilty of any malpractice, corruption or serious criminal offence.
The premium for this personal liability guarantee must be subsidised by 80% by the state and taken from the State Election fund.
In the event it is found that the candidate, or their political party or their associates have provided the guarantee money or any other form of favours or bribes for the people who nominated them, then the candidate must be banned from election for 10 years and their political party for 5 years.
A fine of 100 times the amount they paid as bribe to their nominators and voters must be recovered from the party, and 50 times the amount from the candidate and their associates who also participated in the bribes.
In the event they cannot pay, their assets should be seized and auctioned of to recover the amount due.
The nominators and voters who accepted the money or other favour bribes should be banned for 5 years from voting.
An amount of 10 times the money they accepted as bribe should be demanded from the nominators and voters and in the event they cannot pay, their assets should be seized and auctioned off to recover the amount due.
There should never be elections for parties or groups.
There should only be elections of Individuals.
Individuals can belong to parties but when people vote, they should not vote for the party but for the individual.
There should be no voting symbols or election campaigns promoting parties, but only individuals and voters should be more aware of the individual instead of the party.
Of course all individuals must belong to a group to have a better force of policy.
But whenever an individual stands for election, they must stand as an individual and not by mentioning their parties backing or affiliation.
They must also campaign as an individual without mentioning their party backing and affiliation.
There are many good individuals who have no hope of getting elected because they are not backed by any party.
There are many idiots who get elected just because of the backing of their party.
All voting should be done for the individual, not for the party.
There should be no party symbol on the voting machine or during campaigning or any mention of the party also, there should only be campaigning and voting in the name of the individual.
LAW FOR ARRIVING AT A VOTING DECISION
Any decisions made by the elected council can always be overturned by the people in a public referendum with at least 60% public majority voting approval.
Any decisions made by the elected council can also be overturned by a simple majority of the council of Arya peers.
The veto approval of the council of Arya peers can be overruled by an overall majority of 80% of votes cast by the Elected Representatives and supported by at least 70% of the general residents of the area, not just local voters with voter id card.
There cannot be just one Prime Minister to make a major decision, there should be a council of at least 5 people and there should be a majority decision for minor issues and more than 80% for major issues where people are to lose their land or livelihood
There should also be a majority decision by the governing council of at least 70% any project, subsidy, investment, purchase, loan or debt more than Rs 100,00,00,000 (Rs 100 crore).
Even then there should be a public referendum and unless 70% of the people who are actually affected by the decision, vote in favour of the decision, the decision must be scrapped.
LAW AFTER SELECTION OF ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES
The elected representatives should be paid well and at senior levels should do full time public service and legislative work and recuse themselves from all other personal financial and business interests.
They should be brought under the law for conflict of interest.
Any remuneration or benefits that was obtained from these conflicts of interest must be collected from these Representatives and must be returned to the State.
If they refuse to return the ill gotten benefits they should be dismissed from service and banned from voting for 5 years and for standing for election for 10 years.
They should also be given the punishment according to the Law for Corruption.
No elected representative can have more than two consecutive terms in the same position.
After two consecutive terms they can stand for election for a higher or lower position.
No elected representative can have more than two consecutive terms in the same area.
They have to take a break for one term after two consecutive terms and let somebody else in the area stand for election.
No elected representative can nominate their relatives, either by blood or marriage, to stand in the same area they represent for at least 5 years after they demit that post in the area they represent.
QUALIFICATIONS AND PARAMETERS FOR SELECTION
The following should be the basic qualifications which seem subjective, but should be considered and can only come from the people who have known them and worked with them closely.
That is why there should be many levels of representatives for many levels of groups.
Also these qualifications should be validated on a regular basis because past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Following are the qualifications:
1. As far as possible all elected representatives should be Arya.
They should have predominantly Satvik Gunas.
People with predominantly Tamasic Gunas should never be allowed to stand for election or hold any positions of responsibility.
2. They should be persons of unimpeachable integrity and have certified proof of a complete and true education from a nationally accredited constitutionally independent body like the Election commission which is also supported by written proof from at least 50 people who are not on their payroll or are not immediately related to them either by blood, marriage or business.
3. They should ordinarily not have any criminal conviction even for serious traffic offenses like drunk driving which lead to an accident and caused injury to another person.
If they have a criminal conviction for minor offenses they should not be allowed to stand 5 years after they have served their sentence.
4. They should have demonstrated unselfish and charitable activities towards the True Temples for at least 4 years and continue to do the same during the course of their appointment to their Elected Representative posts.
There are three kind of charitable activities:
Tan (Body) – Where you physically give your time and effort to charity
Man (Mind) – where you give your mind (planning,organising, creative arts promotions, publicizing and such activities which mainly involve mental and cognitive work)
Dhan (Wealth) – where you donate money, land, precious material, movable goods or other kinds of wealth.
Those who donate all three – Tan, Man, Dhan are the most qualified for the posts of senior representatives.
5. They should be wise and have demonstrated acts of wisdom and compassion.
6. They should have attained some measure of accomplishment in any field.
For those claiming accomplishment in social work they should get some sort of certification from an accredited agency.
Nowadays worthless people drill a borewell, install a tap, supply free tanker water or provide a few free meals and claim to be social workers.
7. They should publicly post all their annual income tax and asset returns for last 10 years before they join the council, during their term in the council and even 10 years after their term expires.
They should also publicly document the source of assets and income posted in these returns.
In the event they dont earn income independently, they should post the source of income from where there assets were acquired.
8. They should have some measure of competence and accomplishment especially in the committees that they are going to head.
9. They should publicly post all their criminal convictions for last 10 years before they join the council and even 10 years after their term expires.
10. They should have technical competence and experience in the divisions or ministries or Departments that they represent.
A person who is the final decision maker for a department or ministry must have first hand experience of at least 15 years in the ministry that they are going to preside over.
But this requirement is not a must, sometimes the best of ideas come from somebody who is not connected to the field since they bring a totally fresh perspective.
In any case, as long a person has wisdom, tolerance, attitude, motivation, energy, integrity, compassion, and a willingness to consider the opinions of others even though it may be contrary to their opinion, they can handle any job.
Candidates at higher like zilla panchayat/city council and above should have a minimum educational qualification.
If they have no education qualification, they should get a certificate of their work experience and expertise from an accredited agency.
And it should be supported by written proof from 10 known associates who will also provide personal indemnity guarantee of Rs 50,000 in case of fraud or misrepresentation.
80% of the premium for this guarantee should be subsidised by the state and taken from the State Election Fund.
Convicted criminals especially for serious crimes like corruption, violent and forced theft, tax dodging, violent and sexual offences must not be allowed to vote or stand for election for at least 10 years after they are released from Jail.
If during their term as council member they are criminally convicted, especially for serious offences like corruption, theft, tax dodging or violent and sexual offences, they should be expelled from the council and barred from appointment to any governing council for at least 5 years after they have completed their punishment.
These people should be well compensated in comparison to the general public so that there is no need for them to look for bribes.
As Lew Kwan Yew of Singapore said:
“If you pay peanuts, you will only get monkeys”.
In the same way the saying applies in reverse:
“If you get monkeys, you must only pay peanuts”.
The raises of salaries of the legislature should never be determined by the legislature representatives.
It should always be determined by the people these representatives are supposed to represent.
They should go back to their people to get any raises in their salary and any additions or enhancements of their benefits.
If I have left any group out who should be included in the group of candidates for elected representatives or for formation of committees please use my feedback form and I will include your suggestions