Referendums, if properly instituted, could enhance the participative features of Indian democracy.
The statements by the Aam Aadmi Party leader and advocate Prashant Bhushan suggesting the use of referendums to
determine public opinion and take decisions on deployment of the army in Kashmir and paramilitary forces in the adivasi areas of Chhattisgarh were shrilly dismissed, illustrative of a political climate where any talk of a non-security based solution to conflicts is anathema. Curiously, the talk of a need for referendums has itself been deemed dangerous, even though it is just an instrument for assessing public opinion on a specific issue.
It is evident that there is widespread popular opinion in Kashmir in support of demilitarisation in the Valley. However, very few political parties – other than those in Kashmir and some on the left – have articulated a position in favour of demilitarisation, despite frequent agitations demanding troop withdrawal. Is it not a reflection of the failure of the representative system that it has refused to pay heed to popular sentiment?
Bhushan has co-authored an article in these pages (“Initiatives and Referendums”, 25 August 2012) on the need for referendums as a useful mechanism for determining public opinion and encouraging public participation in policymaking beyond the institutionalised features of representative democracy. This is indeed a robust proposal that has enhanced democracy and complemented its indirect features both in the industrialised West and in the developing world, especially Latin America. In Venezuela and Bolivia, referendums, even constitutional ones, have helped move the political system decisively from one that relies only on limited and formal instruments (such as periodic elections to the legislature) to more participative, active and deliberative models of making public policy (including referendums and popular assemblies).
Formal and procedural democracy in India has significantly widened and deepened its presence since Independence. The regular conduct of elections to the three-tier representative system, a relatively free media and public awareness about the exercise of mandates have enhanced the participative aspect of India’s democracy. To an extent, India’s parliamentary system does allow some say to diverse sections in drafting public policy through institutions like the standing and petition committees of Parliament. But many such institutions remain underutilised. Instruments of local democracy have grown in popularity over time, but the implementation of panchayati raj and effective decentralisation of power have not gone far enough.
Media coverage of legislative performance is limited, focusing more on the rhetoric that is expressed and the associated “political theatre”. Civil society organisations and social movements can claim more success in involving and mobilising public opinion on policy issues. However, representatives of most political parties, by and large, have been engaging more in transactional politics – using their offices to handle grievances in return for support – rather than in articulating policy. While political representation of various groups and communities has definitely been enhanced both by constitutional means (reservations) and through deepening of democracy (electoral reforms and strengthening the third tier), one could argue that the ideal of democracy as an expression of the “general will” of all the people still remains unattained.
It is here that, if properly instituted, referendums can help play an important role in moving the system closer to attaining that ideal. By directly involving the public in making policy, referendums could influence the ruling executive as much as legislative mechanisms available in Parliament. A referendum would also be a more credible and acceptable instrument because of its feature of direct participation. That said, the option of a referendum must be carefully used and administered as these can end up simply reflecting majoritarian views. This can be avoided or mitigated by emphasising a deliberative form of referendums (held in stages featuring the legislative as well) rather than limiting them to simple and direct yes/no votes. Issues put forth in referendums must also not override principles instituted in the Constitution, but could be used to determine matters of public policy alone.
Referendums could also enhance the legitimacy of the State and bring it closer to society rather than placing it above society, which has been the outcome of limited representative democracy. Indian democracy has increasingly seen the entrenchment of a political class as an elite and acting in the interests of a small section of society. Referendums could help build political communities beyond sectional and group interests and enhance civic consciousness among the public.
In many ways therefore, the use of a referendum as a tool for enhancing participative democracy is something that the Indian political system must explore and should not reject outright.
