THE 32nd death anniversary of the founder general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Comrade P Sundarayya, was observed by the Party and several mass organisations in Telangana on May 19. Rich tributes were paid to Sundarayya, recollecting his contribution for building the Communist movement, strengthening the Party, mass organisations, conducting struggles of the people and ideological struggle. At a function organised at the Sundarayya Vignana Kendram in Hyderabad, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat delivered the Sundarayya Memorial Lecture on ‘Democracy and Electoral Reforms.’ Speaking on the occasion, she termed it a great opportunity to work with Com PS and explained how he used to take care of the cadres of the Party. She said Com PS was a leader with a humanitarian outlook.

Coming down heavily on the Modi government, Karat said that it had been taking topsy-turvy measures in the name of electoral reforms. Contrary to his claims for ensuring transparency in administration and rooting out black money, the reforms brought about by the Modi government have been in the direction of encouraging political corruption. Elections have been caught under the grip of corporate forces and the country has to come out of this plight. It has become a big challenge to the Communist parties politically. Pointing out the defects in the present system of election, she said that parties which had got lesser percentage of votes were winning more number of seats. Therefore, in order to ensure wider and extensive representation of the people in the legislative bodies, reforms for proportional representation with a partial list system should be brought about, she suggested.

Reminding that BJP’s state president in Tripura had claimed that even if a vote was cast in favour of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, it would go in favour of ‘Lotus’, implying that the BJP would tamper with electronic voting machines accordingly, Karat said that in this background the confidence of the people in the functioning of EVMs had become questionable. In order to increase confidence of the people in the functioning of EVMs, steps should be taken to ensure that the voters know that casting of their votes are recorded correctly by attaching the voter-verified paper audit trail to EVMs, she said. Though it was requested repeatedly to take steps in that direction for modernisation of EVMs, the Modi government did not provide funds for it. Some funds were provided by the UPA-II government in the past. The Election Commission of India requested the Modi government for release of funds for modernisation of EVMs but to no avail. After pressure was put from all sides, the NDA government announced that it would release Rs 4,000 crore for the purpose, she said.

She expressed serious concern that during the three-year rule of the Modi government, the base of democracy in the country has been damaged badly. In the present electoral process, voters are being increasingly subjected to pressures, allurements and harassment and several distortions have been going on, she said. The corporate forces have been more aggressively influencing politics than in the past, by indiscriminately providing funds for candidates and parties who have been working for corporate interests, Karat said. Apart from supporting such candidates, the heads of corporate houses themselves have been contesting elections. The strength of  corporate bosses and big businessmen had increased from 300 in the previous parliament to 430 in the present parliament, she said. When Karat was a member of the Rajya Sabha, out of the 26 members in the parliamentary committee on economic affairs, nine were industrialists. Such people would not confine themselves to the role of cheer leaders of the Modi government, but would directly influence the policies of the government, she said.     

Entering into politics and contesting elections by criminals were prohibited, but it has become a tradition for the ruling classes to register false cases against Communist leaders, she said. Referring to the contention that no mention of caste should be made during election campaign, Karat cautioned that in the name of avoiding mention of caste, attempts were being made to stifle the voice of those who spoke on behalf of the dalits being subjected to caste oppression and caste discrimination and other downtrodden sections of the people. Therefore, the basic difference between mention of caste and criticism against caste discrimination should be considered, she asserted. On all such issues, there is a need for comprehensive and extensive discussion, she said.

B V Raghavulu, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and chairman of the Sundarayya Vignana Kendram Trust, presided over the meeting. CPI(M) Telangana state secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram was present in the meeting.