Voting right gives people the right to express their democratic aspirations. If caste with independence, awareness, wisdom and rationality, the voting rights to the citizens is the guarantee that the republic and democracy could never go into the hands of irresponsible and incapable political parties and leaders.
Universal suffrage in India
The Indian constitution grants universal suffrage or universal franchise to all which gives the right to vote to all the adult citizens, regardless of their socio-economic status and gender, religious, caste, ethnic and regional identities. Part XV of the Constitution of India consists of Articles on Elections (Articles 324-329). Article 326 requires that elections to the Lok Sabha in India and Legislative Assemblies of States have to be on the basis of adult suffrage. Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the power of superintendence, direction and control of elections to parliament, state legislatures, the office of president of India and the office of vice-president of India shall be vested in the election commission. The election commission, in line with the constitutional provisions allows all the citizens of 18 years of age and above to vote.
Under the Citizenship Act it is provided that every citizen who is 18 years old on the qualifying date (January 1 of the year in case) unless disqualified, is eligible to be enrolled. It provides that citizen could be enrolled only in their place of their ordinary residence. One citizen could be enrolled for voting at one place only. Overseas Indians could also vote and their ordinary place of residence would be deemed as the address mentioned in their passports. Service voters are deemed to be ordinary resident at their home address.
Article 326 of the constitution of India was amended to reduce the age to qualify as voter. Earlier the age of adult suffrage was 21 years in India. The Sixty-first Amendment of the Constitution of India, officially known as the Constitution (Sixty-first Amendment) Act, 1988, lowered the voting age for elections to the Lok Sabha and to the Legislative Assemblies of States from 21 years to 18 years.
The sixty-first amendment bill was debated by the Lok Sabha on 14 and 15 December 1988, and was passed on 15 December, after adopting a formal amendment to replace the word “Sixty-second” with “Sixty-first” in Clause 1 of the bill. The Rajya Sabha debated the bill on 16, 19 and 20 December 1988 and passed it on 20 December 1988, after adopting the amendment made by the Lok Sabha. The bill, after ratification by the States, received assent from then President Ramaswamy Venkataraman on 28 March 1989. It was notified in The Gazette of India, and came into force on the same date.
Why voting right is important
The younger generation must know that universal voting rights did not come without struggle through generations across the world. Voting right is the means to express people’s will and aspirations. It is the power that makes the people king makers. Voting in election is a moral and constitutional duty of every citizen. It is a kind of tool in the hands of the people to remove the government that does not deliver and also the irresponsible leaders from the seat of power. It provides a check against authoritarianism. Some people euphemistically call it a festival of democracy. The ear of being voted out keeps the political parties and leaders right on the track in the sense of meeting their constitutional duties.
Though today it seems that the right to vote has come to us as a natural corollary to citizenship rights, but it is not so. The citizens got this right after a long battle throughout the world. We must understand the value of this great power. When the modern democracies came into existence, in the beginning, governments restricted the vote to those with property and wealth, which almost always meant a minority of the male population. In some jurisdictions, other restrictions existed, such as requiring voters to practice a given religion.
History of Universal Suffrage
The 19th century saw many movements advocating “universal suffrage”, most notably in Europe, Great Britain and North America, but the demand was primarily for voting rights to men. Female suffrage was largely ignored until the latter half of the century.
As the movements for universal franchise gathered momentum, New Zealand became the first country in the world in which all adult women of all ethnicities gained the right to vote in 1893. From there, the movement for true universal suffrage spread across British colonies and beyond. Even after that for a long time universal franchise was an eluding dream. In the Western world, voting rights were often limited to the white race.
The arduous struggle for universal suffrage also took a long time even in modern western apostle of democracy that is the United States of America. The women’s suffrage movement in the United States to extend the franchise to women began in the mid-19th century and culminated in 1920, when the United States ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing the right of women to vote. Still the United States had to wait for long to give universal voting rights, especially the black population.
Initially the voting rights were based in the United Kingdom on religious affiliation. The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 removed religion based voting rights in the Kingdom of Great Britain & the Kingdom of Ireland, what is now the the United Kingdom. Since then voting rights were never based on religion or race, but still it took long time for the UK to give universal suffrage right to its people. All adult men in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland were enfranchised by the Representation of the People Act 1918. This Act granted women over 30 the right to vote in national elections, but about 60% of women (those under 30 or not meeting property qualifications) were excluded until the Equal Franchise Act 1928, when women were granted the vote on the same terms as men in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Representation of the People Act 1948 removed plural voting rights held by about 7% of the electorate. The Representation of the People Act 1969 reduced the voting age from 21 to 18.
France passed through many phases before universal franchise became a reality. In 1792, the Convention assembly was elected by all French males 21 and over. However, over the subsequent years, France experienced profound political upheaval, with republican, monarchist and bonapartist government governing at various times. Through these changes, suffrage increased and decreased based on the introduction, repeal and reintroduction of various degrees of universal, property and census-based suffrage. Universal male suffrage was given in 1848 in France, with the exception of the military who obtained the right to vote in 1945. This was supplemented in 1944 by full universal suffrage, including women as voters.
In the United States, after the principle of “one man, one vote” was established in the early 1960s by U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren, the U.S. Congress together with the Warren Court continued to protect and expand the voting rights of all Americans, especially African Americans, through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965 and several Supreme Court rulings. Earl Warren was an American politician and jurist who served as the 14th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1953 to 1969. The “Warren Court” presided over a major shift in American constitutional jurisprudence, which has been recognized by many as a “Constitutional Revolution” in the liberal direction.
Although China officially granted Universal suffrage to its people under the 1947 Constitution of the Republic of China, when the First National Assembly (disbanded 2005) elections were held in 1947, it did not explicitly enfranchised women. Women in China were not explicitly enfranchised until 1953. The general populace can only vote for local elections. National elections for president and premier are held by the National People’s Congress. However, Taiwan had the first multi-party legislative elections in 1992 and the first presidential election in 1996.
India from the day its constitution was adopted after gaining independence granted Universal franchise to its citizens. The Indian constitution from this point of view is highly progressive and participatory.
Thinking Point: People, crowd and Voters
We are living in the time of post truth, propaganda and lies. It is easy to divide, mislead and provoke people on emotive issues through the use of media. People have their individual identities, group identities as well as varied interests. People become voters if they have the qualification in terms of citizenship and age. But this is not enough. In order to be voters in true sense people need to be aware about the national and social interest, apart from personal interest. However, “people” are vulnerable to be converted into “crowds” which follow the leaders like “pied pipers” without using their own rationality. Politicians succeed in peddling their own agenda, rather than doing what is right for the development and welfare of the people by alluring or raking up emotional issues.
Is there any difference between “people” and “voters”? Yes, there is. The people of a country like India have several subsidiary identities such as caste, creed, religion, ethnicity, and region and most prominently their socio-economic class, but the “voters” are all Indians, equal before law because constitution deems them to be so under the citizenship act. It gives universal franchise to all its citizenship irrespective of their varied identities including gender.
Is there any difference between “crowd” and voters? Yes, of course. The crowd is that segment of the voters which has a herd mentality and could be driven by political parties and leaders without being able to understand where to and what for. Crowds are fascinated to absurd idioms and language of communication and are meant for clapping and making noise by the politicians to distract them from the main issues. The crowds are unaware why they are clapping and making noise in frenzy. They have no reason to do so except getting some benefits like a free bus trip, free lunch or some money. They are crowds and not voters in the true sense of the word.
The voters in true sense are only those citizens who know why they are voting and who they are going to elect and for what reason. They could resist getting divided, bribed and receiving illegal inducements. True voters never let anybody to mislead them about our national goals and priorities. They are able to form educated opinions and informed choices. They make the best efforts to be aware about the national and social priorities. They consciously and rationally vote for the benefit of country, society and people. They never fall trap to narrow, divisive and misleading narratives.
Thus, people, crowd and voters are different. Today the political leaders have immense capacity to transform people into crowds rather than help them to be rational voters. The political leaders mesmerize, entertain, appeal to people’s emotions through divisive planks and narrow categories like caste, creed, religion, region and even culture and tradition. Until and unless a voter is aware and smart enough to understand the “fox like” behavior of the political class, they would be easily converted into clapping and slogan raising crowds without knowing why they are supporting somebody and what for. They do so because they are prompted by vested interests to do so through television and Whatsapp campaigns and propaganda, aimed at blurring the truth and perpetrating what suits their agenda. It needs to be understood than information and propaganda are not the same.
There are still miles to go before people become mature and rational voters rather than getting swayed by artificially created “winds” or “hawa”. Actually people should vote with their own conscience, reasoning and rationality rather than being driven as dumb driven cattle by politicians for their vested interest. Anti incumbency is one of the reasons ruling parties lose elections. But citizens can act as a real check on wrong and misleading priorities set by the political leaders and poor governance. Voters can change the governments, which fail to deliver. Voting power, therefore, is meant not to be exercised casually, but with great scruple and discretion. In the times when the fourth pillar of democracy has become very palpable and permissive, it is very important to educate the voters. General education, irrespective of disciplines (humanities, social sciences or physical sciences) must impart knowledge among the youth about the importance of their participation in the political process and voting. This would save the people from being misled. Only then they could be true voters.
Elections are not winning and losing games and voters are not dumb driven cattle. Voters have the ability to drive the country to its deserved destiny, provided that they do not fall prey to emotive issue, populism, misdirection and short term gratification including election time pecuniary and material benefits. Abraham Lincoln, former U.S. President, said that “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” But to be so, it requires right and educated voting behavior.
Participation in election is necessary to express people’s mandate fully and also to keep the politicians committed to the national agenda and priorities rather than the agenda of their political party and ideology. People’s indifference to the political process on the pretext that it is dirty and unproductive is a great mistake. If any country has to make its democracy participatory and remain on the path of change and progress, it is extremely important for its citizens to participate not only in voting, but also in political processes to the extent possible. Politicians are only interested in winning elections and their promises and commitments are usually a trap. It is people, the real sovereigns, who compel the politicians to uphold the constitution in words and spirit and work hard towards realizing the goals of development and welfare. People can determine the fate of the country by electing right leaders. Barack Obama, Former U.S. President, during one of his campaigns said, “The consequences of anybody here, not turning out and doing everything you can to get your friends, neighbors, family to turn out, the consequences of you staying home would be profoundly dangerous to this country, to our democracy.” Citizens must use their voting power to express their aspirations and compel the politicians about how their country should move and run.
Being guided by borrowed opinions and agenda, voters may make mistake many times before they decide to vote anybody but the parties previously in power. This is not a good understanding of politics. The presence of the opposition parties should be ensured by the voters. Frenzied voting is an expression of the feeling that there is no alternative to the idea held by the winning party. But this thought process is dangerous. There are always competing ideas and alternatives and voting should be rational and not frenzied. It should be based on certain values and principles and not on imitation of what is popular belief. To end with the words of Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage.”