Indian Elections: An inclusive study of ‘Money’ & ‘Muscle’ power

Abstract

Being the largest democracy of the world, India has presented itself as an example of nurturing a democracy. But in spite of that, the democracy has not been realized up to the full extent because of certain issues rooted in the exercise of its Elections. Here, the researcher has tried to indicate the most important and integral happenings in the present day electoral system under two broad categories viz. money power and muscle power. This is to say that all the issues pertaining to the elections in India have somehow, the root cause as either of the two powers titled above. Some of these issues have been regulated by the Honorable Supreme Court of India and the Election Commission of India, in the past such as invoking communalism in elections, opinion polls, spending limits, paid news, vote purchasing, use of Government machinery, criminalization, etc. But there are still some issues which are difficult to eliminate and even not got much breakthrough in the Courts and by the Commission, in the name of individual rights & liberty and Directive Principles, such as regulation of the political parties under Right to Information Act, the announcement of freebies in the manifestos, corporate financing of the Elections, horse trading, etc. This paper tries to discuss the various manifestations (covering all the election issues) of money and muscle used as power to win the elections and the steps taken by the Government.