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मैं समझता हूं कि अब हम देश के विकास और कल्याण के लिए एक बड़ा काम करेंगे। मंत्री जी जो क्रांतिकारी बिल लाए हैं, मैं उसका समर्थन करते हुए अपनी बात समाप्त करता हूं।

SHRI SOMNATH CHATTERJEE (BOLPUR): Mr. Deputy-Speaker Sir, it has been a process for a long time to try to, what one may say, reform the electoral system in this country. From 1971, I remember that as a new Member of this House, I had the privilege of being a member of a committee which was set up by the then hon. Speaker to go into the reforms of electoral laws. Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Shri L.K. Advani were also members of that Committee. The Chairman was Shri Jagannath Rao, a very respected Member of the House. Most of the recommendations were unanimous. Probably, my good friend, the Minister, will try to find this from the archives or from somewhere, use a duster to make it catch holdable, if there is such an expression. I do not know where it is. But I have got a copy of it still. I am sure the Minister has not got them. It was followed by some non-official committees like Tarkunde Committee, headed by a respected lawyer. Then a committee was set up by Shri Jayaprakashji. Recently, Shri Dinesh Goswami’s Committee Report attracted a lot of attention. Shri Advani was also a member in it representing the BJP. I believe that almost all the recommendations were unanimous. A deep study was made and it was fairly comprehensive. The United Front Government went, the Congress Government came and the BJP or the NDA concoction has come now. But nothing has been done.

Therefore, if the people approve of that party’s policies and programmes they will vote for that party. We are having the ‘first-past-the-post’ system, namely the simple majority, in our country. Sometimes, that will not give a proper verdict in the election because one may get elected with even 30 to 35 per cent of the votes. I understand that this had happened in Godda only the other day.

So far as our party is concerned, we have recommended that there should be, at least, a Partial List system and I have got a good supporter in Shri L.K. Advani for this, unless he has changed his mind after the propagation of Hindutva. He has been a strong proponent of this system. I do not know how far Moditva has influenced him. So, we want to make our party’s position clear that we have to resist the entry of criminals into politics. The simple solution for this is that no party should give nomination to anybody who is anyhow tainted. Why is this not being done? I can claim credit for my party and the Left Parties that we have not given nomination to any such person. Let them point out even one case.