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          Sir, another aspect which was discussed in the Standing Committee was whether the federal structure will be affected by allowing candidates from other places to contest from a particular State. This has also been seriously dealt with by the Standing Committee.

 

It can be seen that the persons who are voting are the MLAs of the State or the concerned Union Territory. Therefore, it cannot be said that the federal structure is also affected.

          As far as secrecy is concerned, sometimes we have had the occasions to have open vote in cases like a proxy vote on the Bill which was passed recently and also in cases of blind persons where others are allowed to vote.

          When I entered the House – I was late by a minute – I heard the hon. Minister of State talk about proxy voting. That is a very vicious thing if you try to introduce that in the system because today when you talk about it you would not know what would happen, if you have a particular class in mind. All of us want that all the people and all the serving personnel in the Defence Forces should be provided means of voting. Today, when you talk proudly of your IT achievements and developments, we have many ways of doing it so that the person sitting in Siachen also could vote back in his remote small village in Punjab. He could do it if you have the will to do it. So, please do not have proxy voting. This is something that you really need not do for them. If you really think of the Defence Forces, there are many issues about which you have to be really concerned. This is a very peripheral issue. Once you introduce it, there would be a floodgate of demands from all quarters asking for proxy voting and that would lead to a situation which we could never contemplate.

          We are talking about expenditure. In a democracy, no amount of money is more valuable or indispensable than the direct election by the people.

          Last but not least, with regard to the proxy voting, hon. Member, Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal, said: "Do not do it. Find out some other way so that the people in the Defence Forces can vote in their villages." How can they do it unless we have a system of proxy voting? We are having the postal voting system. You send the postal ballots to them. They send these back by post. Do these votes reach by the time when your elections are being held? We have been trying it for the last 56 years. Is it possible? This is basically denying the right of voting to a very large percentage of people of our country. So, I suggest that proxy voting should be allowed. It is being allowed in many other countries of the world. Let us not deny the opportunity to the people who are sacrificing their lives for saving us – the Indians.