During
the decades of 1950 and early 60's, when Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru was
prime minister, India was quite pally with Egypt, under rule of Gamal
Abdel Nasser. Nehru and Nasser, along with Marshal Tito of
Yugoslavia, shared an international group, which was known as Non
aligned Movement. Those were the days of great bonhomie between India
and Egypt. Indian Government and Government of President Abdul
Nasser, collaborated on many joint projects. After the demise of
these great leaders, those days of friendship were soon lost. Egypt
moved towards Soviet block first and later moved on and became
friendly with Americans. The special relationship between India and
Egypt evaporated and only formal relations remained.
As
democracy grew from strength to strength in India, Egypt was driven
deeper and deeper towards autocracy, with successive dictators ruling
the country. Last year the Arab spring movement brought first
glimmer of hope to Egyptians. As things finally turned out,
Egyptians won their battle for democracy and ordinary Egyptians must
have heaved a sigh of relief. Regretfully, the problem is not as yet
over. Even though ordinary Egyptians like you and me are eagerly
looking ahead for a democratic republic of Egypt. In reality, they
have just won only a battle, they might still loose the war, if they
are not vigilant. To become a true democracy, Egypt must hold a free
and fair election to select new leaders, who can rule the country for
a fixed period only. The power of selecting these leaders now and
also in future, must lie firmly and precisely in the hands of the
Egyptian masses.
India's
elections are free and fair because there is a statutory independent
body known as Election commission of India that entirely controls the
election process. Over the years it has evolved requisite hardware
and software to facilitate the process. A model code of conduct for
the candidates and the Political parties is in place. For any country
embarking upon the path of democracy, the expertise of the Election
Commission of India can be really very useful. In July 1993, India
helped Cambodia in conducting a free and fair election under auspices
of United Nations Transitional Authority for Cambodia (UNTAC). While
talking to ordinary Cambodian people, I have heard praise for India
for this effort. India's Election Commission has set up a school
named as India International Institute of Democracy and Election
Management (IIDEM), which provides training to officials engaged in
elections. Many officials from number of countries across the world
have been trained in this institute.
Perhaps
realizing that India's expertise in carrying out free and fair
elections, could be extremely useful for his country, Egypt’s
Secretary General of Supreme Election Committee, Hatem Bagato, has
arrived in India for a three-day visit. He will sign an Memorandum
of understanding with Chief Election Commissioner of India Mr. V.S.
Sampath this week. Mr. Bagato says that this visit is aimed at
helping Egypt to establish a functioning democratic system after
studying the best practices adopted by other nations during
elections. As per this MOU, besides exchange of election management
techniques, the Election Commission of India will also support Egypt
in building resources of its poll personnel and provide training to
them at the (IIDEM). Mr. Hatem Bagato will also discuss with Chief
Election Commissioner of India other issues like exchange of ideas
and future cooperation in the field of election management between
the two nations.
Since
1995, India has been using indigenously developed Electronic Voting
Machines or EVM's in all elections. Egypt has evinced a keen
interest in these voting machines used in India and wants to study
them for use in their country in future elections. An Egyptian
polling officer has remarked that “As Egyptian government is keen
on introducing Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) during its elections
in future, the visit will provide an opportunity to observe one of
the advanced and widely practiced systems in the world.”
It
seems that Brand India has just got extended from Bollywood, Indian
curries, fashions and TV serials. It now also includes conducting
free and fair elections.
20
September 2012
Abdul Gamal Nasser was a dictator too. It was not a democracy under him even if he was a close friend of Nehru. Even Chou En Lai of China was Nehru's very close freind before he attacked India!It seems Nehru did not mind dictator friends
ReplyDeleteSunil
ReplyDeleteThanks for your interesting observations.