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 Gandhiji attained martyrdom too soon. Had he been living at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, he would have ensured that his cherished dream of good governance, Panchayat raj, be the foundation of our democratic system. Political parties will have no role in it. The stalwarts who framed the Constitution were no doubt among the best of the Indian brain, but they went about the job by cloning the British model which was most unsuited to the Indian ethos. The Constitution Assembly which deliberated on the document for more than two years, totally relied on the British model of parliamentary democracy. They relegated Gandhijis concept of Panchat raj to a mere three-line Directive Principle.
More than fifty years of experience has thrown up the many inadequacies of the Charter. Though the Constitution has stood the test of times, the working of the democratic process is wholly unsatisfactory and call for major change. In the parliamentary democracy, as in practice now, the political parties represent the individual. Only at the time of the elections the voter has a role to play. Even there, he is not allowed to exercise his free will. He is bribed, intimidated or brainwashed by the political leaders or swayed by instant issues like the spurt in the price of onions at the voting time. After that the voter goes into hibernation, until the next elections, and the parties that decide what is good for him. Which in real terms means what is good for themselves.
 The political parties are controlled by an individual or a coterie. In most cases there is no inner party democracy. Never is there an agreement on a common program that will uplift the people from poverty and misery they are in, and take the country in the path of progress. Instability and corruption are in-built in the present system. The crying need is for a drastic change and it should begin at the bottom.
Gandhiji's concept of Panchayat raj envisages India as a 'Union of Village Republics'. Each of the 640,000 village panchayats would be a self-sufficient autonomous unit with full political and economic power vested in it. He called it 'Village Swaraj', where every individual will have direct voice in the government.
H.M. Vyas, compiler of Gandhiji's essays on the subject writes: The individual is the architect of his own government. The government of the village will be conducted by a Panchyat of persons annually elected by adult villagers possessing minimum prescribed qualifications. It will have all the authority and jurisdiction. The Panchayat will be the legislature, judiciary and executive rolled into one.. Village swaraj as conceived by Gandhiji is thus a genuine and virile democracy which offers a potent cure for many of the ills that mark the present political system that is "election-oriented, party-dominated, power-aimed, centralized and complicated".
 At this point of time it may sound too Utopian as it would require dismantling of the present electoral system and rewriting of the Constitution itself. Credit is due to the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who pushed through the 73rd and 74th amendments providing for compulsory elections to the Panchayats and other local bodies. Fundless and powerless it is a far-cry from Gandhiji's concept of Panchayat raj. But these elections have no doubt created an awareness among the villagers and an opportunity to vent their grievances to the authorities through the easily accessible elected representatives.
If these Panchayats could be vested with more power and independence from the State authorities it would be the beginning of a total political reform. A reformed system will have the following salient features:
1. Direct elections, by adult franchise, will be held annually to the Panchayats and other local bodies, along with elections to Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.
2. The Panchayats as well as the State assemblies and the Lok Sabha will be a continuing permanent body, never to be dissolved and reconstituted every five years
3. One-fifth of the elected members will be retired every year and elections are held for the vacancies.
4. The leader of the House, who will be elected by a simple majority will have a full-term of five years. In case there are more than two contestants preferential voting will decide the winner. His removal in mid-term will be by two-thirds voting for such a resolution.
 5. The candidate for election to the State legislature or Lok Sabha should have put in at least one full term as a chairperson at the Panchayat level and must have an unblemished record.
Interestingly, the Constitution has no mention of the political parties. The leader of the House is the Chief Minister or Prime Minister. A charismatic, clean candidate can enlist the support of the majority in the House. Once elected by a simple majority he will not be bound by the pressures and pulls of his own party or coalition partners as is witnessed now.
If elections are held annually to one-fifth of the legislative bodies including the Panchayats, it will be more manageable and less costly. The benefits would be much more if elections are held indirectly to the State assemblies and the Parliament through an electoral college
comprising members of the Panchayats and other local bodies.
All this may require some amendments to the Constitution and drastic revision of the Peoples Representative Act. A new, partyless democratic system having the village Panchayat as the base will usher in truly a democratic republic, the Gandhian Republic of India.
Swachid K. Rangan
(Founder of Swachid - Soldiers of War Against Corruption, Hunger, Ignorance
and Disease and the Convenor of Gandhian Movement for Clean Government)
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