The people of India have voted for a change and hope that the new Government led by Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister will take the country towards higher levels of progress and prosperity, a lawmaker has said.
Member of Parliament on National List Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi said that by giving a massive mandate to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the general election the results for which were announced on March 16, people in India have expressed their definitive choice with clarity.
Mammoth Operation
Speaking at a meeting (called, ‘Salute to Indian Democracy’) organised by the New Zealand Central Indian Association (NZICA) and Auckland Indian Association (AIA) at the Mahatma Gandhi Centre in Eden Terrace on May 17, he said that the fact that the general election was conducted with efficiency and without any untoward incident showed that India and Indians held democratic values in high esteem.
“It was a mammoth operation involving more than 814 million people. There was not a single complaint of rigging or any other irregularity. This showed the election process was clean, transparent and satisfactory to all,” he said.
Mr Bakshi said that the BJP not only cared for the common people but also understands the value of the corporate sector, which would be beneficial to New Zealand.
Benefit to New Zealand
“The BJP will be business-friendly like our National Party in New Zealand and hence its approach and governance will support the corporate sector in its efforts to promote India as a business and investment destination. I am also confident that a Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and India will become a reality,” he said.
“It was great to see BJP President Rajnath Singh attributing the huge success achieved by his Party to its grass root supporters, workers and volunteers,” he said.
NZICA President Harshad Patel said that many New Zealander Indians were pleased with the success of the BJP and hoped that the environment would be more conducive to companies and businesspersons keen to improve their presence in India.
“The people of India have spoken and the huge mandate that the BJP received from the people will ensure political stability in India and promote higher levels of economic growth in the coming years,” he said.
Tribute to people
AIA President Ashok Darji said that the Indian Diaspora in New Zealand, especially people from India followed the developments occurring in their home country with abiding interest.
“We salute India for upholding the values of democracy and the recently held general election is a tribute to the people of the world’s largest democracy. We look forward to closer ties not only between the two governments but also the two peoples,” he said.
Gigantic exercise
Indian Newslink Editor, who was the Chief Guest, said that despite political fragmentation, democracy has always thrived in India since independence in 1947.
“Federal and State Governments have been challenged and toppled but people’s choice has prevailed. One democratically elected Government has always been followed by another, and India has never faced the threat of military rule. Indian leaders have consistently shown their ability to close ranks at times of national crisis,” he said.
Issues such as Defence and Foreign Policies that affect the security and image of the country have always had the benefit of unison approach, he added.
Outlining the salient features of the election, he described it as ‘gigantic’ and unprecedented.’
The numbers
“Polling was held in nine phases throughout the country from April 7 to May 12, 2014. The polling rate was about 66.48% (of the total number of 814.5 million people registered), of who about 426.5 million were men, 387.2 million were women and 28,000 listed as trans-genders.
“More than 1000 political parties were in the fray competing for 543 parliamentary seats. Many of them, including some prominent politicians lost their deposits in this landmark election. There were 103 million new voters, more than the entire population of United Kingdom, The North-Indian State of Uttar Pradesh alone had 23 million new voters, just three million short of the combined total population of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden,” he said.
Extensive planning
Election Commission of India, which conducted the general election, had taken extensive care to ensure that polling was smooth and congestion-free. There were more than 930,000 polling stations located in various parts of the country, each with a maximum of 1500 voters. About ten million people were directly involved in the election process, including 200,000 security personnel who were transported to the polling booths in more than 100 trains, thousands of buses and at least 12 helicopters.
The Commission had placed 3.26 million electronic voting machines in constituencies that had up to 64 candidates. Votes polled in constituencies that had more than 64 candidates were manually counted.
“The total estimated cost of conducting the election was ₹35 billion ($680 million) excluding security expenses and the monies spent by political parties for their campaigns. The parties are believed to have spent ₹30,500 crore (about $5.8 billion), the second highest in the world, after the 2012 US election ($8.09 billion).”
Photo :
KS Bakshi with (from left) Prakash Biradar, Sunita Patel, Ashok Darji, Shanti Patel and Harshad Patel at the meeting held to ‘Salute Indian Democracy.’
