The Hindu : National : Evolve system to disqualify dubious politicians: Kalam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 21, 2005

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National

Evolve system to disqualify dubious politicians: Kalam

Staff Reporter

"Election officer can glean track records " "The core of empowerment for prosperity of one billion Indians was connectivity and partnership between governmental and multiple institutions in the public and private domains"

NEW DELHI: Expounding his vision of realising knowledge economy through application of e-governance for empowering the nation, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Tuesday said even politicians of doubtful integrity could be kept away from elections in that set-up.

Speaking at the India Empowered Summit organised here by The Indian Express along with Tata and NDTV Profit, Mr. Kalam picked up an election scenario to elucidate the impact of e-governance. When all the government departments and institutions are inter-connected the election officer could immediately verify the candidate's authenticity from the national citizen identity database through multifactor authentication from a multipurpose citizen identity card, he said.

"His education credentials can come from university records, his track record of employment from various employers with whom he had worked and his income and wealth resources from the Income-Tax Department and other sources.

"The candidate's property record could come from the registration of land authority across the country.

"His credit history could be collected from various credit institutions like banks.

His civic consciousness and citizenship behaviour could come from the police records and his legal track records from the judicial system."

Artificial intelligence

"Artificial intelligence software could analyse his credentials and give a rating on how successful a politician will he be," said Mr. Kalam, adding that it was also possible to let people cast their vote sitting at home.

Referring to the Indian Oil Corporation employee, S. Manjunath, who was recently killed by the oil mafia in Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Kalam said it was unfortunate but added that it was time to bring about a change to prevent such incidents.

"As we are talking about the responsibilities of the Government, it is also essential that people are equally responsible. The education system has to create responsible, enlightened and righteous citizens," Mr. Kalam added.

Manjunath's parents who participated in the conclave met the President later.

The Summit was a culmination of a series of 160 articles on "Empowering India" contributed by leaders and experts from the fields of politics, government, business, sciences, arts and sports, which were published in The Indian Express.

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