Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Model Code

This refers to the article "Understanding the Model Code" (March 21). Though the Model Code of Conduct is elaborate, Ministers at the Centre and the States continue to violate it. In order to create a level-playing field in the true sense of the term, the code should be given a statutory status. As a first step, the States that go to the polls should have only caretaker governments. Similarly, the Union Ministers who hail from the States should be asked to resign if they intend participating in the election campaign. This will prevent the misuse of official machinery.

R. Muralikumar,
Chennai

The party in power need not wait till the elections are announced to win over the people. If the electorate is intelligent and honest it will remember the doings of the ruling party even after years. If the Election Commission is of the opinion that in two or three months the people can be won over by sops, it is a sad reflection on the people. The State Assembly or Parliament should be dissolved. A three-month interregnum should follow under the titular heads before the elections. There will be no need for the Model Code and the people will gain the respect they deserve.

A.M. Rahamath Ali,
Chennai

It is clear that Election Commission activism, like judicial activism, has come to stay. Its uncompromising attitude offers the hope that the day is not far off when the Indian political scene is going to be cleansed of the ills afflicting it. Maybe, in a decade or so, we will witnesses a systemic transformation that gives rise to a more mature and enlightened democracy. Of course, the political community will spare no energy in resisting such transformation.

Pokkuluri Anwesh,
Kakinada, A.P.

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