Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha on Wednesday floated the idea of introducing ‘Right to Recall’ in India’s parliamentary democracy. Chadha argued that voters must have the right of removal If the elected representatives fail to perform their duties before they complete their term.
File photo of AAP MP Raghav Chadha. (PTI)”If voters can appoint a leader, they should be able to dismiss the leader. If Indian voters have the right to elect, they should also have the ‘right to recall’ (sic),” Chadha wrote in X and had earlier raised the issue in Parliament.
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“Five years is too long. There is no profession where you underperform for five years with zero results,” he said in the post, adding that more than 24 countries around the world offer citizens a ‘right to recall’ option.
Listen to what he said in parliament at zero hour:
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What is Right to Recall?In a post on social media, Chadha explained the right to recall and said it is a process that empowers voters ‘to elected representatives, before their term expires’. Simply put, if voters are not satisfied with the performance of their elected representatives, they can remove them before their term ends.
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“If we can impeach the president, vice president and judges and move a no-confidence motion against an elected government in the interim, why should voters be forced to put up with an ineffective MP or MLA for a full five years,” he said.
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However, voters can only call for the recall of representatives due to proven misconduct, fraud, corruption or gross dereliction of duty. It starts with a recall petition and results are based on electronic-based voting.
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“At least 35 to 40 percent of voters must support the recall trigger through a verified petition before any recall vote can be held,” Chadha explained in his post.
Elected representatives have 18 months after election in which to perform their duties before they are recalled. A representative can be removed if more than 50% of voters support a recall vote.
In India, some states have right to recall for representatives of local bodies but not for MPs or MLAs.
Which of the following countries has the right of withdrawal?United States of AmericaUKSwitzerlandVenezuelaPeruEcuadorJapanTaiwanCanada (British Columbia)
