CHENNAI: At a time when many political parties in Tamil Nadu are facing problems in getting their symbols for the Lok Sabha elections, the manifesto of the Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) released by the party’s chief coordinator Seeman on Wednesday proposed symbol-free elections in India, saying this alone can ensure a level-playing field for political parties in the country.
The NTK which faced a setback over the election symbol this time, said in its manifesto, “Under the current system of election, some parties are contesting elections on a particular symbol for a long time and others are contesting with a new symbol. This is against democracy. To set this right, all political parties should be allotted new symbols for every election. If it is not possible, all parties and candidates should be allotted numerals as in the United States to ensure a level-playing field, and the elections should be conducted without any symbols.”
Seeman said denying the ‘sugarcane farmer’ symbol to NTK is a “great injustice”. He also charged those who forged an alliance with the BJP this election, like the Tamil Maanila Congress and AMMK, got their symbols readily. “However, the symbols preferred by VCK and MDMK were denied as they are not the allies of the saffron party. Introducing the Mike symbol allotted to his party, Seeman added just after the Lok Sabha election, the NTK will move court against giving the Lotus symbol, which is the national flower, to the BJP.
The NTK manifesto said the party would strive to remove the Concurrent List in the legislative section of the Constitution and transfer all subjects in this list to the States. The manifesto said both the centre and states can legislate on all subjects in the Concurrent List. Still, when a conflict arises between the union law and state law on a subject in the Concurrent List, the Union law would prevail. Since this section gives autocratic powers to the central government, the Concurrent List should be removed and subjects in this list should be transferred to the States.
The NTK manifesto, in a way, supported a presidential form of government in India. The manifesto said since all legislations are executed by the President, the person who holds the post should be directly elected by the people. The manifesto also promised to prevent those elected to the Rajya Sabha from becoming ministers in the central cabinet, “as its is undemocratic, since the people do not elect them”.
The manifesto said even after the population of the country crossed 130 crore, the number of constituencies stands at 543. To set right this anomaly, the present ratio of six assembly constituencies for one Lok Sabha constituency should be changed to three assembly constituencies for one parliamentary constituency.