New DelhiA few moments agoAuthor: Anirudh Sharma
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The organization for election reforms Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) co-founder and strong supporters of election reforms Prof. Jagdeep S Chhokar died of a heart attack in Delhi in the early hours of Friday. He was 81 years old.
Q Chokar, a professor in IIM Ahmedabad, established the ADR in 1999 and fought several legal battles for electoral transparency through it. Improvements like disclosure of the background of candidates and cancellation of electoral bond schemes can be possible only due to their efforts.
The chief retired Major General Anil Verma of ADR is telling about his inspiring journey …
- ‘In the last two decades, Prof. Building the details of the candidates under the leadership of Chhokar, the disqualification of convicted MPs and MLAs, making public income returns public, bringing parties under the purview of RTI, ending the NOTA button and electoral bonds schemes… There were reforms which proved to be a milestone in the electoral history of the country.
- This change started in 1999 … Some IIM professors were very upset that criminal elements are increasing in politics. One of them was Prof. Leave Jagdeep. He believed that like the balance sheet of companies, the character sheet of leaders should also be revealed.
- Prof. on this thinking On the suggestion of Trilochan Shastri, 11 professors and students jointly laid the foundation of ADR. Prof. was the most senior among these founders. Leave Jagdeep. He believed that the democracy of the country would be strong only when the voter will be fully aware of who is the candidate standing in front of him.
- Except, till the last time, he was engaged in the mission to make Indian politics transparent and accountable. The ADR filed a PIL in the Delhi High Court in which it was argued that voters have the right to know who is his candidate, there is no criminal case on it, what is his property, what are the liabilities, how are the income, how much, how much is written. The matter reached the Supreme Court and a historic decision came, which made it mandatory for every candidate to give affidavit with a leaflet in which he had to give his details.
Prof. behind these reforms. Was left, never let us know- Yogendra Yadav
‘When Prof. When 11 professors including Chhokar made ADR together, I felt that the professor people would change the democracy of the country and what will be the difference with two-four courts, but I proved to be wrong. ADR founder and especially Prof. Except with which the case was taken to the court with the help, as a result, the candidates got an order to make the information public. Not only this, when the affidavit started coming, ADR also did the work of spreading it to the public overnight.
