CERI Conference in Manipur

The Senior Citizens Society of Manipur, under the leadership of Dr.

Nara Singh decided to organize a North Eastern Conference of the
Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India (CERI) on 30 and 31
October 2010 in Imphal. Though represented by almost all the sister
States of North East it was predominantly a Conference of Manipur
State. Dr. Nara Singh was a former Minister in Manipur and is a
highly respected person in Manipur politics. M C Raj from Tumkur
and V B Rawat from Delhi attended.

When the Conference started at 10.20 at Hotel Imphal there were

about 200 eminent people already in the Hall. It had a galaxy of
renowned personalities on stage such as the former Advocate
General of Manipur, former President of Women’s Commission in
Manipur, former Justices, present Minister of State of the
government of Manipur, President of the Senior Citizens Society,
Vice-President of SCS and Dr. Nara.

The Senior Citizens had translated the Manifesto of CERI into

Manipuri and got it printed through their own contribution. It was
released. Dr. Jamini Devi, the former President of Women’s
Commission of Manipur asserted that the legitimate aspirations of
the people of Manipur cannot be adequately addressed unless there
is an electoral reform in India and the Proportionate Electoral
Systems comes into effect. All the speakers stressed on electoral
reforms as the need of the hour in the country today. Many other
speakers also called for the removal of the present FPTP system and
the ushering in of the Proportionate Electoral System. Rawat and M
C Raj took the podium to explain the need for greater
democratization and for cleansing of the representative system
through the PES.

At the end of a very lively day it was decided to set up a North

Eastern Committee of CERI comprising of the following persons.

1. Dr. Nara Singh – Manipur

2. Prof. L Sadananda - Manipur
3. Mr. Ganga Sapkota - Sikkim
4. Mrs. Geeta Sapkota - Sikkim
5. Dr. Jodhachandra Savasam - Meghalaya
6. Dr. Khypham Nongkinrich - Meghalaya
7. Mr. Daikhom Komalakanta - Assam
8. Dr. Abangdi JAmir - Nagaland
9. Mr. MAnimahanta - Assam
10. Dr. Yudhisthir Das - Tripura
11. Mr. Antony Debbarma - Tripura
12. Ms. Khaidam Mani - Manipur
13. Dr. Ch. Silaramani - Manipur
 14. Dr. Meinam Binota - Manipur
15. Mr. Khiram Romason - Manipur

Dr. Nara Singh was unanimously elected as the Coordinator for the
North Eastern States.

This coordination Committee met the next day at the same venue
and decided to set up Coordination Committees at the State and
District level in the entire region. The need for a comprehensive
book was placed before the National Body of CERI and Raj assured
them that he was writing such a book. Mr. Jassal was specially
requested to make inroads into Nagaland with his existing contacts.
All of them agreed that the charisma of the members of the
Coordination Committee should be put to best used for bringing
about an electoral reform in India. The Office of the North Eastern
CERI will be located in the office of the Senior Citizens Society.

From Manipur Dr. Nara, Rawat and Raj proceeded towards Delhi for
the Core Group meeting of CERI.

National Core Group Meeting

The report of the Core Group Meeting at the Vishwa Yuvak Kendra
on 01 and 02 of November has already been circulated to all friends
of CERI. It can be sent once again to those who need to browse
through again.

CERI Conference of Chattishgarh

The State Conference of CERI in Chattishgarh was organized by Ms.

Durga Sob and Mr. Goldy George in Raipur on 19 and 20 November
2010. The attendance of about 50 quality participants in a small
state was highly appreciated.

Anil Gaikwad from Maharashtra CERI, Vivek from the Central office
of CERI and M C Raj attended this conference as resource persons.
However, Mr. Yogendra Yadav had prepared himself well to be a
resource person. He was the former member of Chattishgarh
Planning Commission.

The State Conference had eminent speakers from all political parties
including Congress and BJP. Of course attendance by CPM and CPI
has become a regular feature in all States in the Campaign of CERI.

Jharkhand State Conference

The Jharkhand State Conference of CERI was held on 29 and 30 of

November 2010 in Ranchi. Participants from 18 districts of Jharkhand had
already arrived a day before. More than 120 participants attended the State
Conference. M C Raj could not attend this Conference. Dr. Nara Singh of
Manipur, Mr. V B Rawat of Delhi and Mr. Vivek Sakpal attended as external
resource persons. Mr Vishwabandhu, the State Coordinator of CERI
welcomed the audience and gave a brief of CERI.

Mr Vivek Sakpal highlighted the need for electoral reforms in the current
context and the challenges for future coalitions. He also outlined how CERI
was born out of a dire need for meaningful and effective representation for the
hitherto marginalized and excluded people in India. He went on to elaborate
the success of CERI so far in various states of India and its future plans. He
then gave an outline of PES and set the ball rolling for other speakers. He
also highlighted on Result of Bihar Assembly for the seat of Keoti where the
winning margin was only 29 votes (Source Election commission of India).

Mr VB Rawat elaborated on the need for PES in the current context giving
examples of castes in Bihar, Jharkhand and UP. He also mentioned how Land
politics plays role today with the current election system making it easy to
grab land. Mr Rawat also highlighted the huge advantages that many
countries with PES have gained. He highlighted the German Model of Mixed
Member seats, explaining how good it was for an average voter to make
choice rather than compromise or not to vote as in India. He elaborated how
Political Parties in India always select and not elect leaders and stressed that
Indian political parties are themselves highly undemocratic in nature. He also
highlighted how women are used as dummy in Indian politics and the status of
women has never improved.

Mr Sunil Pal from National Election Watch and as a Media Person highlighted
the finer details of election outcomes in Jharkhand and Bihar. He mentioned
of money power, muscle power and caste politics in India with direct reference
and examples from Bihar Elections. He also urged the People to come and
join hands with CERI and congratulated Mr Vishwabandhu for bringing CERI
to Jharkhand.

Dr Nara gave an emotional appeal to people. He spoke on length giving

history of Indian Elections and also his personal experiences in Politics. He
stated that in the world when we have so many different models of democracy
we are still stuck to a model, which encourages caste system and feudal
politics. He highlighted the plight of Manipur and its negligible representation
in Parliament. He spoke on issues of North East India and how they are
poorly addressed due to lack of strong will at the Centre due to poor
representation of North East in Centre. He further asked the people if they
really felt the urgency for reforms and the crowd was enthusiastic and roared
YES.

In the evening a press conference was held at the same venue. It was
addressed by Dr Nara, Mr V B Rawat, Mr Vishwabandhu , Mr Vivek Sakpal.
Mr Pathak and Mr Xavier of the Adivasi Manch stated that PR alone could
solve the needs of the Adivasi and addresses their issues and urged the
people to support CERI and take it to the villages of Jharkhand.

A State committee of Jharkhand with equal representation to women in each

district was constituted.

The enthusiastic media response was something special. News Coverage on

both the days was amazing.

Signature Campaign

The Maharashtra CERI organized a stall at the Ambedkar Memorial

in Mumbai on 06 December, which is the Festival of Dalit Ancestors.
It is on this day that Babasaheb Ambedkar breathed his last.
Thousands of people assemble to pay their respect to him in his
tomb in Mumbai and CERI organizes a stall. This year the focus was
on collecting signatures in support of the Campaign for Electoral
Reforms in India. It is mark of pride that within one day CERI
Maharashtra was able to collect more than 10,000 signatures. The
Caravan of electoral reform is moving fast forward.