Read Book Review

For 16th Lok Sabha General Elections, Indian political parties are leaving no stone unturned to make their prime ministerial candidates win. The juggernaut of Indian Elections 2014 has attracted international attention as Election Commission will host 80 delegates from 39 countries. It is only relevant that former Election Commissioner Dr S.Y. Quraishi penned this book: An Undocumented Wonder: The Making of the Great Indian Election. 

The great Indian election continues to generate global interest and wonder, partly on account of its uninterrupted success and partly because of the obvious challenges of demography, geography, and the mind boggling diversities. How are these elections conducted? What were the challenges faced by the Election Commission of India? How did it overcome these challenges? What are the ideals and principles that drive the people involved in completing this mammoth task? An Undocumented Wonder: The Making of the Great Indian Election answers these and many more questions about what has been termed often as the 'great dance of democracy'.

The book avoids the 'kiss and tell' track, nor does it seek to entice readers with any 'spill the beans' approach. Instead, the attempt is to serve and satisfy the readers' genuine curiosity through a first person account of the recent electoral history and the challenges encountered. Along with highly informative and exciting inside stories of Indian elections, the author shares his experiences and knowledge from the time when he served as the Chief Election Commissioner of India.

S.Y. Quraishi's book is bold, educational, imaginative and innovative. Some decades ago, a tenacious group of political pundits intended to abolish the first-past-the-post system (FPTP) in favour of the presidential arrangement. But the shrewdness of Indira Gandhi deftly buried the unsaleable model presented by Vasant Sathe, L.K. Jha and B.K. Nehru.

Quraishi puts down the advantages of the FPTP exercise and gives sound reasons to support his views. Electorates find it easy to understand: counting of votes is simple; the winner is known immediately; the voters have the freedom to elect a representative of their choice; there exists an identified representative for each constituency, accountable to the electorate; the system has by and large given stable governments at the Centre and the states.

http://www.infibeam.com/Books/undocumented-wonder-great-indian-election-s-y-quraishi/9788129131065.html

About the Author:

Dr S.Y. Quraishi served as the 17th Chief Election Commissioner of India from 30 July 2010 to 10 June 2012. He has also served as a Secretary in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. He completed his Masters degrees from St. Stephen's College in Delhi before joining the Indian Administrative Service in 1971. He is also the author of the book Social Marketing for Social Change.