It will be evident from the foregoing chapters that the system of elections advocated in this Constitution is direct for the village panchayats and indirect for the taluka, district, province and the All-India Centre. This system will combine the chief advantages of both direct and indirect elections. The election will be direct in the village-which would enjoy maximum local autonomy. Since the functions of the higher bodies will be mainly advisory and co-ordinative, indirect election would be the most suitable method. It will avoid colossal waste of national energy, time and money involved in direct elections especially in a vast country like India. The unhealthy growth of political parties and communal feelings will also be automatically checked to a great extent. Since indirect election will be confined to a few responsible individuals, there will be hardly any room for bribery and corruption. Besides, the representatives of the upper bodies will not be in a position to ‘forget’ their constituencies because they would owe-their delegation to the lower panchayats. According to the proposed Constitution, the President of the lower panchayat shall be the ex-officio member of the next higher panchayat. Thus, even the President of the All—India Panchayat shall be the president of his own village panchayat as well; he shall, at the same time, be a member or president of the taluka, district and provincial panchayats. He will, therefore, be fully conversant with and alive to the difficulties and requirements of the masses; he cannot be a mere ‘arm—chair’ politician. If any member of the highest body does not discharge his civic duties towards the people satisfactorily, he would stand no chance at the next elections; he might even be ‘recalled’ by his own:village panchayat, thus, compelling him to resign his membership of all the other higher bodies. Since the village constituencies will be small and there will be direct and intimate knowledge of the candidates seeking election, the scope for electioneering frauds would be eliminated root and branch.
