 bill no 27 of  2017 the representation of the people (amendment) bill, 2017 byprof saugata roy, mp a billfurther to amend the representation of the people act, 1951be it enacted by parliament in the sixty-eighth year of the republic of india as follows:—2 in the representation of the people act, 1951, after section 8a, the following section shall be inserted, namely:—insertion of new section 8b"8b notwithstanding anything in section 8a, any person convicted of an offence of corrupt practice of using religion, race, caste or community during election campaign in order to influence the vote of electors shall be disqualified for whole of life from the date of conviction"disqualification on ground of corrupt practice of using religion, caste, etc to influence electors43 of 19515 statement of objects and reasonsreligion and caste have become so interwined in indian politics that it is almost impossible to imagine political parties functioning without using them many governments have stormed to power on the back of promises on issues directly or indirectly related to religion and caste the hon'ble supreme court's recent ruling on use of religion and caste seems an admirable but difficult to implement measures to clean up electoral politics in the country from amongst the number of political parties in the country, many are being accused of using religion for electoral gains the supreme court ruled that no political party or contender can seek votes in the name of religion or caste during elections what this seeks to do ideally is to bring the political parties on a level-playing field and contest election on issue of inclusive social and economic development but that seems difficult given the leading personalities have dug their feet deep in divisive or focus-groups politics working for specific sections, however, without harming others can't be classified as a wrong doing but the apex court's reiteration of rules of the election commission is a sign that there is an attempt to clean electoral politics of religion and caste the election commission can only comprehensively monitor rally videos, posters and sizeable campaign activities in major locations and routes it is difficult to monitor campaigning at micro levels across the state therefore, the challenge is to stop indirect propagation because as already stated, the on-ground and door-to-door campaigning and also other forms of direct contact and engagement campaigning cannot be monitoredthe bill, therefore, seeks to amend the representation of the people act, 1951 with a view to provide that any person convicted of an offence of corrupt practice relating to the use of religion, race, caste, community or language during election campaign for the purpose of influencing vote of electors shall be disqualified for the whole of life from the date of convictionhence this billnew delhi;saugata  royjanuary 18, 2017 lok sabha———— a billfurther to amend the representation of the people act, 1951————(prof saugata roy, mp)gmgipmrnd—4239ls(s3)—16022017