NCERT Solutions for Class 9th Social Science Chapter 7 Chapter opener — The Big Questions

Because in a democracy the people do not govern directly — they govern through representatives, and an election is the only regular, peaceful way of appointing those representatives and of removing them.

The chapter builds the argument in four steps.

• Elections create representation. India is too large for every citizen to make every decision. Members of the Lok Sabha, the Vidhan Sabha and local bodies are elected directly so that every constituency has a voice in the law-making body.
• Elections create accountability. The chapter puts it plainly: "Elected representatives are accountable to the people." A representative who knows the term ends in five years must answer for what was done in those five years.
• Elections create equality. One adult citizen has one vote, and the RPA 1950 secures that right for "every citizen above 18 years of age and above… without discrimination". At the ballot no vote is worth more than another.
• Elections create legitimacy. A government that has just won a mandate can claim the authority to make binding decisions for everyone, including those who voted against it.

The chapter tests the idea with a case you already know. Gurmat was elected class representative in Grade 8 — can she simply continue in Grade 9 without a fresh election? Can a government stay on beyond its term? Can you exercise a choice if only one party is contesting? The answer to all three is No, and each "No" points to one of the four things above.

An electoral system is the rule that converts votes into seats — and different rules turn the same votes into very different legislatures. The chapter compares three systems through three imaginary countries.

Now work the numbers out, because that is where the difference shows.

So the rules shape three things:

• Who gets in. Under FPTP a party can govern on 40% of the votes; under PR a party with 40% of the votes gets 40% of the seats and must work with others.
• How much a losing vote counts. In Haritbhumi 60% of votes elected nobody in the winning column. In Swarnalok every 1% of the vote earned a seat.
• Whether the winner must reach a majority. Ratnadweep's second round forces the winner past 50% — notice that Party X led round 1 with 45% and still lost, because in round 2 the supporters of the eliminated Party Z had to choose between X and Y.

They supply the rules, the referee and the map — without which an election would only be a contest of strength.

Three of the RPA 1951 offences show how precisely the law works. It is an offence to make any gift, offer or promise to a person to make them contest, withdraw, vote or refrain from voting; to appeal for votes on the basis of religion, caste, race, community or language; and to take assistance for a candidate from government-related personnel — gazetted officers, judges and magistrates, armed forces personnel, police personnel and excise officers.

The ECI ties it all together. It is an autonomous permanent constitutional body set up on 25 January 1950, and it conducts the elections to the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha, the Vidhan Sabha, the Vidhan Parishad, the President and the Vice President. At the State level the Chief Electoral Officer supervises the work, and District Magistrates, Sub-Divisional Magistrates and Tahsildars are designated District Election Officers, Returning Officers and Electoral Registration Officers for the poll.

The chapter draws the challenges as potholes on the road to free and fair elections (Fig. 7.13). Three are named on the road itself — misinformation, fake news and intimidation — and the remaining potholes are left empty for you to fill.

The challenges the chapter identifies

• Misinformation and fake news — false claims about candidates, parties or the voting process, spread faster than they can be corrected.
• Intimidation — pressure or threats that stop people from voting freely, or from voting at all.
• Inducements and money power — the gifts, offers and promises listed as corrupt practices under RPA 1951.
• Appeals on religion, caste, race, community or language — also an offence under RPA 1951.
• Misuse of official machinery — taking assistance from government-related personnel, prohibited by the same Act.
• Accessibility barriers — the chapter notes that when some participants face difficulties in exercising their right to vote, the democratic value of the election is reduced even though the election was held.
• Sheer scale — over 96.8 crore electors in 2024, thousands of polling stations, hundreds of political parties, spread across diverse regions and terrains.

How they damage democracy. The chapter's own reasoning is the sharpest answer: if fairness is not ensured, "public confidence in electoral institutions may gradually weaken". If candidates are influenced by personal favours, if votes are not counted accurately, or if some people cannot reach the booth, then "although elections may be held, their democratic value is reduced". In other words, the damage is not usually that the election stops happening — it is that the election stops meaning anything. A result that people do not trust cannot give a government legitimacy, and a vote cast on a false story is not really a free choice.

What is done about them. The ECI works through RPA 1950 and 1951, the Model Code of Conduct, EVMs, the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), voters' awareness campaigns and the cVIGIL app, through which any voter can report a Model Code violation within minutes and a flying squad reaches the spot using auto-location. The chapter closes on the condition that makes all this work: "With constant vigilance and active citizen participation, elections can become more representative and the democracy more robust."