A major concern for all Indians today is the repeat appearance of hung parliaments. If after an election no party manages to establish a majority in parliament, the standard recourse has been to call another election. However, with around 600 million voters, elections are expensive, and there is no guarantee that the new parliament will yield a majority. So I suggest a new voting system which, without sacrificing the basic principles of democracy, will almost always guarantee that one party will come out with a majority.

In suggesting this scheme a few criteria are worth bearing in mind. First, the new system must be simple, so that even the illiterate voter can understand it. Second, it must not be so different from the present system that it gets rejected out of hand as too alien to Indian democracy. Indeed, I believe India would be better served by a presidential system, and we could then use the system of run-offs that many countries use to ensure that the elected president has majority support. But this would involve too major a change for it to be immediately implementable. Finally, it must not be too expensive.

What I am about to suggest meets all these criteria and can be adopted in the very next election, which, given the current prognosis, may not be too far away.