Raghav Chadha, Rajya Sabha MP from Aam Aadmi Party, on Wednesday floated the idea of introducing ‘Right to Recall’ in India’s parliamentary democracy. Chadha argued that voters must have the right to remove elected representatives before they complete their term if they fail to perform.

“If voters can HIRE a neta, they should be able to FIRE the neta too. If Indian voters have the Right to Elect, they should have the ‘RIGHT TO RECALL’ too (sic),” Chadha wrote on X and had earlier raised the issue in the Parliament as well.

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“Five years is too long. There is no profession where you underperform for five years with zero consequences,” he said in the post, adding that more than 24 countries in the world provide the ‘Right to Recall’ option to the citizens.

Listen to what he said in the Parliament during the Zero hour:

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“If we can impeach the President, the Vice President and judges, and move a no confidence motion against an elected government mid term, then why should voters be forced to tolerate a non performing MP or MLA for five full years,” he said.

However, voters can call for recall of representatives only on grounds of proven misconduct, fraud, corruption or serious neglect of duty. It starts with a recall petition and the result is based on electronic-based voting.

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“At least 35 to 40 percent voters should back a recall trigger through a verified petition before any recall vote is held,” Chadha explained in his post.

Elected representatives get a time of 18 months after elections during which they deliver their duties before a recall is triggered against them. A representative can be removed if more than 50% voters back the recall vote.

In India, Right to Recall exists in some states for local body representatives but not for MPs or MLAs.