The elections are here. So are the election manifestos, offering promises and dreams without looking back at what was promised and delivered in the previous election. Political parties, as we all know, have made this into a habit. Political parties and even individuals standing for elections as independents will have the best possible manifesto. That they don’t bother to fulfil it once in power is another issue altogether.
The colourful ‘manifesto’ booklet promises the voting public, wide roads, cleaning of clogged drains, numerous street lights, implementing of schemes to the beneficiaries and many other small jobs for the constituency. In fact, there are few jobs promised by the MLA which are the jobs of the local municipality or the panchayat and definitely not the MLA.
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The question that arises is: Do manifestos matter? Does the targeted audience really read and vote on the basis of the manifesto. If so, does the voting public sit at regular intervals or maybe at the end of the term to evaluate whether the promises mentioned therein were fulfilled or not? And if not, do they pull up the elected representative for it?
The answer is a clear NO. By now, we the people have taken it for granted that the manifesto is just a document, the promises of which are rarely fulfilled. It is also understood that the political party is also aware that there is no accountability and hence nobody will question them about the promises made at the start of the term. To start off with, can we go through the manifesto of the ruling party and make an analysis of the promises made at the start of the term and how many of them have been fulfilled till now.
However, a group of people from our neighbouring State Karnataka have started an innovative and unique idea of asking the elected representative questions pertaining to his/her performance in the term. These questions include: what was their attendance in the assembly, how many questions did they ask during the question time, how much time did they speak in the assembly, their understanding of the different policies and laws implemented during the term, the problems of the constituency and the solution for it as well as what were the steps taken by the elected to resolve the same? In fact, this group went a step ahead by disclosing the increase in income and assets by every elected representative during the particular term.
It highlights the very need of the people’s representatives to be educated as he holds the responsibility of serving the people.
How can an uneducated person in office understand how to generate revenue for the State, or get in tourists, or improve the lives of the farmers and the oppressed or how to improve the security of the state as well as safe guard health of its citizens as well as the environment or even the creation of more jobs so that our children do not go anywhere else for jobs. It is only educated minds who can give you constructive ideas and have strategies to work on them.
At the end of the day, let us not blame anyone else for our woes, but it is we, who should take the responsibility for choosing the elected.
