Shabir Ahmad
With the commencement of general elections, each political party comes with a new Election Manifesto in order to influence the electorates and promises to deliver it if comes in power. But do they really follow and obey their Manifesto? The answer is big no. Because the election Manifesto was made when party were out of power and when they come in power they either find many obstructions or their mind change. Talking about the INC, they are right now pleading to heal the wounds of farmers, provide at least 22 lac jobs by filling all the vacancies in different government offices, good governance, removal of corruption, public accountability and so many other promises. BJP is talking about resolution of Kashmir problem by abrogation Article 370 and 35 A, Construction of Ram Mandir, transforming secular India into Hindutva Rashtriya and many other communal policies.
The fact is no political party has ever gone as per their Party Manifesto since first election after independence. Their mind changes when they capture power. They are power hungry and have invested crores of rupees for power. Their first priority remains to fill their empty and indebted pockets, and then they think about party fund donors who donate for deal. A common voter gets nothing, yes he gets some new laws which he has to obey in any case otherwise he might get imprisoned. With the passage of time, the dream of good and corrupt free governance remains a flopped idea; educated youth continue to remain jobless despite holding many degrees.
What government delivers to them are some recruitment advertisements where they have to spent time and money and at the eleventh hour transparency shuts and backdoor appointments leave meritorious jobless youth fuming. People at the helm of affairs turn a deaf ear to the cries of aggrieved as usual. Not in Kashmir but in other parts of the country farmers continue to commit suicide. Kashmir problem will remain unresolved as promises are reduced to few leaves of the election manifestos’ of the political parties both within and outside Jammu & Kashmir state. Only bullets and pellets will change. And after the expiry of five years the party will issue a new manifesto with new promises. And very saddening and shocking it is that these political parties think that their document of Manifesto is sacred and unlike Constitution of India, it can’t be neither copied nor changed, it has to be same in all elections. If we compare the Election Manifesto’s of all political parties especially INC and BJP, we will find that today’s election Manifesto is same as it was in the last election.
(Author is a freelancer. Views are his own [email protected])
