“Public representatives draw powers from the system through they are elected to the assemblies or parliament and generating sense of powerlessness as such is unbecoming of a public representative whether elected for assembly of a Union Territory or a State.”
The wisdom of a voter to vote for the right candidate is not just a matter of political accountability but it has also a direct bearing on the fulfilment of pre-poll promises in the post poll scenario. While the leaders knock the doors of voters in the pre-poll times, the voters find themselves at the doorsteps of the very leaders who promise them heavens but don’t bother to offer them even the peanuts in the post-poll scenarios . Unfortunately the trust deficit that has developed during decades of popular rule heads to no dead end in any part of Jammu & Kashmir. While the surge in turnout in the ongoing assembly elections shows that balloting is last hope of the people, it ultimately is for the winners of the ongoing assembly elections to reduce the trust deficit by their actions in the post poll scenario. Public representatives draw powers from the system through they are elected to the assemblies or parliament and generating sense of powerlessness as such is unbecoming of a public representative whether elected for assembly of a Union Territory or a State. Political leaders themselves have been saying it consistently that actions speak louder than words and very rightly so. In fact political leaders are known more for their actions and less for their words which they often don’t keep. In pre-poll scenarios leaders talk much but they do little for the fulfilment of promises they make in their election manifestos in the pre-poll scenarios.
“Let the ongoing assembly elections bring a change in the public accountability system the strength of which strengthens institutions of democracy. It is for the winners of the new assembly to give up the practices of political deceit and establish a foolproof public accountability system with the purposes of giving the voters the respite they deserve in a democratic system.”
Though political leaders in the pre-poll scenarios release election manifestos with the spirit of translating their words into realities in the post poll scenarios but experiences have shown that political manifestos scripted by leaders themselves are not given the respect they deserve in the post poll scenarios. Let the political manifestos of the ongoing assembly elections and promises of the winning candidates be quite different from the previous ones at least for the purposes of reducing the trust deficit which has brought into disrepute not only the assembly of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state but also the municipal and panchayat bodies constituted after August 2019. Let the ongoing assembly elections bring a change in the public accountability system the strength of which strengthens institutions of democracy. It is for the winners of the new assembly to give up the practices of political deceit and establish a foolproof public accountability system with the purposes of giving the voters the respite they deserve in a democratic system.
Shafqat Bukhari
