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Election manifestos-Bundle of freebies
Punjab Newsline Network
Friday, 27 January 2012
Election manifestos of Punjab assembly elections scheduled on 30 Jan. 2012 have been issued by the reputed leaders of all the major political parties with big fanfare in large public rallies. It is beside the point that these manifestos again happen to be “Old wine in new bottles with attractive labels & packings”.
Even a cursory look at these manifestos establishes that these hardly address the basic issues and problems being faced by the people of Punjab. No political party has demonstrated any wisdom, vision & farsightedness in the preparation of these manifestos. Political parties are concentrating only on short term popular measures to attract the voters and garner maximum votes by hook or by crook. Punjab is suffering from enormous social & economic problems. What to speak of tackling them even lip service to these issues is not there. The overall ranking of Punjab once considered to be at top in the country as compared to other states is going down year by year due to gross negligence and selfishness of political class and insensitive bureaucracy.
The burning issues such as education, population control, Law & Order ,Environmental Protection , Unemployment, Drug Addiction, Corruption, Black Money, Black Marketing, Sagging Rural Economy, Plight of farmers,Infrastructure Development, National Security, Public Health, Civic amenities etc. have been conveniently put on the back burner. Promises of freebies such as reservations, Atta Daal Scheme, free power , shagun, free cycles, free laptop, free internet connection and so on , where even basic amenities for minimum standard of living are not available to the population have been decoratively placed in the show window of manifestos by the political parties. Hardly any party is talking about how these freebies are going to be supported by already ailing, depressed and bankrupt economy of Punjab.
No political party is giving a well defined policy of management of natural and human resources and financial management for the development of state of Punjab. This happens in all the elections whether at state or at National level. Looking at the trend it appears that the aim of each political party is just to concentrate on one issue only as how to make bigger and attractive promises than the other political party without giving even a slightest thought as to from where the resources for these will be available. The reason is that political parties understand the rules of the election game that once the elections are won who will care for these promises for next 5 years and it continues like this every time.
One question generally asked is, do these election manifestos have any relevance or impact in the present day political scenario? Do people really peruse these manifestos to decide about their choice for casting votes? A general survey indicates that these election manifestos are just decoration pieces and very rarely a voter goes through it that is why nobody takes these seriously. Poor & illiterate people even do not know about the existence these manifestos and their voting decision is entirely based on other factors which all political parties use to exploit them during every election.
Another interesting fact is that these election manifestos are conveniently put in the cold storage for five years once the elections are over. There is no system, neither at the govt. level nor at the public level, to monitor the implementation of this. Even after 65 years of independence our elections generally continue to be contested on the caste basis. These elections are freely supported by money and muscle power. This trend has lead to criminalization of politics. The problem is getting worst day by day with no worth while solution in sight and public is watching all this helplessly as no options are available.
Look at the political campaigning of political parties. Big rallies are organized by using all fair and unfair means without any worthwhile political agenda. Campaigning is based on the allegations, counter allegations, Character assassination, use of unparliamentarily language and the campaigning lacks total seriousness. So what is the answer? Is there any hope?
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