DailyPost 2756
POLL MANIFESTO, WHAT IS?
Why and what is a poll manifesto, the main stakeholders of Indian democracy will not be able to tell, the most important stakeholder the electorate the least. In the democratic – electoral – governance scenario of this country where does it fit in. Does it have any legal mandate, is it a necessity and / or are there any guidelines to make it? While an open, robust, transparent, deliverable democratic nation has legal mandate, enforcement mechanism and regulatory authority for everything, supposedly the promise document is sans any legality of any kind whatsoever.
No document in the election process is without a template or a form provided for supported by facts, affidavits, certificates, annexures, process documents and any other material asked for, as relevant for the primary document. The poll manifesto does not need anything. It stands tall alone. Presumably, it is not submitted to anybody and even if done as a matter of formality, no one has the right to demand the same. No one reads it before, during or after the elections. What we hear of late is guarantees in place of poll manifestos, freebies being provided to make the population dependent on alms, possibly because they cannot do anything.
While everything goes as per the schedule in the election process, poll manifesto does not figure anywhere. The lack of even formal oversight clearly indicates the value we attach to this document. You can literally come up with the poll manifesto even a day before the elections. Is it not the blueprint of what would electioneering be for the political party? Are the speakers not mandated to reverberate the manifesto and garner votes in its support? For anyone with an election common sense, a poll manifesto should be the first document / or the blueprint before which the party cannot be allowed to enter the election fray.
Indian electioneering is free for all, anybody can speak anything and do any circus and get away with it. The quantum of money spent for this purpose, with no message, or earnestness to change, defies any logic. How does the poll manifesto gel with the election process and electioneering? A poll manifesto committee of the political party is tasked to make this document and is created for decorative value. Can it become a governance tool? Can it be legally validated? What the lack of the well-structured legal poll manifesto has done, is to transform the Indian election into a visual democratic spectacle.
SHOULDN’T POLL MANIFESTO NOT BECOME THE FIRST ENACTMENT, POST COMING TO POWER?
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.