Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Performance is more important than words' that was published in Newsband

Performance is more important than words

When elections come close, political parties come up with their election manifestos promising all things to all people. They will try to please the rich, the middle class and the poor with their manifestos or promises. They will come up with all types of schemes but they will not mention as to how these schemes will find their funding,

But this time unlike the principal Opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the energetic new party, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Congress would be judged by its performance in government in the last decade, and not by the promises it holds out. A party that was at the head of the government for the last 10 years should have fought the election on achievements, not promises. Performance is more important than words.

Almost all parties make tall promises in their election manifestos; but when elected to power they fail to deliver them. It is like deceiving the principles of democracy.

It is high time that the regulatory authority i.e. Election Commission bring in some discipline in this regard. It should be made mandatory on the part of political parties that in their manifesto they make promises with the financial implications along with the means of how they are going to raise funds for the same. The same should be verified by the statutory authority like CAG before releasing to the public. Also in the next election the ruling party should give an account of the achievements made vis-a-vis promises made with facts and figures duly verified by CAG. Unless some regulations are brought in the system, these manifesto frauds can not be curtailed. The media and also the NGOs should find out the promises made by the ruling party last time and how many of them have been fulfilled. If the performance is more than 50% then we can rely on them again, otherwise let us choose the new person.

These manifestos are just piece of paper shown by every party to fool the people to vote for them and when they come to power they treat every single man like their slave. Recall all the scams that rocked our country during last 10 years.

It is very sad that people in our country are still not able to judge and analyse the political parties. Many people cast their votes on the basis of false promises made during election campaign and on the manifesto. The political parties make and break promises during the elections since they know that the poor and uneducated Indians can be fooled once again when it comes to contesting the next elections.

Manifestos are just procedural routine for the parties. They might not even look at it after elections just like MPs who don't visit their constituency. The idea of social service through politics has already died; now it's all about personal ambitions.

It is true that a voter in the urban areas today is become knowledgeable enough to judge between manifestoes, though he/she is yet to come out of the freebies culture. It will take a few more elections for the voter to be more discerning and judge what are the promises which can be implemented and how. Till then, media should truthfully help the voter to judge every political party.