Open Forum
New Delhi, 14 April
2021
Poll Promises
MADE, NOT DELIVERED
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
Poll promises as
usual pour down during elections, be it the State assemblies or Parliament. However,
these are tall promises made by political parties in their manifestos, which
realistically cannot be implemented fully and even 50 per cent of these seeing
light of day is rather rare. Worse, those doling out assurances have no qualms
as public memory turns out to be short and those not so educated tend to believe
in some of these.
At least the Madras
High Court has taken cognisance of the trickery being unleashed. Dealing with a
PIL recently in the matter, the two-judge bench observed political parties
should be prohibited or prevented from giving election promises, which are
capable of adding burden on the public exchequer. It also drew the Election
Commission’s attention by inquiring how many manifestos it has vetted since
2014, what action was being taken against political parties for not
implementing promises and whether the Central Government has taken any steps to
bring legislation covering the issue of political manifestos, especially
freebies promised in the election manifestos and governing the political
parties
Undoubtedly, the
court’s observations have countrywide resonance. That ‘the freebie culture
makes people lazy, vitiates purity of elections, and must be viewed as a
corrupt practice’, is an observation which must acted upon. Why not, the court asked
“de-recognise elected political parties, who fail to implement their political
promises based on which the voters are lured and the parties are elected to
form the Government?”
Every political party,
it observed, “is bound to make promises to voters giving their social policies
and plans for improving the standard of living of the people by providing clean
governance, infrastructure, especially, providing basic amenities like, water,
transportation and health, which are expected in every democracy. However, the
election promises made by the political parties are aimed at clinching power.”
So very apt this
election season too. States such as Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala and Assam,
have witnessed a shower of poll promises by all parties. The BJP particularly
is going all out to woo the voters with star campaigners, Prime Minister Modi
and Home Minister Amit Shah having addressed massive rallies. The party
desperately seeks to dislodge the Trinamool Congress in Bengal while in Assam it
wants to get re-elected and make inroads into Tamil Nadu. And while development
issues have found mention in the manifestos, West Bengal has stood out in the
attention it has garnered so far.
The focus has shifted
to corruption of TMC and its leaders as also the violence it has spread in the
rural areas. The BJP harks on it, and TMC hits back whichever way. Much of the
promises made appear to have got relegated to the background, but worth a
mention. The TMC has promised more jobs, industries and MSMEs and uplifting
annual per capita income for people below the poverty line. It has also assured
Rs 10,000 per acre per annum to small and marginal farmers. The BJP has assured
one job per family, which appears unrealistic, given the sluggishness in
manufacturing activities, at least in the State and that the country is
witnessing the worst unemployment rate in four decades with economists
predicting not much improvement this year and the next.
It would be worth
referring to JNU Professor Santosh Mehrotra, who edited a recent book, Revising Jobs: An Agenda for Growth,
which points out that the unemployment rate rose from 2.32% in 2011-12 to 6.1%
in 2017-18 and this may be around 8 to 10% presently. He attributed this to
several factors including decline in private investment, household savings
dropping to a record low of 17% and no increase in government’s spending in the
social sector, where funds benefit the poor and impoverished sections of
society.
Clearly, job creation
will remain stressed throughout the country and specially in Eastern States,
which includes Bengal and Assam. Thus, the promise has little meaning though the
voter may believe that if the BJP comes to power in Bengal, lot of Central
investment may be forthcoming in future.
Given that the TMC has
done much for girls’ education, the BJP announced free education for girl child
from KG to post-graduate level. But this may is not realistic as the budget
allocation for school and higher education has been reduced in this fiscal to a
little over Rs 93,000 crore from Rs 99,311 crore in 2020-21. What is required
is that drop-outs are monitored and the government ensure girls continue to study
at least till Class XII.
Then there is the
health sector, which has got into the list of promises. The BJP has promised
three AIIMS, one each in North Bengal, Sunderbans and Jungle Mahal area, and a
medical college in every district. Plus, it announced that in the first Cabinet
meeting it would focus on Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana, which offers up to
Rs 5 lakhs in hospital expenses every year to poor households, and health and
wellness centres offering free primary care, diagnostics and essential
medicines. Interestingly, the TMC government hasn’t implemented PMJAY and instead
introduced Swastha Sathi scheme and assured doubling health spending from 0.83%
to 1.5% of the state GDP and establishing of medical college-cum-super
speciality hospitals in 23 district headquarters.
Such promises are
oft-heard and welcome, but it certainly isn’t going to happen overnight and may
only get to see the light of day in next five years, provided more funds are
allocated. While infrastructure has been built in States to fight the corona
virus, lot more funding is necessary. If at least 1.5% of GDP is allocated to
health sector – much less than what 2.5% of GDP that the National Health Policy
2017 had stated -- lot more can be accomplished in rural areas where medical
facilities are most needed.
According to Prof.
Indranil Mukhopadhyay of O.P. Jindal Global University it would take around Rs
9400 crores per annum to support health and wellness centres. However, the
proposed budget for health in the current fiscal is a mere Rs 1900 crores. Even
if additional Rs 150 crores is given, it would be much less than what is
required for 50,000 centres to offer entire range of services.
So instead of
comparing promises, efforts must be made by civic society to raise awareness
among the people about these and whether these on the basis of facts can be
delivered. This would put pressure on the politicians to deliver and not be
allowed to get away with their forked tongues. Plus, a more educated electorate
would be in a position to comprehend and demand as has been seen in Tamil Nadu
and Kerala in comparison to West Bengal, which is marred in political violence
and corruption.
The big question which
needs to be addressed at election time is not which political party will win
but whether its manifesto is realistic and people’s needs and demands will be
victorious. The electorate must separate the wheat from chaff and keep in mind
the Madras High Court’s observation: “Voters are lured to cast votes in their
favour by these magical promises. Once in 5 years, this tamasha is being continued for decades together. Promises have
always remained as promises...”---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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