Reforms are integral to governance mechanisms, more so in a democracy, for a nation to be in tune with the changing times. Nothing, per se, is Gospel Truth as far as rules and regulations are concerned and they are subject to periodic and contextual changes. India’s economic reforms introduced in the early 1990s were a calling of the times, and it helped the nation overcome a major economic crisis.
The GST bill, passed by Parliament this season after a protracted delay, is another reform in the economic sphere that will supposedly unify the taxation mechanism across the country. Political reforms, legal reforms and education reforms are also of equal importance. Sadly, except administrative and economic reforms all other sectors have been badly neglected. Economic reforms, too, have been limited to helping big corporates only.
In this context, two major aspects that came up at a seminar on “Economic reforms with reference to electoral issues” in New Delhi assume special significance. One is the call for electoral reforms, made by Chief Justice of India Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar. He made a pointed reference to the lack of earnestness on the part of political parties to fulfil the promises they made in election manifestos in the past.
The other is the stress by President Pranab Mukherjee on the need to widen electoral representation in Parliament in view of the large increase in the nation’s population. Both are matters of great importance.
Political parties cannot take the people for a ride by promising the heavens at the time of elections and turning their back on such promises when they come to power. There, at present, is no provision to force a political party to implement its election promises after it takes power.
It was often that a party approached the next elections five years later with many of the promises made in their previous election manifesto unfulfilled. Public memory is said to be short, and people are taken in by the new sets of promises; or they get carried away by the issues of urgency at the moment. This is not to argue that political parties are not implementing their poll promises.
Governments do make an effort in this direction, but there are times when ground situations pose hurdles in the way of implementation of an electoral promise. An instance is the promise by some political parties to various communities to ensure reservations in jobs — be it to Jats in the North, the Marathas in central India or Kapus and the like in the South. Such promises are made even when law does not permit raising the reservation levels beyond a certain per cent.
This leads to agitations, law and order problems, and loss of precious lives in street battles — all of which could be avoided if political leaderships conduct themselves in a more responsible manner.
Winning elections by hook or by crook cannot be the be-all and end-all for a political party. Parties are duty-bound to adhere to rules. It is imperative that parties make only such promises that they can implement while in power.
What really happens is that promises are made with real earnestness by parties but power and pomp does them in. Bureaucracy takes over once they win. The Right Honourable Ministers are treated as holy cow dung by the secretaries.
The politician is truly irrelevant once he becomes part of the government. We see that in every state of the Union today. We observe that in the federal government too. So much for all these luminaries talking about promises not being implemented!
