The question of accountability of political parties viz a viz. their poll manifestos has reached the Punjab and Haryana High Court with a Public Interest litigation (PIl) raising questions on the accountability of the political leaders and parties for the promises made in their election manifestoes.
Advocate Pardeep Raparia has filed the PIl saying that the poll manifestoes are used by the political parties to win the votes and support of the people and leaders should be answerable for their poll promises.
The petitioner has asserted that the Election Manifestos are generally drafted by the political parties keeping an eye on forthcoming elections and contain the declared ideology of the political party concerned in general and its policies and programmes. It therefore serves as a reference document or benchmark for the public at large for what a political party stands for. Even the political parties are required to submit a copy of their poll manifesto to the Election Commission of India before elections.
Squaring up the Centre and Haryana government on the issue of implementing the recommendations of Swaminathan Commission for making agriculture a profitable occupation, the petitioner has said that the BJP manifesto promised to implement the Swaminathan Commission report particularly on the issue of agricultural prices.
Agriculture Minister, Haryana, Om Parkash Dhankar, ran agitations for implementation of the Swaminathan report but now in power, he had developed cold feet on the issue. The petition says that the political parties had tried their best to cash in on the recommendations of Swaminathan Commission in 2006, and the ruling SAD had forcefully supported the recommendations but now it was also silent on the issue.
The petitioner maintains that ‘the Parliament and State Assemblies consist of political parties and the country can not be run without political parties and these parties affect the lives of citizens, directly or indirectly, in every conceivable way and are continuously engaged in performing public duty. And, that is why the CIC has declared the major political parties as a Public Authority under the RTI Act, but the political parties have neither implemented the RTI Act; nor filed appeal against the CIC decision.’