Political parties have unanimously rejected the proposal of the Election Commission to frame guidelines on freebies distributed as part of election manifesto, with the only exceptions being the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and two regional parties.
Acting on orders from the Supreme Court, the commission on Monday met with representatives from the six national parties and 24 regional parties. The proposal was trashed by majority political parties with one voice.
They also criticised the move of the EC to be overseeing their manifesto. Except for BSP, all major national political parties were unanimous in their views that there should be no restriction of any kind in regulating election manifestos. However, BSP said there should be a ban on announcing freebies by parties ahead of polls as they disturb the level — playing field. The party also got support from two regional parties — Nagaland People’s Front (NPF) and Mizo National Front (MNF), suggesting that voters could be lured by such promises of allurements which may not be implemented later.
Claiming that it is the right of parties to announce poll manifestos, the Congress, BJP and left parties shared a common view to oppose EC’s move. The Supreme Court while disposing of a special leave petition on July 5, challenging the freebies announced by the Tamil Nadu government, had asked the Commission to frame guidelines about such promises announced by political parties in their manifestos.
Parties had in recent times resorted to providing free power, laptops, TV sets, bicycles and other household items to voters in their manifestos and such populist measures added a huge burden on the finance of states. Parties argued that the benefits announced were meant for the welfare of the poor and were required to bring equity in society.
BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) said, “Every political party has the right to put forth its vision in its manifesto on what kind of nation it wants. It is the right of the public to decide which political party can run the nation honestly.”
A Communist Party of India (Marxist) statement opposed any form of intervention by EC in the formulation of the ideology, aims, policies and programmes of any political party.