The general trend of the voting pattern is that we vote for a Prime Minister and Chief Minister in the Loksabha and State Legislative Assembly elections respectively. But is it right? And what should be the ideal case? Should we vote for a Prime Ministerial Candidate or a Political Party or a Candidate?
Unlike a Direct Democracy, wherein you vote for and elect President or Prime Minister, in a Representative Democracy you elect the Member of Parliament, amongst whom the PM is selected by themselves.
Indian Democracy is Representative. We send our representative from our constituency to the Parliament to, primarily,
However, while electing the candidate, we also need to keep other things in mind which can be in the following sequential order
Candidate, Manifesto for that elections and then Party (its Ideology and track record)
First, Candidate, who has the ability to analyze, ponder, study and propose solutions to our issues. The credibility of the candidate also matters which shows his/her will, intention to do good to the constituency and the country.
Ability+Credibility = Right Candidate
The second parameter to decide whom to vote is the Manifesto which the party announces before elections as to what is their road map to develop the country. The manifesto should include both welfare (short term), as ours is still a developing country and a large chunk of the population - 22% live in below poverty line and also Developmental (long term) policies.
For example, if we take two major national political parties of India the striking aspects of BJP's manifesto for 2019 elections are a) Implementation of Uniform Civil Code, b)Setting up of 1.5lakh health care centers, 75 Medical and PG Medical Colleges.
And Congress' manifesto a)setting up a separate budget for farmers and b) around 20 lakh government jobs in 2 years.
The third parameter is the Party (Ideology & Track Record ) on behalf of which the candidate is contesting.
The ideology is the base of any political party which tells us what is the - nature, vision, mission on one side and the means they chose to achieve the end of doing good to the people on the other. It is critical because most of the political parties are trying to achieve this end by choosing wrong means viz, a show of muscle and money power, fielding criminal record candidates and so on.
The track record of the party whom you are voting is also important. If the said party has won and had a chance to be in government earlier, we need to gauge its performance in terms of implementation of the promised manifesto.
For example in the previous election manifesto of 2014, BJP has promised to bring back all the black money stashed in foreign banks and also 2 crore jobs creation, which were not put into action in their incumbent period of 5 years.
And on the other hand, Congress's 2019 election manifesto item promising separate budget for the farmers, why it has not been able to handle farming sector in a way it had to and the farmers in large numbers across the country had to commit suicides. Is it not the responsibility of the Congress party, after being in power for so many terms that the farming sector has slipped into deep crisis.
If you elect the other way around, ignoring the candidate's credentials and also not considering the above parameters, then the danger is,
To be precise, the trend of elections should be bottom to top approach but not otherwise. If we elect good candidates parties will be forced to field credible candidates.
Unlike a Direct Democracy, wherein you vote for and elect President or Prime Minister, in a Representative Democracy you elect the Member of Parliament, amongst whom the PM is selected by themselves.
Indian Democracy is Representative. We send our representative from our constituency to the Parliament to, primarily,
- Make laws
- oversee the implementation of these laws
- participate and represent our voice in the framing of policies
- overseeing the implementation of welfare and development programs
- voice our constituency's social, collective concerns in the Parliament.
However, while electing the candidate, we also need to keep other things in mind which can be in the following sequential order
Candidate, Manifesto for that elections and then Party (its Ideology and track record)
First, Candidate, who has the ability to analyze, ponder, study and propose solutions to our issues. The credibility of the candidate also matters which shows his/her will, intention to do good to the constituency and the country.
Ability+Credibility = Right Candidate
The second parameter to decide whom to vote is the Manifesto which the party announces before elections as to what is their road map to develop the country. The manifesto should include both welfare (short term), as ours is still a developing country and a large chunk of the population - 22% live in below poverty line and also Developmental (long term) policies.
For example, if we take two major national political parties of India the striking aspects of BJP's manifesto for 2019 elections are a) Implementation of Uniform Civil Code, b)Setting up of 1.5lakh health care centers, 75 Medical and PG Medical Colleges.
And Congress' manifesto a)setting up a separate budget for farmers and b) around 20 lakh government jobs in 2 years.
The third parameter is the Party (Ideology & Track Record ) on behalf of which the candidate is contesting.
The ideology is the base of any political party which tells us what is the - nature, vision, mission on one side and the means they chose to achieve the end of doing good to the people on the other. It is critical because most of the political parties are trying to achieve this end by choosing wrong means viz, a show of muscle and money power, fielding criminal record candidates and so on.
The track record of the party whom you are voting is also important. If the said party has won and had a chance to be in government earlier, we need to gauge its performance in terms of implementation of the promised manifesto.
For example in the previous election manifesto of 2014, BJP has promised to bring back all the black money stashed in foreign banks and also 2 crore jobs creation, which were not put into action in their incumbent period of 5 years.
And on the other hand, Congress's 2019 election manifesto item promising separate budget for the farmers, why it has not been able to handle farming sector in a way it had to and the farmers in large numbers across the country had to commit suicides. Is it not the responsibility of the Congress party, after being in power for so many terms that the farming sector has slipped into deep crisis.
If you elect the other way around, ignoring the candidate's credentials and also not considering the above parameters, then the danger is,
- The credibility and eligibility of the candidates become irrelevant when there is no change in the voting percentage to the party with respect to the fielding a good or bad candidate.
- Political parties will take people for granted. And this is not good for democracy.
- Parties will start giving tickets to the candidates who can win by hook or by crook - using muscle or/and muscle power
- over a period of time, the parties will be filled with criminals and corrupt MPs/MLAs. we can see this trend of criminalization of politics in the following table
- 2014 - 34%
- 2009 - 30%
- 2004 - 24%
To be precise, the trend of elections should be bottom to top approach but not otherwise. If we elect good candidates parties will be forced to field credible candidates.
