A Criminologist's Diary-51

A Criminologist’s Diary-51

Account Criminology and Criminal Ju...

Breach of Election Promises: An Offence in a Democracy

India has a Penal Code which came into existence about 150 years ago. The Indian Penal Code-1860 was enacted by the British during their imperialistic rule .When India became independent in 1947, the same Penal Code was accepted and the newly created democracy made some patch works in the then existed Penal Code. In fact, ‘is ‘was changed into ‘was’ or ‘has’ was changed into ‘have’ and thus the Code has been in effective(?) use till date although many ( I ,not excluded) condemn that old museum piece in which nothing about the contemporary or current offences are mentioned. The existing penal laws are not intended for the present Indian Democracy.

In Indian democracy, elections in some States are just declared and every political party is in the preparation of an Election Manifesto. About four decades ago, there was a humorous or joking film song in Malayalam whose English translation (as I could do it) may be-

“Construction of an aerodrome in the

Vicinity of this small water canal,

Free agricultural land for real farmers,

Desert like barren land for the rich…”

And thus was the lavish rain of promises to the general public. Several elections were declared afterwards and for every election- no matter, it is to the Lok Sabah or to the State Legislature or to the Local Administration-every political party released their election manifestoes. No one bothered about the promises, earlier promises, still earlier promises and the result has been that one and the same promises were repeatedly and loudly included in all manifestoes so far released. The political party leaders became the winners and the general public became the fools of the first order. Now a few questions please-

(1) Is a breach of promise during an election an offence in India? If not, why?

(2) Who makes the promises and who breaks the promises? Does the person making the election promises have any liability over the breach of election promises afterwards? If not, why?

(3) How to investigate the offence of the breach of election promises and who must do it and how?

(4) Is there something called the “VOTERS’ AUDITING’ before every election? If not, why? What to do and how to go about?

(5) If breach of election promises is found, how should the people who made the promises before election be punished?

(6) If a particular political party does not get the power to rule, it goes to the opposition. Is there any election manifesto for a political party in the event of it becoming a political party in opposition? If not, why not each political party bring out an election manifesto in case it does not get the power to rule. At present, the political parties in opposition do many destructive activities to destabilize the government in power. This is of bad taste. They should give constructive activities and strategies even when they fail in an election.

(7) Do the voters get any victim compensation in case of the breach of election promises? If not, what to do and how to go about?

Thus the questions are many and the answers to the questions are nil. Why? The candidates to the election are not decided by the people in Indian democracy, but by vested interests and a few vocal minority leaders in every political party. The candidates who get their candidature as a gift from above, they do not have any time or interest to think about their liability for the breach of promises. They will get future chances if the higher ups in the political hierarchy and vested interests favour them. It is time to deliberate over the breach of election promises and put it in the list of penal offences in the Code. Think and think aloud now and right now!