TIA NEWS / New Delhi
Chief Justice of india (CJI) Jagdish Singh Khehar Saturday lamented that election manifestoes seemed to become mere a piece of paper as electoral promises remained unfulfilled.
Addressing a legal seminar “Economic Reforms with Reference to Electoral Issues,” underlined the need of accountability on political parties and leaders for their manifestos during the poll time here the CJI said land reforms and economic reforms were two biggest achievements of India after Independence.
Electoral politics should revolve around social structure and economically weaker sections. “The recent high political turnout has forced political parties to raise the issues of poor and needy,” Justice Khehar pointed out, adding that political parties were now changing tactics. ‘We may think globally today, but we must think to bring those marginalised people to the economic mainstream’, the CJI said.
Political parties could not hold their promises after the election, he alleged. He also said the Supreme Court and the Election Commission had in the past sought explanation from many political parties for their improper statements.
President Pranab Mukherjee, who inaugurated the seminar, said there were some issues with the electoral process, which needed to be sorted out. One of the things which one should think is that of accountability to the electorates, he added. Voluntary code of conduct has to be developed by the political parties, then certain issues could be addressed to, Mr Mukherjee told the gathering of judges, retired judges, senior lawyers and legal professionals in Vigyan Bhawan.
Everybody has a role to play, including the judiciary and the Election Commission, the President said. Justice Dipak Misra, who was the guest of honour in the seminar, said credibility and purity of elections are the basic structure of the Constitution.
For purity in the elections, there should be five guidelines, he said. Every candidate contesting elections must bear it in mind that contesting elections is not an investment, said Justice Misra, while listing the first guideline. Secondly, candidates contesting the elections should have the incremental ability to exposure to certain things. Discussions and debates are to be holistic and not to exercise power and money, he said, while doling out the third guideline. Fourthly, framing of guidelines has to be respected, he said, adding lastly, voters should not tempted and economic morality should be there, he added.