Racing to make promises, but limping to keep

Congress party is going ahead, coming out with declaration after declaration and is showcasing how it has implemented its promises in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka. “We transferred money directly into accounts of women, giving gas cylinders at reduced rates and they are travelling free in buses, will repeat same in Telangana,” is Rahul’s campaign line.

Fine, but what is the impact of such declarations? Can the state budgets sustain them? Who cares? Winning polls is of paramount important to not only the Congress party but all other parties.

Congress has been making various declarations and this reminds me of the Udaipur Declaration where it emphasised on the need for caste census. But when it comes to implementation, it starts limping. It almost forgot about it till the Bihar caste census came out and, once again, it is vowing to take up caste census soon after coming to power.

What is intriguing is why these parties fail to implement what they demand even where there is no need for any Act. The BRS claims credit for the women’s reservation bill providing 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and Assemblies. Sonia Gandhi says it is their brainchild. But when it comes to giving tickets, all brains get frozen. The pink party did not even give 25% tickets to women, leave alone 33 per cent which is now a statute. The Congress is no better and the BJP, too, is unlikely to have that many women candidates. Now let’s look at the caste composition.

The Congress tickets to BC candidates in Telangana have come down and those who get tickets will be fielded from constituencies from where the party cannot win. They are either from Old City or the constituencies where Congress is weak. But the leaders do not get tired of saying we made BC candidate Speaker, President or Ministers etc. All those selections were mostly political compulsions. Now they are being used for garnering some votes from those communities. What is worse leaders like Rahul Gandhi even want to begrime bureaucrats in caste politics, saying the Modi government has not given due representation to BCs in the core group of officers. Political system is badly polluted as all parties believe in divide- and-rule. Why try to create problems in bureaucracy? Is this taking country forward? Can Rahul answer how many BC leaders are made general secretaries and how many in last five decades became AICC presidents? Why I am mentioning five decades period is because Rahul is in his mid-50s.

If every party starts putting its house in order and stands as an example, all such issues can get easily resolved but they won’t do. At the same time, they would be ready to point a finger at their rivals. The BRS which is once again using the ‘T’ card has not given many tickets to BCs. But every party is shouting from root tops that they want BC census. For what? Why don’t they explain what they will do once the census is ready and give guarantee that they will implement it? Otherwise, it would be akin to what the pink party promised, that they would have a BC CM if separate Telangana was carved out which never materialised.

What is ailing all political parties including the saffron party is that they don’t want to encourage youngsters. The seniors even at the age of 80 don’t want to retire. Cleansing of political system is what is most required. Why can’t I.N.D.I.A focus on this issue? May be their credibility would go up. Oh sorry, I forgot it is being headed by octogenarians like Kharge and Sharad Pawars. Sub Ko Sanmati De Bhagwan!