CHANDIGARH:
16.08.2016: The issue
relating to the accountability of the Political Parties for promises in the
Election Manifesto; made to farmers for implementing Swaminathan Commission
Report has been raised 2nd time before the Punjab & Haryana High
Court, this time by filing PIL. It may be recalled that earlier the Petitioner
Pardeep Rapria, Advocate had filed an ordinary petition by saying that ‘being
from a farmers’ family he will the direct as well as indirect beneficiary of
relief claimed in the petition and because of involvement of personal interest in
the matter he can not file PIL’ However, Justice Rakesh Jain of the High
Court disposed of the petition by observing that, “After hearing the
petitioner, this Court is of the opinion that the cause shown in this petition
is largely of a public nature, therefore, the petitioner may.. file Public
Interest Litigation.” However, this time, apart from BJP, Shri
O.P. Dhankar, Agriculture Minister, Haryana, Election Commission of
India and Shiromani
Akali Dal, the Congress Party, BSP, CPI, NCP etc. have also been made party in
the petition.
The substantial question raised in the PIL is: What is
the accountability of the political parties for their pole promises made to
voters during elections? Can politicians be compelled to fulfill their promises
made to voters during elections? These questions have been raised by Pardeep
Rapria, Advocate in his petition before the Chandigarh High Court.,
for ensuring implementation of the promises of the political parties made to the
farmers at the time of election. The matter will take 3-4 working days to
appear before the PIL bench.
Mr. Pardeep Rapria in his petition
maintains that ‘the Parliament and State Assemblies Political Parties
consist of political parties and the country can not be run without political
parties and these parties affect the lives of citizens, directly or indirectly, in every conceivable
way and
are continuously engaged in performing public duty. And, that is why the CIC has declared
the major political parties as a Public Authority under the RTI Act, but the
political parties have neither implemented the RTI Act; nor filed appeal
against the CIC decision.’
Petition further
maintains that ‘it would be completely unreasonable and out of tune with democratic
principles to accept that the accountability is good for all State organs but
not so good for Political Parties. It baffles the common human prudence that in
democracy the political parties are not accountable for their self-propagated
commitments in their self-propagated manifesto; which in actuality used to
allure the voters.’
The Petition is
supported with print-out the website of Sh O P Dhankhar, the present
Agriculture Minister in the Haryana, where he claims to be a significant
activist on national level for farmer's issues, contents reads “O P Dhankhar
has envisioned and agitated for reforms in farming sector. He has organized
campaigns and awareness drives across nations to push for implementation of
Swaminathan Report.’
The BJP manifesto promised
to implement the Swaminathan Commission report particularly on the issue of
agricultural prices. This was also part of the promises made by the BJP at the
national level. Agriculture Minister, Om Parkash Dhankar, who as the chief of
BJP’s Kishan Morcha’ had been in the forefront while parading naked during
agitation, demanding the implementation
of the Swaminathan Commission report, who is now pushing the ball in the court
of the Modi government. Earlier, he held
numerous press conferences and even tried to build an agitation. He has now
developed cold feet. The restive famers
are reminding him of his tall promises and asking for their
implementation. The minister is running
for a cover. He wants the Modi
government to implement the
recommendations regarding the prices to be paid to the farmers for their
produce; 50 per cent more than the cost of production. It seems he has chalked out an escape route
when he says it depends upon the availability of resources. There is no such
mention in the manifestos whether hawked during the Lok Sabha elections or
during the state assembly elections. No one buys these arguments. The farmers’ organisations are up in arms
against this ‘betrayal’ by the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state.
It can been recalled that a working group under UPA on agriculture prices under former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder
Singh Hooda in 2011 had supported the Swaminathan formula for farm prices . But then nothing worked. In
fact, the BJP government did nothing when paddy growers lost millions due to
fall in the prices by over 1,500 per quintal this season.
It was for the first time that that a National Commission on Farmers, under the chairmanship of eminent agricultural scientist Prof MS
Swaminathan , constituted by the union
government in November 2004, suggested
ways and means to faster a stagnant agricultural growth
submitted five reports, the last in
October 2006. It broadly recommended that the MSP should be at least 50%
higher than the cost of cultivation.
Political parties were
quick to cash in. Akalis in Punjab went
gaga and supported it. Punjab chief
minister Parkash Singh Badal wrote and spoke about it during the UPA, but is
now silent for obvious reasons.
The Petitioner has
requested the High Court to direct the Political Parties to implement the RTI
provisions in their functioning and also implement the election promise of
implementing the Swami Nathan Commission report for the welfare of farmers.
If the HC issues notice
in the present matter, it will have huge impact on the election promises to be
made during upcoming Punjab Assembly election in the years 2015, as the
political parties are likely to make the promises which may not be possible to
be implemented.
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