Coimbatore Consumer Cause has written to the Election Commission of India urging it to scrutinise the manifestoes of political parties and abide by the Supreme Court order in this regard.
The consumer body’s secretary K. Kathirmathiyon has said the Supreme Court in its order of July 05, 2013 has directed the Commission to frame guidelines for regulating the contents of manifestos.
Based on the order, the Commission had framed guidelines by inserting Part VIII in the Model Code of Conduct for the guidance of political parties. The main guideline was, “In the interest of transparency, level playing field and credibility of promises, it is expected that manifestoes also reflect the rationale for the promises and broadly indicate the ways and means to meet the financial requirements for it. Trust of voters should be sought only on those promises which are possible to be fulfilled.”
Referring to the need for political parties to share within three days the copies of the manifestoes with the Commission, the consumer body has said that when it took up the issue during the 2016 Assembly election in Tamil Nadu asking the Commission to scrutinise the manifestos and come out with its findings, it appears to have done nothing.
If political parties paying money to voters is illegal, punishable and an offence, the parties are promising the same money after election through manifestos and that is considered legal. This is nothing but deferred payment, the consumer body has said and urged the Commission to do something definitive on the issue.
It has suggested the Commission to permit only those parties that contest at least five to 10% seats to release manifestoes, urge parties in a pre-poll coalition to have a common manifesto, ask parties to have a status report on promises made in the last election and explain the rationale for promises and indicate the ways and means to meet the financial requirements for the promises, as ordered by the Supreme Court.