Take Commitments from Candidates in Election
Posted : June 29, 2005 at 8:03 pm [IST]
Thomas L. Friedman narrates an incident in his book ‘The Lexus and the Olive Tree’. In 1998, he went to a Chinese village with a team of international monitors to observe village elections in rural China. He quotes the speeches of the two candidates of the position of village chief. The candidates spoke to the villagers gathered in a school campus before the election; I quote the same.
First one-
“Villagers! how are you? Let me remind you I am forty-seven years old, a member of the Communist Party with a junior high school education. I want to do something good for the village. As you know, I helped this village recover from the Cultural Revolution. Everywhere you can see my sweat. I visit everyone’s home. I get ideas from you. I have never used the village’s money to host a banquet. I have tried to handle everything legally. I promise to improve our elementary school and raise our incomes. If elected I vow that I will get our vegetables to the township more quickly. I will also improve the spirit of the village. We need more trees, and also fiber-optic cable so everyone can have a telephone. Under the leadership of the Party branch, I will correct all my shortcomings. This is my contract with you.”
And the second candidate
“First let me say that tomorrow is women’s day and I want to express my congratulations to all the women. I am fifty-one years old, with a junior high school education. I own my own bean curd business. I love this village. I love you all. Your poverty is my shame. Under the guidance of the Party I will turn a new chapter here. I promise to reduce gambling and pornography in the village and create more channels for making money. I won’t be arrogant. I will reduce the village budget to save your money. I won’t take any bribes, and even if my superior comes from the city, I won’t take him for a banquet or masses. We have too many official banquets. I have not been to a banquet or drunk one drop of alcohol in ten years. I will guard the money of the masses. No cadres from the village will be allowed to travel to the township on village money. I will bring technology here. I promise to give every one the technology of making bean curd. I will drill more wells. The Cultural Revolution wasted ten years of our lives. We have to think now of better ideas for how to prosper. I will be very non-ideological. As Deng Xiaoping said: ‘Black cat, white cat. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that it catches mice.’ I will improve our school. Knowledge is important. If you are ignorant you cannot build a socialist economy. And I will take care of all the bachelors who do not have the income to find a wife. I will make you rich! Let’s march together.”
The candidates talked of bringing in technology and also sharing some, of cutting wasteful expenditure, for making water available for irrigation, for laying of optic-fiber line for communication, and at least mentioned a commitment against corruption.
Why can’t our candidates in election come out with similar commitments for the development such as the candidates in the Chinese election for village head? Now Bihar is going for election in October-November. Why can’t every candidate commit that if elected he will get all the missions for Bharat Nirman carried out for every village in his constituency? Bharat Nirman commits to connect every village of the population of 1000 by all-weather roads, to have drinking water, to get electrification done, and a telephone connection for the remaining number of villages of the country. The elected candidate is just to be hardworking, resourceful and capable to get this done. This is not something unusual to ask for, as the finance of this program is already tied up.
Why can’t the candidate for the chief minister chair or its party put the specific works that it will carry out in next five year in campaign? One such work may be speedy completion of the portion of NHAI golden quadrilateral and East-West Expressway project running in Bihar. This one project may improve the economic condition of million of people and households. Other urgent commitments may include a dairy at each district headquarter that can bring in Gujarat type white revolution; a fruit processing hub for mango and lichi; the expansion of the rural textile printing of Madhubani school of arts; and a world- class tourism project connecting Viashali, Patna, Nalanda, Rajgriha, Buddha Gaya, and Sasaram, There may some more priorities such as quality of primary, middle and secondary education, professional education, and work to bring in IT in the state in the same way as the other states have brought.
Can the people of Bihar force the candidates to bring this change in their mindset?
Why can’t benefit of the on-going renaissance reach Bihar too?
- Indra
Category: Indian politics |
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