New Delhi: Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar said that political parties must be made accountable for not fulfilling electoral promises.
The CJI said that electoral politics in India centres around “mobilisation and politicisation” of social groups which are poor or disadvantaged and have long remained politically dominant. And yet, he said, none of the manifestos released by political parties during the 2014 elections indicated any link between poll reforms and the constitutional goal of ensuring economic-social justice to the marginalised section.
Instead, “Caste issues are projected in different ways to ensure a majority in each constituency.”
He said that ever since the marginalised sections have begun turning up in larger numbers to vote, it has led to an unprecedented volatility in the electoral outcome. This has forced parties to seek new forms of alignment, social engineering and support, he said.
Despite these changes in the electoral process, the non-fulfillment of poll promises never becomes an electoral issue, the CJI observed.
President Pranab Mukherjee, who was the chief guest, underlined the need for accountability of the representatives and said that all the parties will have to develop a voluntary code of conduct for their working. He said apart from the 1957 and 1984 general elections, no political party secured over 50 percentage of votes in any parliamentary election which raised serious question on their accountability.
