Hyderabad: The absence of a law that governs the contents of election manifestoes has given scope to political parties to spread the culture of promising freebies extensively in the country.
Section 123 of the Representation of Peoples Act says that a “gift”, “offer” or “promise” by a candidate or his agent to induce an elector to vote in his favour would amount to “bribery”.
The Election Commission in Chapter VIII of its Model Code of Conduct has stipulated rules for political parties while making poll-time promises in manifestoes.
Promises galore
Though the ethicality and legality of such promises have been the subject of debate for a while now, the Supreme Court, in S. Subramaniam Balaji v Government of Tamil Nadu, observed: “Although the law is obvious that the promises in the election manifesto cannot be construed as ‘corrupt practice’ under Section 123 of RP Act, the reality cannot be ruled out that distribution of freebies of any kind, undoubtedly, influences all people. It shakes the root of free and fair elections to a large degree.”
While pointing out that generally, political parties release their manifestoes before the Election Commission announces the date of elections, the court opined that the EC has a limited role in this regard since the statement of the party was made before the Election Code of Conduct came into force.
The court had directed the Election Commission to take up this task as early as possible. The court also recorded the need for a separate legislation to be passed by the legislature in this regard for governing the political parties.
It has been admitted that the freebies offered by a party would be fulfilled after the party came to power with public money. Article 282 of the Constitution only permits defraying of funds from the Consolidated Fund of the State for “public purposes”.
The EC subsequently had issued guidelines after consulting political parties:
1. Political parties should avoid making promises which are likely to vitiate the purity of the election process or exert undue influence on the voters.
2. In the interest of transparency, level playing field and credibility of promises, it is expected that manifestoes 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.
