Editorial: Sustaining democracy
Srinagar: The present crisis in politics is the creation of the politicians itself who have been ruling the hapless commoners for long now. Every time a politician promises something for the commoners he tends to forget the things immediately. However, in a democratic setup various legislatures have set up redressal mechanisms to put such practices to a halt.
The legislatures have set up House committees who ensure that the promises made and assurances given by the ministers are fulfilled. The committees have taken up this task as the assurances and promises announced on the floor of the house have a constitutional sanctity and have to be honoured by the government at all costs.
Primarily, the announcements and promises concern the public and the promises made by the ministers are the measures that are in the interests of the people of the State. But, ironically even the house committees in the state have failed to put the words of ministers into action.
If we consider the House Committee report of our state’s legislature that was tabled for the period of March 2006 to February 2017, a startling revelation has come to fore as around 478 promises and assurances made by the ministers remain unfulfilled till date.
Most of these promises were made in reply to the questions asked by the members of the Assembly. From March 2006 to February 2017, there are 70 such commitments pertaining to the Home Department, which were made by the Chief Minister of that time but not fulfilled so far.
The list is long and almost all the departments come under the ambit of unfulfilled promises. The phenomenon of not keeping the promises has marred the very concept of democracy. As with every promise that remains unfulfilled, the peoples hope on the democratic setup diminishes to the extent of despair.
In democratic setups, people are the best and the ultimate judges of the performance by the Governments. No Government in a democratic dispensation can take the people for granted and incumbency syndrome is always hanging like a sword on the head of the Government and the elected members.
The people resort to such means then that the politicians who take the people for a ride face their ire within a span of five years as the people do not let them to get on to the power seat after elections.
However, the slack attitude adopted by the ruling class does not augur well for a healthy state of affairs. The unfulfilled promises pertain to issues that are very dear to the people at large. And when such issues remain lingering for the want of a solution it tends to create discontent among the masses.
This type of situation tends to provide for a situation where the overall sustainability of democracy as an institution is questioned. This should not be let to become a norm
KV Correspondent
