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Editorial
Watch your Members of Parliament
Performance-rating and statistical analysis, including psephological
comparison of the work of candidates from respective parties has
picked up during the current parliamentary elections.
Though it has
not been able to become a movement to enforce change, a beginning
has been made. There is some awareness about the cost of these
parliamentarians to the exchequer and how their lack of performance
means more costs to the people.
The political
parties in
Punjab follow
the trend from the worst states in the country. Members of
Parliament are selected on the basis of loyalty, resources, personal
relationship and nuisance value.
The record of
parliamentarians from
Punjab leaves
much to be desired. In the last house, Members of Parliament from
all parties did not consider it their duty to participate in
debates, raise pertinent questions and bring the state’s agenda on
the decision-making table.
Actor turned politician, Vinod Khanna, who represents the backward
Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency and was a BJP-Akali Dal MP, raised
just four questions during his five year term and (2004-09) and
participated in just four debates. And he is a three-time member of
Parliament.
As per statistics of the Punjab Election Watch, Khanna attended the
parliament sessions only for 152 days and claimed over Rs.4.9
million in salary, travel and other allowances. Khanna also got
Rs.10 crore as Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS)
fund. Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal and
cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu attended parliament
only for 80 and 95 sittings respectively.
All the issues
raised by Akali Dal-BJP in
Punjab are
related to issues which the state government can solve and resolve.
There is no campaign on the national front to confront the union
government on key issues of the state and its people.
Those parties
which are not participating in the elections have also failed to
take up cudgels on behalf of the common man who feels cheated and
deceived by the mainstream parties and their non-performing Members
of Parliament. It was a golden opportunity for them to focus their
energies on the real issues and go to village after village in
Punjab,
not seeking votes, but preparing the people for the next election.
In the face of
this situation, there is news that residents of a village in Madhya
Pradesh are practicing the art of shoe-throwing with clay models of
politicians, to be thrown at them when they come for seeking votes.
Residents of a village in Samrala,
Punjab have
resolved not to vote for parties which patronize drug peddlers.
The Election Par
Nazar campaign of the National Alliance of People’s movement of
Medha Patkar and others has been instrumental in raising people’s
issues which the political parties have deliberately chosen to
ignore. Travelling across cities, they have excited the youth to
know more, learn more and then vote.
No doubt, all
this is slow. On the one hand we have a campaign urging people to
vote in large numbers and on the other we face a situation where
whom to vote is a problem.
Does the
solution lie in the proposed action of the residents of slum
communities of Tulsivadi-Bombay Central BIT Chawl, Walphakadi, Worli
Sasmira Marg and Pant Nagar, Ghatkopar have decided to exercise
their constitutional Right of Not to Vote in the context of corrupt
and un-holy nexus of political parties-politicians and builders in
Mumbai. Do we need to do this
Punjab too or
shall we wait till eternity for the corrupt politicians in
Punjab
to mend themselves?
29
April 2009
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