Peaceful Elections

Peaceful elections
Dalip Singh Wasan, Advocate

After assassination of Mrs. Benazir Bhuto, we the people of the world must have an introspection and we must come to the conclusion that we should stop carrying on propaganda in streets. Time has come when each candidate standing in elections should draw his own bio data and display the same through hand bills or through other sources of the media and should not collect people in processions, rallies, meetings or the like. He should be allowed to speak through the radio or through the TV channels, but in no case he should be allowed to collect people just to listen to him. Similarly the political parties may also come forward through their manifestoes and they may bring to the notice of the people what they have got in their planning list. That is enough. It seems ridiculous when they come on stages and give us false slogans as they are selling something to us.
Time has come when these political parties should reduce their numbers. If they have started joining in alliances after elections, they should join before elections. The formation of alliances is not foreign to our countries and it is further on record that all the political parties are functioning just on slogans and they have got no policy with them. As far as India is concerned, here political parties are like cooperative societies and some people come forward, form a political party and then they divide the offices amongst themselves. Then they start collecting people in the parties and these parties are taking part in elections. The people taken in these political parties are not people from amongst the people, but they are rich people who can afford these costly elections. They are not in a position to tell us as to who shall be their minister of education, minister of industry or the like and when they win, they start distributing ministries not on the basis of merits, but on the basis of shares in the alliance. That is the reason most of the departments are not with the competent and expert people and that is the reason most part of the government has already turned bureaucracy where the bureaucracy passes the orders and the ministers just sign the orders. Had there been system of shadow cabinets, the people could have elected competent people. But here in India we have left everything on political parties and that is the reason we are not getting right type of people on the right job.
The people of the world must decide that henceforth there shall be no procession, rally or meeting and every political party shall come forward and talk to the people through media resources and they shall not collect the people around them like jugglers. They are to run the state and not a show and therefore, they should be serious. They must learn a lesson from the assassination of Mrs. Benazir Bhuto who had been taken away from us and had she avoided coming in public and avoiding exposure, she would have been with us. She was the hope of the people of Pakistan who lost her and now they are in fix to find out the real person who had killed her. The political people shall be in the houses if they are competent and have got merits. The people know them and they also know their worth. coming on stages, would not raise their standards. The people and the state must consider these points and come forward with a law banning all rallies, processions, meeting and sessions. That is the only solution and we should not delay this subject.