Dilli Darbaar

Context of finding this topic is present party political chaos in President Election this time after 1947. Election was glamorized, politicized by media and its inhabitants and later handed over to political parties for dubious foreplay of honorable presidency election. Candidature was quite obvious this time but the representation of both of the candidates was so rough that it is showing the manipulated character of typical Indian politician. Previously Kalam was undisputedly chosen by both parliamentary houses, albeit his clear image was not the choosing criteria on first hand but it was makeover time for NDA government and their image which were they carried from ‘Babri maszid’ demolition case and finally Kalam raise above the tower of Babel (The Indian Parliament).
The amendments to the psychology of common people by media were having enough gravity to influence people of home town of Mrs. Patil, which create a reason to celebrate while knowing the political inertness of Mrs. Patil in comparison to her competitor Mr. Shekhawat. Best part of this show was created by media people in terms of creating an awareness to country’s president and of course his/her involvement in political corruptness and nepotism favored by each candidate in their political career up to some extant.
This was the first time when each party was quibbling over support to their candidate while they forget to keep the sovereignty of both houses and political rituals. Congress is playing cards to deploy puppets on the driving seat and NDA is busy in opposing UPA's choice to play a level making opposition. And others and media is pulling legs of each other and representing there ownself as bulletdodger. But certainly congress can use this support to Mrs. Partil as a support to women empowerment in India and can install this as a product to woo votes in next general elections. But running all these threads from so long there is a need to scrutinize our political system and its sub systems of democracy in terms of a linkage between its peripheral body of people and their culture and other influent media.Otherwise it could be end up in a quagmire or deadlock situation between democratic parties and bureaucratic system and of course ‘Junta’ while Mrs. Patil has taken oath as India's 13th and first woman president.

Congress Election Manifesto: Back to some fifty years ago

The congress has always stood for the Indian people. In the past it offered a plateform to all sections of the community who aspired for national Independence. As the national independence deepened, it succedded in unifying different sections and their conflicting interests in the common fight against Britain. When independence was won, there was considerable speculation about the future of Congress ( Indian National Congress) and the role it could play in a free India. Political freedom had been the rallying point. Would the congress be able to maintain its hold on the people after its major task had been accomplished? The question was relevent and natural, but it did not become urgent or insistent enough not to brook any delay. For political freedom came with partition, the ravages of which had immediatly to be repaired. There was also question of native stated which had be integrated with the british administrative services under the aegis of Mr. Mountbetton ( then governer general of India) . As power was transferred to Congress it automatically bacame the depository of the nations trust, its hands were full with pressing and urgent problems which demanded immediate attention.

The first Government formed at the center was consciously made into a Government of the best talents then available in the country, and though it was the congress party which formed it, pains were taken to give it a national character. Then came the consitituion and the first general elections which the Congress fought as a party and won. Since then, Congress has functioned as party but is has nevertheless continued to claim abd retain the allegiance of nearly all sections of the people. In the next five years instead of opinions being crystallised on party lines and other parties gaining in strenght and organising themselves effectively in order to bring about a different alignment of political forces, oposition has not ceased but it has failed to get politically organised.

On the eve of the second general elections that the Congress will fight, therefore, its election manifesto cannot be and should not be judged as the programme of a single party which the voter is free to accept or reject. It is useless to ask today is it that Congress is the only party that contends for political power. The election manifesto has to be judged by other standards. The Congress has to satisfy the people from whom it draws its strenght that it is responsive to their aims and aspirations and that it can give the fittest expression to them and that even in the implementation of its various policies, it will win the active support of the people and uphold the faith of those who put their trust in.


EPW.