Hold Our Leaders Accountable

Having witnessed the recent elections in the United States, both the presidential and congressional elections, one thing that I find very interesting and unique is how the elected officials are held accountable by the media and the voters even before they cast their votes. Take the examples of the presidential debates. The candidates are supposed to outline their plans on how they are going to fix the immediate and not so immediate problems facing the country. This gives a chance for the voters at large to know where the candidates stand on various issues.

Now try translating it into the context of Indian politics. India has a parliamentary election coming up in the next six months. Do we know where the potential Prime Ministerial candidates stand on the various issues that matter? Atleast I have not heard anything from LK Advani, or Manmohan Singh or even Mayawati about their stand on tackling terrorism, keeping the economy growing, providing helathcare to all of India, providing employment and jobs etc.

With the world economy in a tailspin and India begin attacked by terrorists, I think the upcoming election offers an unique opportunity for the Indian voters to start changing all of this. We as voters need to care about who we elect to represent us. We as voters have a responsibility to ask each of candidates tough questions on how they are going to deal with terrorism, how they are going to keep the economy growing and other relevant domestic issues be it access to health care, creation of jobs or fixing the educational system etc.

Now people may point out that majority of the Indian people live in rural areas and villages who are not educated enough to ask these kind of thoughtful questions. My response would be let the urban educated elite start working on this. Let the media bring the candidates together to debate some of the key issues. Let us not be satisfied with politicians addressing generic rallies or parties releasing election manifestos without any meaningful outcomes. Let us hold our elected officials accountable on every aspect of governance. Let them know that just promising "roti, kapada and makan" without any meaningful plan on providing it would not be acceptable.