EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu , Oct 30 : The IIPA J&K Regional Branch organised a lecture on 'Accountability of Elected Representatives- 'From Manifesto to Mandate' at Jammu today.Prof. Bhupinder Singh Brar of Punjab University, Chandigarh was the key speaker. Vijay Bakaya, MLC and former Chief Secretary, Government of J&K presided over the function. Professor Brar while delivering his lecture sought to make a distinction between the mandate for the party and mandate for the elected legislator. He pointed out the inability of the elected representative to go against the party high command and therefore the futility of referring the question of mandate and accountability of elected representative without talking about the party to which he belongs. Rejecting Recall as a means of holding the representatives accountable, he suggested other alternative methods. On the whole, he said that he was not pessimist about the democratic scenario of the country and referred to three recent developments which reflected a fundamental change in the context of accountability. Vijay Bakaya who chaired the session talked at length about the role of media and the civil society organisations in taking up the responsibility of holding the elected representatives accountable. According to him, the media has overstepped its role and has sought to replace the democratic political institutions. He was also critical of the role played by the civil society organisations. He called for restoration of centrality of the democratic institutions. J B S Johar, Hony Secretary of IIPA, Regional Branch, conducted the proceedings, Prof. Rekha Chowdhary introduced the topic and Chander Gulati presented the vote of thanks. The lecture was followed by an interactive session. Prominent among those who participated in function included Dr Ashok Bhan, Ashwani K Sharma, MLA- (JSM), Ravinder Sharma, MLC(Cong) A.C. Chaturvedi, IPS (Retd), A.M.Watali, and Dr. C.M.Seth, Vikram Gour. |
